The Utah Jazz will assemble the best team they can next season. They already have the main ingredients for a playoff contender. This summer, in addition to making sure Walker Kessler is back, they will likely turn to bargain-bin additions.
Every contender has a guy being paid pennies on the dollar for his services. The New York Knicks have two of them, basically: old friend Jordan Clarkson and Landry Shamet. The Jazz can look into this by bringing back an old friend who has proven his worth since leaving Utah: Dante Exum.
Exum was a lottery bust when he was a Jazzman, but not due to a lack of talent, but his inability to stay on the floor. When he was on the floor, the vision was pretty easy to see, but those flashes were few and far between.
Exum's injuries were insurmountable enough for his NBA career to be cut short for a time, but in recent years, he has mounted a bit of a comeback. Long gone are the days of anyone hoping he'd live up to the billing at the No. 5 pick, but not too long ago, he proved himself a solid contributor for a Dallas Mavericks team that made the NBA Finals.
Exum's defense gave the Mavericks a dependable player. Unfortunately since then, Exum's body has turned on him yet again, but for that same reason, now Utah can turn back to him as a buy-low candidate.
Utah needs more defensive-oriented personnel
The Jazz have plenty of scoring on their roster. Honestly, their defense isn't exactly lacking. Jaren Jackson Jr. and Walker Kessler will man one of the NBA's toughest frontcourts on that side of the floor.
Outside of them, Utah has some promising personnel on that floor, like Ace Bailey and Cody Williams, but their defense hasn't been measured into anything impactful until we see what it looks like once they start trying. Despite Exum's inability to stay healthy, he is more proven in that area.
Now, obviously Utah would have to be careful with Exum. The injuries have again begun to pile on for him, but as long as they handle him with care, he could be a picture perfect buy-low addition for a team trying to seek out more two-way contributions.
Plus, the fans who refused to sell their stock on Exum island can in a way be rewarded for their faith in himin the end, even if it wouldn't be in the way they would have liked. Utah will look at bigger fish to reel in first, but Exum could be a diamond in the rough, even if the Jazz are well are of who he is and what he provides.
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