Official Utah Jazz Free Agency Thread

[StocktonShorts]

I mean, which teams in the 5-10 range in the West got better in free agency?

Did you want the Jazz to sign Tyson Chandler to a 4-year, $52 million deal when they already have their center of the future? That's what Phoenix just did.

How about Wesley Matthews and his TORN ACHILLES? History doesn't suggest that he will ever be the same player he was or that he'll come back any time soon.

There are a lot of teams out there signing guys apparently just to say they signed someone.

[Inigo Montoya]

Preaching to the choir. The numbers on the contracts out there are ridiculous.

[goober]

I'm completely content with not signing anyone. Especially if we get Patty Mills

[sipclip]

it seams like its gonna by another wasted summer for Jazz, im only curious why people justify that by saying "we cant afford to overpay" and other bulls... its not your cash, as Fan you should demand to have team that is fighting for high price and thats it

I'm glad our front office doesn't feel this way.Every decision you make now has an impact down the line so spending prudently is vital. We have one heck of a young core group of players and when you bring players in it stunts the development of that group of players because there are only so many minutes available. At the wing spot between Hayward, Hood and Burks there are not enough minutes to add in a high priced free agent wing and I like all 3 of those guys better than any of the unrestricted wings that were on the market. At pf and c we have 2 great starters who will probably average around 35 minutes a game each so that only leaves 26 minutes when healthy for Lyles and Booker. The pg position is the only wildcard and we have invested 2 first round picks in that position so I would much rather give those players every opportunity to succeed. By the end of this year we will have a much better idea of what we have at the pg position and then we can make a decision. Right now is not the time to make that decision.

[reapaman]

Well we don't need to sign guys just to sign them or guys that make no sense for our situation, especially old guys.

With that said, standing pat is as idiotic as the Trey Burke trade (and that was one of the most illogical trades ever). DL had no problem signing Novak and Booker last year for no reason or any of those no name d-leagers so why can't he sign some guys who could actually be productive and have some actual potential like a Joseph or a McDaniels. I mean even Jeremy Lin is only 26 y/o, wouldn't cost much and would fit in well here. What about Biyombo, Marshall, Seraphin, ect .... They don't have to spend much money, but get guys that make sense for us because novak for example made zero sense, but he had no problem doing that.

There are things he can do and moves to make other than going after Paul Millsap or Carroll. We can be content on what we have because you never know what might happen next season and then we find out we need another specific type of player we could have signed this year, but its too late because that player blew up somewhere else and we can't find another one for whatever reason.

[KqWIN]

Saying that the Trey Burke deal was illogical just isn't being honest. He was the consensus best PG in the draft and we didn't have one. That is as logical as it gets.

Same thing goes for Novak. We signed him to play minutes for us, in fact, we never signed him at all. Novak was received with a future pick and was brought in to be a good locker room presence.

[KqWIN]

Possible trade to use our capspace.

Washington wants to clear capspace and wants to trade Nene

So Utah sends booker, and Washington sends Nene and a future first round draft pick.

Utah gets an asset and a better back up big for year, and preserves the future

Washington gets the cap space and can cut booker and not have him on their books

We would just cut Booker and absorb the contract, but yes, this is probably how the Jazz will cap space this summer. They're much more likely to eat a contract than give one out.

[jazzfanWA]

Reports are indicating Jordan will announce signing with the Mavs. Clippers just shat their pants.

[goober]

I think a 3 team deal happens with the Pacers, Mavs, and Clips and Hibbert ends up a Clipper.

[erudite23]

it seams like its gonna by another wasted summer for Jazz, im only curious why people justify that by saying "we cant afford to overpay" and other bulls... its not your cash, as Fan you should demand to have team that is fighting for high price and thats it

Us as fans don't want the team to overpay, not because it's our money, but because we saw it so many times before that overpaying hurts teams' ability to compete and put the best team possible on the floor. We don't even need to look at other teams, it is enough to remember AK's contract and how it was hurting the Jazz's efforts to get better.

This used to be sound thinking, but like always, the masses are behind the times. The conservative route was definitely the way to go back during the last decade, but during the last two CBA negotiations contracts have been shortened. There are no 7 year deals anymore. Not just that, but the league itself has gotten much, much smarter at the same time. In the last 5 years or so, teams that have been aggressive spenders have won much more than they have lost. There have been far fewer toxic deals on the market like the ones given to Alan Houston, Penny Hardaway, Jermaine O'Neal, Chris Webber, Stephon Marbury, Rahsard Lewis etc because of the combination of these two factors.

Look at all the deals handed out since 2010 that were thought to be bad deals at the time but ended up being great: DeAndre Jordan, Tyson Chandler, Mike Conley, Jrue Holiday, DeRozan, Roy Hibbert...and that's just off the top of my head. Hell, there were even a chorus of people questioning the decision to give a max extension to James Harden before he had even secured a role as a regular starter. All of those deals ended up providing great return on investment.

