The Utah Jazz typically don’t and probably won’t strike it rich in free agency. But if they were able to, each of these three players would be an amazing fit.
Utah Jazz fans are all too familiar with a hard truth – big-name free agents don’t typically put Salt Lake City near the top of their preferred destinations. Although the Jazz boast an excellent core of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, top-class ownership and front office organization, and a brilliant head coach, small market Utah just doesn’t quite do it for many NBA stars.
With such being the case, the Jazz are often forced to find alternative methods of improving such as developing from within, striking gold in the draft or among undrafted players such as Royce O’Neale or Joe Ingles, or via trades. We’ve seen each of these things happen over the past few years and many have made the Jazz significantly better.
Even so, it would be nice if they were able to skip some steps and land a big-time free agent that immediately propelled them into an upper echelon in the Western Conference. Jazz fans hope that this year can be the one where their team breaks that long-time mold by landing a prolific free agent such as Kemba Walker or Tobias Harris.
Both Walker and Harris would be incredible options that would undoubtedly make the Jazz immediately better. But just imagine how nice it would be if even setting sights on those two meant the Jazz were aiming too low? What if the Jazz were actually in a position to land an undisputed marquee free agent?
Now, I’m not saying that’s going to happen and I would put big money on none of the following three guys even giving the Jazz a second glance, but that aside they’re worth pursuing, and imagining how each one would fit on this Jazz roster is breath taking.
So without further ado, let’s go ahead and ignore reality for a moment and just enjoy dreaming about what it would be like if any one of these three free agent studs found himself joining the Jazz’s ranks for the 2019-20 season.