20 free agents that could join Ricky Rubio (and Gordon Hayward) with the Utah Jazz
By Ryan Aston
Zach Randolph
Hear me out on this one.
Is Zach Randolph the ideal candidate for the Jazz at the four spot? No. Does he stretch the floor out to the three-point line? Not really. Can he compete defensively when opponents have legit floor-spacers in the frontcourt? Ha! Is he a long-term play at the age of 35 (soon to be 36)? Not at all.
What Randolph does do is get buckets down low and in the mid-range and rebound the hell out of the ball.
By corralling 19.2 percent of available rebounds, Randolph ranked 11th league-wide. And while he doesn’t shoot the three, his back-to-the-basket game is still on-point and he makes 43 percent of his attempts from five to 14 feet from the hoop, one of the better mid-range marks in the league.
On the whole, he averaged 14.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game last season. Like Joe Johnson before him, the Jazz could bring Randolph in on an affordable short-term deal and reap the benefits of that smooth, old-man game he has developed after 16 years in the league.