Utah Jazz: Re-Selecting the Last 15 NBA Drafts

15 of 17

Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Dante Exum (Australia) shakes hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the number five overall pick to the Utah Jazz in the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /

2014: Jazz select Dante Exum (5) and Rodney Hood (22)

With the players selected in the 2014 NBA Draft still quite young in their NBA careers, it’s hard in many cases to detect who will be the rising stars and who will be the busts. Nevertheless, from what we’ve seen so far, it appears that the Jazz did very well in this draft.

Dante Exum had a lot of hype surrounding him prior to the draft and was projected to be selected as high as third overall by several experts based solely on his overwhelming potential. When both the Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic passed on Exum, the Jazz practically had no choice but to take the risk on a player with supposed superstar potential.

While Exum’s future became even more clouded after missing the entirety of the 2015-16 season due to a torn ACL, the 20-year-old guard from Australia could very well turn out to be worthy of the fifth overall selection and bloom into the prolific star that the Jazz hope he can become.

He showed moments of greatness in his rookie season, particularly on defense, as he took over Trey Burke’s starting spot and helped push the Jazz to an incredible close to the 2014-15 season.

A few players selected after Exum stand out as potentially becoming better players such as Elfrid Payton, Doug McDermott, and Zach LaVine, but with all of them just wrapping up their second year in the league, it’s hard to produce a definite verdict on their eventual status in the league.

As for Hood, he appears to be an early favorite for the steal of the 2014 NBA Draft. Not only has he clearly been better than any player selected after him, but he has arguably been one of the top five players in his draft class so far.

In his second season with the Jazz, he averaged 14.5 points per game on 35.9 percent shooting from deep. He has quickly become one of the Jazz’s most reliable shooting and scoring options.

So while it’s still difficult to pass judgement on whether the Jazz made the right choice with Exum and Hood or if they should have gone after someone else, with positive signs and so much potential ahead of them, it appears that Utah very well could have made the best possible choices in the 2014 NBA Draft.

Who they should have taken: Dante Exum (5), Rodney Hood (22)

Next: 2015