3 Jazz players that won’t be back next season after missing play-in

With the regular season coming to a close, the Utah Jazz find themselves in an interesting spot entering the offseason.

The Jazz just ended the regular season as the 12th seed in the West, only two games outside of making the play-in. While the team exceeded most’s expectations, it wasn’t enough to get them top 10 in the conference, giving them a headstart into the 2023 offseason

We now enter what should be an extremely important few months for the Utah Jazz. An offseason where the Jazz have a lot of flexibility with three first-round picks, as well as a good amount of cap space. With the team getting as close as they did to the play-in this season, it’s not too hard to believe that with the right moves made to this roster, we could see the Jazz in the playoffs come next season.

However, with these moves inevitably come some cuts to the team, just like any offseason. In the Jazz’s case, they’ll have potentially eight free agents on the market that could potentially find themselves on a new team come summer (depending on how some player options go) This doesn’t even include the unlimited potential for deals the Jazz could come across in the off-season considering their pool of assets.

With this, let’s take a look at 3 players that we probably won’t see back on the Jazz come next October.

1: Rudy Gay

Despite the Jazz being known to have a pretty youthful team, Rudy Gay is one of the three players on the current roster 30 years old or older. In Gay’s case, he’s just a bit older than the others, turning 37 come August.

Gay has been with the Jazz for the past two seasons, playing a total of 111 games, averaging 6.7 points per game and 3.6 rebounds per game. While he’s entering the tail end of his career, Gay has still been able to provide solid bench production, along with the important veteran leadership a young team like the Jazz should value.

As far as Gay’s future with the Jazz goes, it seems as if we may have seen his final games in a Utah jersey, or maybe even an NBA jersey altogether.

You’d have to think with his current situation, retirement could certainly be in the picture for Gay. You don’t see many players playing much longer than a 16-year career. While nothing is imminent, or has even been reported, don’t be surprised if you see him hang it up.

If Rudy decides not to retire, he finds himself with a $6.4 million player option on his contract. While this is probably more than he would find on the open market, if he does decide to come back for another season, wouldn’t it just make more sense to play for a team that’s more competitive right now?

Rudy Gay hasn’t ever won an NBA Finals in his career, let alone ever come close. If there was ever a time to pursue the ultimate goal of a championship, the time is now.

If he decides to come back for year 17, it should be for a title push. Unless there are some drastic changes in Utah coming in the next few months, we should expect not to see Rudy Gay back with the Jazz next season.

2: Juan Toscano-Anderson

After being acquired at the 2023 trade deadline on an expiring contract, Juan Toscano-Anderson will be entering free agency this summer as an unrestricted free agent. After a short stint of 21 games and two starts for the former dunk contest participant, his time with the Utah Jazz may have come to a close.

In his time with the Jazz, he’s averaged 3.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game, averaging about 15 minutes per game.

Toscano-Anderson contributes as a consistently nice role player when he plays. However, with the combination of potentially three new first-round draft picks coming in this June, potential free-agency additions as well as the existing young talent in Utah already, is there really a need for him to return to Utah?

Throughout his career, Toscano-Anderson has been known as a player to have interest from win-now teams, as seen with his signing with the Lakers last offseason, along with his previous 4-year stint with the Warriors. It would be expected that another contending team would pursue him come July, right?

Toscano-Anderson will be entering his age 30 season in September (his birthday actually on Monday; happy birthday, Juan). With the potential to contribute to a more competitive roster around the league, the opportunity for him may just be greater elsewhere.

Just like Rudy Gay, it feels as if the timeline for Toscano-Anderson’s career will inevitably match better elsewhere. After essentially being acquired by the Lakers as a throw-in, his time with Utah may end up being a short one.

3: Jordan Clarkson

Clarkson, who’s been one of the most productive players in recent years for the Jazz, could very possibly find a new home come July. While the Jazz have seemed to be reluctant to let him go in trade talks for the past few seasons, it may not be up to the Jazz this time.

Clarkson enters the offseason with a pending player option worth 14 million dollars. If this season has shown anything for Jordan Clarkson, it’s that he deserves more than that. With this, you will most likely see Clarkson decline the option.

There then becomes two questions:

1. Will the Jazz be willing to give Jordan Clarkson the pay raise he deserves?

2. Will Clarkson want to even return to Utah?

The answer to the first question seems to be yes. The team and Clarkson were discussing a potential extension earlier this year, however, those talks did end up stalling. If anything though, it shows that there is at least some mutual interest between Utah and Jordan.

The answer to the second question may be a bit foggier. We don’t know exactly what Clarkson’s intentions are just yet. However, this past January, we got a report from The Monty Show that might have some indications about his future with the club:

Fast-forward to now, the Jazz and Clarkson never did agree to an extension before the trade deadline. The Jazz also never traded him to a contender like he seemingly desired. This just may influence him more to leave Utah this offseason.

Clarkson will be turning 31 in July, still in some of the best years of his career. The eight-year vet may just end up taking his talents elsewhere with better championship aspirations than the Jazz right now.