Meanwhile, the only really bad deals handed out were either a product of injury or blatant stupidity. Everyone but SVG knew that giving Josh Smith that kind of coin on that particular team was a bad move. Amare's deal with NYK was considered to be a bad move at the time simply because he had micro fracture surgery and was clearly on the decline.

The pendulum has swung the other way. When everyone else is zigging, it is best to zag. And the Jazz are sitting on their thumbs burning up a pile of cap space when they could be one dead-eye shooter away from winning 52-55 games next year and causing a serious shake up in the WC hierarchy. Its bull ****.

[erudite23]

Well we don't need to sign guys just to sign them or guys that make no sense for our situation, especially old guys.

DL had no problem signing Novak and Booker last year for no reason or any of those no name d-leagers so why can't he sign some guys who could actually be productive and have some actual potential like a Joseph or a McDaniels. I mean even Jeremy Lin is only 26 y/o, wouldn't cost much and would fit in well here. What about Biyombo, Marshall, Seraphin, ect .... They don't have to spend much money, but get guys that make sense for us because novak for example made zero sense, but he had no problem doing that.

There are things he can do and moves to make other than going after Paul Millsap or Carroll. We can be content on what we have because you never know what might happen next season and then we find out we need another specific type of player we could have signed this year, but its too late because that player blew up somewhere else and we can't find another one for whatever reason.

I rarely agree with you, but this post contains a lot of sense.

The Jazz have to spend up to the threshold anyway. So they will need to add at least 5m more just to meet that requirement. I mean, we are not talking about the luxury tax here, we're talking about the salary cap. If you end the year under the cap, you aren't trying hard enough. No one is asking the Jazz to spend a ton of dough, we're just asking that they go out and spend the minimum amount while they still can. In 3 years, Rudy will be on a new massive deal, Dante will be ready for an extension, Gordon will have opted out and gotten paid bigger money and Derrick will be about to hit FA again. We have a window now to overpay a quality veteran and have it not bite us. Instead we're doing nothing. It doesn't make sense to me.

[Inigo Montoya]

Everyone but SVG knew that giving Josh Smith that kind of coin on that particular team was a bad move.

IIRC, Josh Smith got his contract from Dumars, who was later replaced by SVG. As for the rest - I look at the players who get all those huge numbers, and I can't see more than a very select few who will upgrade our team (or their team, for that matter) in such a way to justify and deserve those dollars. Would the Jazz suddenly be a contender if we gave Millsap 20M? Or gave Matthews 15M, even if the injury didn't happen? Or giving Robin Lopez 13.5M? The answer is no, which is why I think those numbers are absurd. Nothing will make me happier than the Jazz giving a max contract to a guy who upgrades them in a huge way and makes them a contender. But I ain't too keen on giving players 15M-20M per season just to be a first round exit team.

[Matt007b]

Tibor in the practice facility...

[goober]

IM said it well, no one truly flips the needle for us to make it worthwhile to spend big bucks. Corey Brewer just got a 3 year 24 million dollar deal, even getting good role players is gonna be expensive. It will be better to just stick with what we've got right now.

[reapaman]

Saying that the Trey Burke deal was illogical just isn't being honest. He was the consensus best PG in the draft and we didn't have one. That is as logical as it gets.

Same thing goes for Novak. We signed him to play minutes for us, in fact, we never signed him at all. Novak was received with a future pick and was brought in to be a good locker room presence.

My stance hasn't changed since before the draft when it was first discussed of the possibility of trade both picks for Burke. First off DL said it himself, the Jazz wasn't sure what they were going to do until Corbin (of all people) convinced them that Burke was a great fit for his system. Now the first red flag would be, why in the blue hell would you listen to a lame duck coach that you likely won't resign and especially one that were not even sure he had a system.

Number 2, Burke may have been arbitrarily rated the best pg but, Nba analyst and scouts said readily that the 2013 draft was weak and flat including that a late 1st round pick was almost just as valuable as a lottery pick, which isn't the case for most drafts. It was said over and over that Schroeder for example had every chance to be as good as Burke. So why would you trade 2 picks for 1 when value wise, all the picks were relatively the same value. Who cares who is the number 1 pg when 1 was labeled by the "experts" as not being any more or not much more talented than #2, #3, #4 and so on.

Number 3, we were clearly tanking. It didn't matter what we didn't have, we didn't need a pg to tank. Your suppose to maximize your value and not just trade up just to fill some supposed need that didn't need to be filled especially when that player isn't necessarily more valuable then the picks you were trading. We could had 2 players as good or better than burke with #14 and #21 (one could have been a pg like shroeder). If we were short a pg, then just sign D-leaguer ... doesn't matter who it is because we were tanking.

BTW, the Novak trade was useless. Novak was a old guy with zero potential and we were a tanking team ... why is he there potentially taking minutes away from the guys who would likely be here long term? Were were not competing for anything so no reason for him to be on the team. If you want a locker room presence than he should have brought earl watson back or something who they could have then transitioned him into coaching with the team in some capacity. You know something actually meaningful. That pick also means nothing because DL will likely do nothing with it or just trade it for a future pick again.

