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Sarah Todd
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Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert (27) goes up for a shot as Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic defends during the first half of an NBA basketball first round playoff game Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. | Ashley Landis, Associated Pres
It has been quite the week in the NBA. The moratorium on trades lifted on Monday, followed by the NBA draft on Wednesday and the opening of free agency on Friday, which was a whirlwind.
As a general overview, here’s what the Utah Jazz did. They took Kansas center Udoka Azubuike at No. 27 and Syracuse wing Elijah Hughes at No. 39 in the draft. They got rid of Tony Bradley and Ed Davis and then re-signed Jordan Clarkson to a four-year, $52 million deal and welcomed back Derrick Favors on a three-year deal with the $9.2 million mid-level exception.
Once the dust had settled on Friday night, I asked Jazz fans what questions they had.
The most pressing need for the Jazz is a matter of opinion and perspective. There are certainly some people that think the Jazz still need to address filling spots on the roster. But, if the Jazz are done dealing on the free-agent market, which I suspect they are, the next step is getting everybody back in Salt Lake City and getting ready for the next season, which is a multi-layered process.
The Jazz are banking on the value of continuity and with Clarkson and Favors coming in, I think it gives them a huge advantage over other teams that are bringing in a ton of new and different players. Part of that continuity is predicated on the belief that the development of some of the low-usage players from last season have improved over the last nine months and can step into larger roles during the regular season.
Evaluating where the roster stands, getting in some much needed team workouts, and slowly bringing Azubuike and Hughes into the fold is the next step.
I’ll be the first to admit that I thought the Jazz would address some wing defense through the draft or free agency, but that doesn’t mean I think they went about things in the wrong way.
By shoring up the front court, especially defensively, the Jazz now believe that with the tools they have on the wing that they can be better.
As a thought exercise let’s say that the Jazz were to have picked up someone in the draft specifically for defense on the wing, or even that they went out and got someone in free agency to fill that role.
First of all, a late 20s draft pick is going to be a bench player this season while they develop and it’s not like the Jazz had money to go out and get a starting caliber defensive wing. But if they brought in a bench wing player, probably needing to use the full MLE to get someone worthwhile, they’d still have issues in the front court when Rudy Gobert is not on the court.
At least this way the Jazz are guaranteed to have rim protection options available to them when they play some of the lengthier teams.
So how can the front office approach the needs at wing depth? They can give Miye Oni more opportunities and extend Georges Niang, who continues to improve on defense. That’s what they can do and what I expect them to do.
I know that there’s still hope among Jazz fans that the team will use the bi-annual exception to bring in another player but I don’t think the $3.6 million BAE is going to bring in a high-quality player that would surpass what the Jazz already have, and if that’s the case, then the finances just don’t make sense.
Adding $3.6 million to the books would put the Jazz, who will be a tax-paying team this season, more than $5 million above the luxury tax threshold. There are levels to the luxury tax and it really starts to add up.
The Jazz are about $2 million above the tax now so they’re looking at a tax bill of roughly $3 million. If they add the full BAE that would put them at $5.6 above the tax with a tax bill of $8.5 million. That would mean that the Jazz would be paying the $3.6 million salary to a player and $5.5 million more in luxury tax for someone that is barely rotational.
The league has amended the luxury tax so that it is reduced by the same percentage as lost revenue this season but even then, it’s a hefty price for a BAE-level player and I don’t see the value in it.
The deadline for signing the max extensions before the upcoming season is set for the day before the season begins, Dec. 21.
I’d be shocked if we heard anything before the players are back in town for training camp. That’s the kind of thing that you want to get done in person. I don’t think that there is legitimate concern that Gobert won’t sign.
There’s almost certainly going to be some negotiation on Gobert’s contract and some hope that he’ll agree to something less than the full supermax that he’s eligible for, but the Jazz want Gobert to stay and Gobert wants to stay with the Jazz.
I do.
The Jazz are bringing back the same roster that they had in the playoffs, plus Bojan Bogdanovic, who should be ready to go when the season begins, along with Favors who makes the defense better and rounds out the bench nicely.
On top of that, I think that Mike Conley had just settled into a nice groove right as the playoffs were starting and that the familiarity will benefit him this season. The Jazz made slight tweaks, but I think they’re better for it.
If you would like to have your question answered, you can send it to me at stodd@deseretnews.com with “mailbag” in the subject line, or you can send it to me via Twitter @NBASarah.
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