2 pending Utah Jazz free agents to re-sign, two to not re-sign

Players to re-sign

The Utah Jazz don't have a lot of non-two-way free agents, so it's not a long list to go through. Yet, after seeing the entire season and how the team played, it's obvious they can score but sure as heck can't play defense. It's why the two guys I'm urging the Utah Jazz to sign are two of the better defenders on the team; Kris Dunn and Talen Horton-Tucker.

Dunn should come as no surprise, I think he's a phenomenal defender and could be a huge asset for the team trying to make the postseason in 2025. Dunn's perimeter defense is so good that on a better Jazz team, I think he could get real looks for an All-Defense Team or maybe even Defensive Player of the Year. He needs better teammates for either to happen but he's that good in my opinion. Also, offensively, he's not great, but he's no longer the liability he used to be.

Now, Dunn makes sense, but Horton-Tucker may not, especially when you realize how often I advocated for his departure from the team. However, let me explain why he's on this list. Firstly, he was given a larger role than he could handle as a player. He's a bad shooter who shot a lot and it bit him in the butt. He's just a bad offensive player. So his starting never made sense. As a bench guy, however, his bad offense wasn't as impactful as he hardly played. More importantly, he did play good defense.

He played very good defense and was often just behind guys like Dunn and Walker Kessler for the highest defensive ratings on the team. Not only that, but the other reason Horton-Tucker was constantly on the block was due to his contract. He was getting paid eight figures on his contract. He's barely a million-dollar player as is. If he takes about a 90% pay cut from year to year, he'll be far more in line with his talent level and wouldn't be such an attractive option to trade away as part of a bigger deal.

Without that huge contract, he's no longer carrying the same trade value.