[KqWIN]

Saying that the Trey Burke deal was illogical just isn't being honest. He was the consensus best PG in the draft and we didn't have one. That is as logical as it gets.

Same thing goes for Novak. We signed him to play minutes for us, in fact, we never signed him at all. Novak was received with a future pick and was brought in to be a good locker room presence.

My stance hasn't changed since before the draft when it was first discussed of the possibility of trade both picks for Burke. First off DL said it himself, the Jazz wasn't sure what they were going to do until Corbin (of all people) convinced them that Burke was a great fit for his system. Now the first red flag would be, why in the blue hell would you listen to a lame duck coach that you likely won't resign and especially one that were not even sure he had a system.

Number 2, Burke may have been arbitrarily rated the best pg but, Nba analyst and scouts said repeadily that the 2013 draft was weak and flat including that a late 1st round pick was almost just as valuable as a lottery pick, which isn't the case for most drafts. It was said over and over that Schroeder for example had every chance to be as good as Burke. So why would you trade 2 picks for 1 when value wise, all the picks were relatively the same value. Who cares who is the number 1 pg when 1 was labeled by the "experts" as not being any more or not much more talented than #2, #3, #4 and so on.

Number 3, we were clearly tanking. It didn't matter what we didn't have, we didn't need a pg to tank. Your maximize your value and not just fill some supposed need that didn't need to be filled. We could had 2 players as good or better than burke with #14 and #21 (one could have been a pg like shroeder). If we were short a pg, then just sign D-leaguer ... doesn't matter who it is because we were tanking.

BTW, the Novak trade was useless. Novak was a old guy with zero potential and we were a tanking team ... why is he there potentially taking minutes away from the guys who would likely be here long term? Were were not competing for anything so no reason for him to be on the team. If you want a locker room presence than he should have brought earl watson back or something who they could have then transitioned him into coaching with the team in some capacity. You know something actually meaningful. That pick also means nothing because DL will likely do nothing with it or just trade it for a future pick again.

It's one thing to disagree with a decision and it's another to say it's illogical. The Trey Burke went down strictly off their evaluation of him. If you thought that Trey Burke would be a bust, congrats, but it does not make it illogical to have a different opinion. The draft is random and anyone that acts like they know how each prospect is going to turn out is lying to themselves. They determined that Trey was their best shot, and history would agree with that. You're more likely to get a good player at 9 then one good player at 14 and 21.

Trey's draft ranking was not arbitrary, it was based on years of research. It was not just the opinon of "experts", but obviously the opinion of the decision makers in the Jazz organization. They made the wrong pick, plain and simple. The same people that rated Trey high on their board decided to draft Rudy Gobert.

The Jazz were tanking, but that doesn't mean they were trying to sabotage their future. They didn't draft Trey because he filled an immediate need, they drafted Trey because they need a PG of the future. Trey was our guy for now, and hopefully the next 10 years. Everything about the move came from their judgement. Once again, they were wrong, but that doesn't make them illogical.

The Novak trade was not useless. It cost us nothing, but we got a second round pick and a good locker room guy. Trades are as much about what you give up than what you get. I'll take a free second round pick and a great locker room presence every day of the week. Take a look at what our players had to say about Novak after he was traded. His stay here was worth it, especially considering that we gave up nothing to get him.

I did make a typo, my mistake. "We never signed him to play minutes for us, in fact, we never signed him at all."

[KqWIN]

Like I said before, DL is conservative and his record is hit and miss. His best moves obviously being Gobert, Quin, and Favors while his worst moves being Trey, and letting so much talent walk over the years.

[Inigo Montoya]

Getting a 2nd round pick for Novak isn't free. It is quite a bad value, since he was making 3.4M and 3.7M per year. Good for the FO for moving him later, but we basically bought a 2nd round pick for 7 million dollars...

[KqWIN]

Getting a 2nd round pick for Novak isn't free. It is quite a bad value, since he was making 3.4M and 3.7M per year. Good for the FO for moving him later, but we basically bought a 2nd round pick for 7 million dollars...

Very true, but it ended up being free. Either way DL is not going to be judged by that move.

[Inigo Montoya]

Getting a 2nd round pick for Novak isn't free. It is quite a bad value, since he was making 3.4M and 3.7M per year. Good for the FO for moving him later, but we basically bought a 2nd round pick for 7 million dollars...

Very true, but it ended up being free. Either way DL is not going to be judged by that move.

So he played for us half a year, which ends up costing us about 1.7M. Weren't we praising the Jazz for getting 1.5M for a 2nd round pick in this last draft because it is a lot? Which means that the trade for Novak was pretty bad value in real time, and ended up costing us more than a 2nd round pick is worth even after we managed to move him. It's a small thing in the long run, which didn't matter much, but still - not a great move.