Udoh needs 10 MPG consistently every night. I don't necessarily mean that Udoh needs consistent minutes, but rather the Jazz need his consistent minutes. His defensive presence is not just good or helpful, but impactful and elite. The biggest challenge is his offensive ineptitude, so it's really more a matter of figuring out a way to mitigate those issues in ways that get him on the court. Having a quality stretch 4 to pair with him helps, but we don't really have that, at least not in terms of the one that would enable him to get more floor time. This isn't a knock on Favors, and this is not a blame to Favors (Favors is a solid player who almost never makes mistakes), but we're plugging Favors into this backup 5 role to maintain floor time for him. Udoh is the only other guy we've had who can protect the paint with Rudy not on the floor, plus he can't be targeted for a switch (well, he can, but it doesn't work for the other team). If we want to maintain defensive identity, and not drop off when Rudy sits, then Udoh has to play. We have to find the minutes for him. Ekpe FTW P.S. He needs to be re-signed this summer.
Exactly. If Favors gets traded, Udoh becomes necessary. If we have both Gobert and Favors, might as well use Udoh's expiring in a bigger deal.
Love is a win-now move that is even risky to win now. He's 30 and still has 4 years left on his deal after this year at about $30M each. That's essentially sinking any cap flexibility into that deal, so you'd have to have a strong belief that this could put us over the top. I guess I could live with it the next two years, but that could easily be the contract that sinks the franchise.
BTW, I think you can land Love for expirings. Signing him to that deal was incredibly short-sighted. Nobody is going to touch it. They're out there saying they won't trade him, probably trying to up his value enough to get some kind of pick back.
I believe consistent minutes would help him find his role offensively. He is such a good passer for a center too.
We're paying Favors and Exum almost the same amount of money... and both of them are close to riding the pine.
Well then let’s break it down a bit more... Next year: Favors + Exum = ~$27M Love = $29M 2020-2021: Favors ($0) + Exum =~$11M Love = $31M 2021-2022: Exum = $0 Love = $31M 2022-2023 Exum = $0 Love = $29M
Well, as I said on the switches... CP3 tried to take him on a switch three times and got embarrassed each time.