Utah Jazz 2018 offseason checklist: Bigs, Burks and wing scoring
By Ryan Aston
What do the Utah Jazz need to do to reach the next level and can they fill those needs this summer? Here’s my offseason checklist for the team.
If you watched the Utah Jazz with a discerning eye this season, two undeniable facts likely emerged in your viewing.
First and foremost — this team is pretty darn good. With Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and Quin Snyder steering the ship and Ricky Rubio, Joe Ingles and a host of others manning the cannons, the Jazz vessel became one that no team would want to encounter on the open waters of the Association.
I just went Jack Sparrow there, but you can use whatever similes you like. The point is that the Jazz have a couple stars, brilliance on the sidelines, a decent enough supporting cast, team chemistry and a suffocating defense that, all together, equate to a near 50-game winner and a threat in the playoffs.
Having said that, the second conclusion you would have come to over the course of the year is that, as good as the Jazz are, there’s still a sizable gap between them and the elite of the Western Conference. I’m talking the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets of the world.
If the Jazz hope to bridge that gap and turn a “pretty darn good” squad into an elite one, there’s work to be done. So much work, in fact, that it’s probably going to take more than an offseason for Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey to get the job done. And that’s assuming the team doesn’t incur any setbacks along the way.
Still, there’s a lot that can be done this summer to inch the Jazz toward that goal. To that end, here’s my 2018 offseason checklist to ensure the team’s continued evolution.
Next: A productive offseason for Exum