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Round 3 of Roster Trimming

Who are you cutting?

  • Brantley

    Votes: 2 6.1%
  • Niang

    Votes: 11 33.3%
  • Morgan

    Votes: 2 6.1%
  • Oni

    Votes: 2 6.1%
  • Tucker

    Votes: 13 39.4%
  • No cuts (or butts or coconuts)

    Votes: 3 9.1%

  • Total voters
    33
I voted No Cuts on this one. But that’s only because of the lack of SL + the assumption that one or both of Bradley and Davis are gone. I had a discussion with myself about Tucker and Niang, though. Those guys have warm seats, imo. They if they come into some kind of extended camp as unchanged players, then they’re pretty expendable.
 
I think Niang has to be paired with a better center and more guys that do the other stuff (deflections, steals, rebounding) to be functional. Putting JC, Niang, and TB together on the second unit is not going to be good enough defensively. Still the 4 person group of Ingles, JC, Niang, and TB was quite positive in the regular season. If you had a good rim protecting active center it could be even better.

I wouldn't just cut him... the guys that shoot the three as well as him at the same volume are all bonafide NBA players worth more than a minimum contract. He could get us a second round pick imo.
 
Dame isnt happy if Ed Davis is now a walking trash can.

I don't think Ed Davis is done. I just don't think he fit our team, offense or defense at all. For a big who can't shoot, we needed that guy to be a center who protected the rim and set screens. Well, he doesn't do that well. He was a bad fit from the start.

Portland could use Davis alongside Nurkic or Collins and be fine. Sure he's overpaid, but he's not done yet.
 
The Niang hate is way out of hand and the Jazz only get worse if they straight cut him. He should be 10th or 11th on the depth chart, but he is a useful player.

I would probably just not cut anybody at this point in this fun game. I’m not sure what’s so great about Oni, he seems about as vanilla as it gets, but sure, he could one day be a warm body out of the rotation or on the back-end of it (this seems like the higher end of his potential to me).

Tucker hasn’t put it together, but he’s shown some juice and he’s explosive. It’s something to work with, but we haven’t really seen it in a competitive NBA game yet.

It would probably be between Oni and Tucker for me if someone had to go. But again, I’d stay put.
 
The Niang hate is way out of hand and the Jazz only get worse if they straight cut him. He should be 10th or 11th on the depth chart, but he is a useful player.

I would probably just not cut anybody at this point in this fun game. I’m not sure what’s so great about Oni, he seems about as vanilla as it gets, but sure, he could one day be a warm body out of the rotation or on the back-end of it (this seems like the higher end of his potential to me).

Tucker hasn’t put it together, but he’s shown some juice and he’s explosive. It’s something to work with, but we haven’t really seen it in a competitive NBA game yet.

It would probably be between Oni and Tucker for me if someone had to go. But again, I’d stay put.

For Oni all he needs to be is vanilla and he's an nba player... if he shoots 35-40% from three and is able to improve his lateral movement a bit then he has size to be a solid 3 and D guy. He does a little rebounding and passing that could make him vanilla+

He just has the easiest path to an nba role to me.... if his shot is a touch more consistent.

With Tucker I'm not sure what he looks like if he's a good NBA player. Like what is the comp... is it AB or Will Barton? Maybe Norman Powell?

Brantley has the most potential to me but I could also see him being teammates with Joel Bolomboy too.

I agree on the Niang hate... I wanted to see more of these guys though so I knew what we had. I think Niang is basically who he is and might get a little better, but once we figured that out I wanted us to experiment a bit. I have a feeling that TB is the bigger problem in the Niang TB pairing.
 
external-content.duckduckgo-1.jpgI voted for Niang. Whoever he was "guarding" in the playoffs was the opposing teams go-to player for as long as Niang was on the floor. He's a smaller version of Kanter with worse foot speed. The opposing team would get a bucket every trip via the Niang trail.

Rayjon Tucker was inconsistent on offense, but he wasn't a total cypher on defense. Niang's slowness could improve if he cut his body fat %. But, he's been in the league 4 years - why is he not in shape?
 
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View attachment 9818I voted for Niang. Whoever he was "guarding" in the playoffs was the opposing teams go-to player for as long as Niang was on the floor. He's a smaller version of Kanter with worse foot speed. The opposing team would get a bucket every trip via the Niang trail.

