Four free agents that likely won’t consider Utah Jazz, but probably should

Even though several free agents may overlook the small market Utah Jazz, there’s no denying that they’ve created a culture and system that should be appealing to many players.

Let’s face it, coming to Salt Lake City and joining the Utah Jazz is rarely viewed as a desirable free agent destination. The Jazz have enjoyed ample success over the years, but that has seldom come due to big-time player acquisitions. Instead it’s been done by solid drafting and savvy front office moves.

Nevertheless, the Jazz have certainly put themselves in a position to be better-equipped to land bigger fish in the upcoming summers. Quin Snyder and Dennis Lindsey have a reputation as being incredible and successful guys to play for. They have an elite rim protector in Rudy Gobert that serves as a star and makes life easy on defense. They also have Donovan Mitchell, a star in the making who seems to be friends with everyone, that could certainly help with recruiting.

On top of all that, they’ve also set themselves apart as a top-four team in the West with the personnel, system and talent to potentially challenge the top teams in the league for years to come. In short, from a strictly basketball standpoint, the Jazz ought to be quite appealing for free agents.

Take Joe Johnson, for example, when he joined the Jazz in the offseason of 2016. Sure, at that age he wasn’t the same legendary star that he once was, but it was still a big-name signing for Utah. He saw the promise of joining the up-and-coming team, and was an incredible piece to the 2016-17 Jazz playoff run.

Others looking for a similar situation and chance to thrive with an exciting team on the rise would do well to follow Johnson’s example from two years ago. Unfortunately, as Jazz fans know all too well after years of being spurned or ignored by big-time free agents, solely focusing on the basketball side of things isn’t always necessarily how players function.

With that being the case, considering that I’ve already looked at several more realistic free agent options for the Jazz, this time around I wanted to look at some that are among the more appealing names this offseason that would probably fit what the Jazz need and are looking for, but likely wouldn’t put playing in Utah high on their priority lists.

While none of these four guys are likely to join Utah’s ranks, mainly because these players probably will be adverse to joining the Jazz, it’s still fun to envision how well they could fit here if they were just willing to give Utah, the players and the coaching staff a fair shake.