Utah Jazz: A way too early look at the 2020 offseason

The Utah Jazz and the rest of the association will have a relatively quiet summer compared to the 2019 frenzy. Here are some decisions the front office will have to make.

It may only be March, but the Utah Jazz are most likely already scheming of how they can improve their 15 man roster in time for the 2020-21 season.

The Jazz did a fantastic job at taking a gamble to make the team better last offseason. They sent off loads of future assets, including the promising Grayson Allen, in return for Mike Conley. He was supposed to be a new star to form a (relatively) Big Three in the Wasatch Front.

They poached Bojan Bogdanovic from the clutches of the Indiana Pacers on a lengthy contract despite him being in his thirties. Some were worried it would be an overpaid contract, but so far Bogey’s arguably been the best bargain of the 2019 free agency class.

In essence, they pushed in all of their chips to bet on themselves for this season and the next. They were designed to go as far as their top two stars, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, would take them.

But despite their shrewd transactions back in June and July, it looks like it was only enough to keep up with the Western Conference pack rather than pass up a few teams and take the lead.

The two teams from Los Angeles also cashed in all their chips to bring in big names for the next couple of seasons. The Houston Rockets added Russell Westbrook, and the Denver Nuggets decided to run back the same team that won 54 games last season.

The Jazz are poised to finish with the fifth seed in the Western Conference again, and face the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs. I believe Houston would win the hypothetical series in a tough seven game grind, meaning the Jazz would be right back where they started in June of 2019.

Because the free agency period was so chaotic last summer, there just won’t be same kind of musical chairs movement this summer. A lot of teams won’t have the cap room to make big acquisitions, and the cream of the crop of this year’s class is likely staying put (Anthony Davis, I’m looking at you!).

Having said that, here are some important decisions the Jazz will need to make this summer.