Rayjon Tucker was inconsistent on offense, but he wasn't a total cypher on defense. Niang's slowness could improve if he cut his body fat %. But, he's been in the league 4 years - why is he not in shape?
Kanter is ten times the rebounder. Niang is more of a smaller version of Matt Bonner.
 
Marcus Smart. If Tucker takes care of the BBIQ he is athletic like Marcus Smart in my opinion but that's a super tall order.
 
I think Niang has to be paired with a better center and more guys that do the other stuff (deflections, steals, rebounding) to be functional. Putting JC, Niang, and TB together on the second unit is not going to be good enough defensively. Still the 4 person group of Ingles, JC, Niang, and TB was quite positive in the regular season. If you had a good rim protecting active center it could be even better.

I wouldn't just cut him... the guys that shoot the three as well as him at the same volume are all bonafide NBA players worth more than a minimum contract. He could get us a second round pick imo.
For what it's worth, not trying to do a gotcha or disprove what you're saying, Niang is one of 3 players that have a negative net rating with Gobert in 2-man lineups (the other two are Jeff Green and Exum).
 
Niang if anybody, I like all the young guys well enough and there aren't many 2nd rounders this year I'd bring in over any of them with the delay to camp. Probably nobody though (and I'd like JWF back too).
 
JWF ain't gonna be back. The Jazz are going to give him the Naz and Tyler Cavanaugh gold watch and thank him for his service.
 
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The main reason I voted for Niang is because DL said he wanted to defend better and get more athletic, so it would make sense to me to cut the worst athlete/defender on the team. I also think he is non-guaranteed (no idea when the guarantee date is due to the covid season), so it makes the cut easy and cost effective. If Utah thinks they can plug and play one of Brantley/Morgan in Niang's minutes, then the cut makes logical sense.

Realistically, Utah probably doesnt do it. Niang is useful and has been a successful development project by Utah. His regular season defense wasnt that bad when he plays against teams who are running opposing bench units out there. Not every player has to be a playoff type.

Mostly I want to see Tony Bradley cut. Our primary backup 5 does have to be a playoff type player, because he will have to get minutes. That or Utah will have to put more on-court development time into a small ball lineup that can matchup in the playoffs.

I can see sticking with Bradley if he can develop that 3pt shot. I'm just entirely unconvinced due to his poor FT shooting. Then maybe he can be a poor man's Brook Lopez space-eating/3pt shooting type big. Only thing that sucks about that is if you have Bradley becoming that type of guy, it takes away his one actual high level NBA skill of offensive rebounding.
 
The main reason I voted for Niang is because DL said he wanted to defend better and get more athletic, so it would make sense to me to cut the worst athlete/defender on the team. I also think he is non-guaranteed (no idea when the guarantee date is due to the covid season), so it makes the cut easy and cost effective. If Utah thinks they can plug and play one of Brantley/Morgan in Niang's minutes, then the cut makes logical sense.

Realistically, Utah probably doesnt do it. Niang is useful and has been a successful development project by Utah. His regular season defense wasnt that bad when he plays against teams who are running opposing bench units out there. Not every player has to be a playoff type.

Mostly I want to see Tony Bradley cut. Our primary backup 5 does have to be a playoff type player, because he will have to get minutes. That or Utah will have to put more on-court development time into a small ball lineup that can matchup in the playoffs.

I can see sticking with Bradley if he can develop that 3pt shot. I'm just entirely unconvinced due to his poor FT shooting. Then maybe he can be a poor man's Brook Lopez space-eating/3pt shooting type big. Only thing that sucks about that is if you have Bradley becoming that type of guy, it takes away his one actual high level NBA skill of offensive rebounding.
This is pretty spot on imo... Niang likely gets a roster spot if anything as a fallback plan during the season or an injury fill in. He’s in the Troy Daniels tier as a player. Good shooter and won’t kill you if you need to rely on him.

You don’t see it too often but I honestly could see him moved for a late second. I wouldn’t cut him.
 
Close race here but Tucker got the boot.
 
The biggest reason to cut Niang is to remove the temptation of keeping him in the rotation and road blocking other guys that seriously deserve a look like Brantley or Morgan.
 
If Brantley or Morgan deserved a more serious look, they would likely get a more serious look.
 
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