3 reasons the Utah Jazz should say no to Freedom

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Freedom’s play doesn’t justify a reunion

During his career, Freedom was an above-average center. The last three seasons have seen him average 8.5 points and 8.4 rebounds as a bench player. Those rebounding numbers are nothing to sneeze at, but it’s clear his offensive production has gone down the drain.

In his last full season–2020-’21–Freedom was 249th in defensive RAPTOR out of 265 players. Granted, his offensive RAPTOR was 39th, but his wins above replacement was a middling 143. With the vendetta against Utah as a whole, is it worth adding a below-average player?

While the tweet above may be hyperbole, the core argument is there. Why would the Utah Jazz, a poor defensive team, want to add a noted defensive liability? It makes no sense. If the Jazz are to sign a center at this point, it should be someone young to develop or someone they can at least see building around if they choose to keep Donovan Mitchell.

The offense used to be there. Had he stayed with Utah, he could have become a true stretch big, but that never happened due to him requesting out. In his last season with the Jazz, he shot 31% from behind the arc. Since then, he exploded in his first season and a half with the Thunder for a 50% mark on lower volume, and then never got even close to that again. Seems like a judgment error, but what do I know?

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