While the Utah Jazz are generally known for drafting and developing talent well, there are still a few great players the Jazz have fumbled along the way.
One team’s trash can eventually become another’s treasure. This is the case for a few players the Jazz have had the opportunity to have at one point during their careers. Then, the team ultimately decides to prematurely let them leave the team, just for them to go under vast improvements in the years following.
No franchise is perfect; this happens at some point to every team in the association. Just look at how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is performing for the Thunder after being dealt from the Clippers, or even how Lauri Markkanen has faired with the Jazz this season after his stints with Chicago and Cleveland.
Some players just end up being better fits in new places, but that doesn’t make the team that let them go look any less foolish. For the Jazz, across the team’s almost 50-year history, there’s been a few notable misses along the way.
Here are five players the Jazz gave up on a bit too early in their NBA careers:
1. Paul Millsap
The multi-time All-Star began his career here in Utah, although none of those All-Star appearances ended up coming with the Jazz.
Millsap was drafted to the team back in the 2006 NBA Draft as a second-round pick, 47th overall. Looking back, this pick was an absolute steal considering Millsap’s production. He joined the Jazz at 21 years old out of Louisiana Tech, and put in a solid 7 years with the squad.
In those seven seasons, Millsap averaged 12.4 points and 7 rebounds per game on about 50% shooting from the field. While these are solid numbers as is, they don’t compare to the numbers he was able to put up with his next team.
The Jazz let Millsap walk in free agency to the Atlanta Hawks in the 2013 offseason. The following season, the Jazz ended up winning 25 total games; a big decline from their previous 43. As for Millsap, he averaged a career-high 17.9 points per game, netting the first All-Star appearance of his career.
Looking back, this ended up allowing the Jazz to step back and retool for what would end up evolving into the team’s late 2010s playoff teams. However, it’s definitely hard to ignore what Millsap ended up producing after leaving the team.
2. Al Jefferson
A once teammate of Millsap, Jefferson’s time was also cut a bit too short with the team. While Jefferson never became an All-Star apart from the Jazz, he did oddly enough become a 1x All-NBA player.
Jefferson wasn’t drafted to the Jazz like Millsap was. Instead, the Jazz traded for Jefferson in the 2010 offseason. The Minnesota Timberwolves traded Jefferson to Utah in return for Kosta Koufos and two first-round picks (who turned into Donatas Motiejunas and Terrence Jones).
In his three years with the team, Jefferson put up 18.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2 assists per game. While solid individual numbers for Al, the team was never able to get its footing with that core; as he never surpassed 43 wins in his time with Utah.
In the 2013 offseason, Jefferson, like Millsap, also walked in free agency. He signed a 3-year deal with the Bobcats worth about $40 million; a contract worth less than what he was signed for in Utah. The next season, Jefferson put up All-NBA numbers for Charlotte.
It’s safe to say that this frontcourt core of the early 2010s never worked out too well for Utah. Luckily, the Jazz ended up drafting eventual DPOY Rudy Gobert in the offseason the lost Jefferson, so maybe it worked out for the best in the end?
3. Mo Williams
Yet again, just like Paul Millsap, Mo Williams ended up turning out to be yet another draft steal for the Jazz. Williams was drafted by Utah with the 47th-overall pick (the same pick Paul Millsap was selected with) in the 2003 NBA Draft.
At the time, the Jazz were lacking in talent at guard, so the selection of Williams seemed to make sense. However, Williams never really saw the best opportunity in the 2004 season, only playing 57 games and starting in 0 of them. He averaged 5 points per game on 38% shooting from the field.
He was then let go in free agency the next offseason, signing with the Milwaukee Bucks, where he started three of his four seasons with the team. Eventually, Williams became a key piece of the early LeBron-led Cavaliers teams in the late 2010s, where he even gained an All-Star nod in 2009.
Williams eventually ended up returning to the Jazz in the 2012-13 season where he started 46 games, averaging 12.9 points and 6.2 assists per game. While he might’ve not quite the All-Star he once was, this gives us a bit of a glimpse at how Williams could’ve been on the Jazz past his rookie season.
Who knows how Mo Williams’s career would have gone if he spent some more time in Salt Lake City?
4. Dell Curry
While Dell Curry wasn’t ever an All-Star or All-NBA level player like the previous players on this list (or even like his son), Dell was always an impactful player in his 16-year career in the NBA. Curry’s long career started with a short stint in Salt Lake City.
Dell Curry was drafted by the Jazz in the 1986 NBA Draft at 15th overall but did not ever play up to those expectations in Utah. In his rookie year, his sole season with the Jazz, Curry averaged 4.9 points per game with an unimpressive 28% average from beyond the arc.
After his rookie year, Curry was traded to Cleveland for Darryl Dawkins. Dawkins, who was age 31 at the time, played only four games for Utah before being traded to the Pistons. Curry on the other hand became a career 40% three-point shooter, shooting over the mark eight-straight seasons from 1991-99.
Imagine how Dell would’ve fit in with the Jazz’s Finals teams in the 90s, or how he would’ve looked getting a ton of open looks from Hall of Fame John Stockton. However, the Jazz decided that a washed Darryl Dawkins was a better fit for the team.
5. Dominique Wilkins
While Dominique Wilkins never ended up officially putting on a Jazz uniform, Wilkins’s career did start with the Jazz as he was drafted to the franchise 3rd overall in 1982.
With the Jazz using such a high pick on a young star like Wilkins, you would think Utah would plan on keeping him to develop into a nice, young player, right?
Haha. No.
Instead, the Jazz thought that the best course of action would be trading Wilkins about two months after the draft to the Atlanta Hawks for John Drew and Freeman Williams. If you haven’t heard of those two names before until now, don’t worry, neither did I.
John Drew was a career 20-point-per-game scorer with Atlanta before getting shipped to Utah; but ended up getting banned from the league after under 150 games with the Jazz due to his cocaine abuse. As for Freeman Williams, he played 18 games with the Jazz before finding a new home in the CBA. What a return!
Yeah, it’s safe to say that this was one of the worst draft night trades in NBA history. If the Jazz decided to keep Wilkins, they could’ve entered the 1983 season with a core of Dominique Wilkins, Darrell Griffith, Adrian Dantley, and Mark Eaton. Instead, they traded for a 28-year-old forward with a drug issue.
The Jazz ended the 1983 season with a pitiful 30-52 record, while Wilkins went on to Atlanta to average 17.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists, enough to get him a spot on the All-Rookie team. If the Jazz decided to stick it out with some of their young talents here, this could’ve resulted in championships for the franchise.