2013: Utah picked 14, 21, and 46
With their second-round pick, the Jazz took Erick Green. Green did what you would expect from a mid-second-round guy, and that’s not saying much. At least he never played for Utah, as the Jazz traded him and cash the Denver for Rudy Gobert, which ended up being an excellent move.
With the first-round picks, Utah took Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgei Dieng, both of whom are decent role-players. Neither one of them ever played for the Jazz, because Utah traded them to the Timberwolves for Trey Burke, the University of Michigan standout.
Burke wasn’t a bad NBA player, but he also was never exceptional. Instead, they could have traded Dieng and Muhammad for CJ McCollum, Steven Adams, or Kelly Olynyk. Or they could have kept their picks and drafted Giannis Antetokounmpo, Mason Plumlee, or Tim Hardaway Jr. Utah could have had two or three franchise players instead of just one, but I’d take Gobert over nothing any day of the week.
2014: Utah picked five, 23, and 35
This is another poor draft by Utah. The Jazz took Dante Exum, Rodney Hood, and Jarnell Stokes. None of these guys panned out the way we hoped, and when you look at who was still there, it gets even worse.
Instead of Exum, Utah could have taken Marcus Smart, Julius Randle, or Zach LaVine. All of those would have been great picks. At 23, instead of Hood, they could have gotten Clint Capela. Funnily enough, the worst pick may have been Jarnell Stokes. In the second round, it becomes a crapshoot to see who ends up being productive players, but Spencer Dinwiddie, Jerami Grant, Nikola Jokic, Dwight Powell, and Jordan Clarkson were all picked after Stokes. I can’t blame Utah for missing, but they could have lucked into at least one great player in this draft class, right?
2015: Utah picked 12, 42, and 54
Oliver Hanlan and Dani Diez never played an NBA game, but being picked 42 and 54 with not much talent left in the class means the Jazz did all they could. It’s not like the second round in 2015 was a failure, there just was not much talent there.
At 12, Utah took Trey Lyles. Lyles came from a loaded Kentucky team, so I can’t be mad that he was enticing. He ended up being a bench piece for his career, and this draft class was actually not that good, except Utah passed on Lyle’s college teammate Devin Booker, who went to the Suns at 13. That’s a big miss, and Lyle ended up leaving after only a few seasons.
2016: Utah picked 12, 42, 54, and 60
With four draft picks, one has to hit, right? Well, kind of. The Jazz took Tauren Prince at 12, and Caris LeVert, Pascal Siakam, and Dejounte Murray were all selected much later in the round. Prince never actually played a game for the Jazz, as he was traded to the Hawks in a multi-team deal that landed George Hill. Hill only played 49 games in Utah but he put up 16 points, so the return wasn’t that bad.
In the second round, Utah took Isaiah Whitehead, Joel Bolomboy, and Tyrone Wallace. Only Bolomboy played for Utah at all, and I highly doubt anyone remembers him, so this second round went as expected.