Jazzfan1971's Early off-season review: Utah Jazz

[jazzfan1971]

Losses
------------------------------
Dante Exum - Lost to ACL tear, likely out for season.
Jeremy Evans - Lost to free agency
24th pick in 2nd round - Sold for ca$h

The loss of Dante really hurts, we were counting on improved play from Dante in his 2nd year to lift the Jazz fortunes this season.

Draft
------------------------------
Trey Lyles
Oliver Hanlan

Trey looks like an interesting player to me. I compare him to Lamar Odom. Got that PF build with SF skills. He's not strong enough to do much this season IMHO, but, given a year he could be a nice rotation player. Hanlan looks like a bust of a 2nd rounder and will be stashed overseas.

Trades
------------------------------
24th pick in 2nd round sold for cash.
(you might count the Kanter deal, but, that was last season, however the impact might be felt more this season.)

Free Agency
------------------------------
Signed our own draft pick Raul Neto to a multi-year contract
Signed our own player Tibor Pleiss to a multi-year contract
Signed Jeff Withey to a multiyear contract.
Signed Treveon Graham
Signed Joe Ingles to a 2 year deal.

Nothing major here, bringing in a couple of guys we had rights to in Neto and Pleiss, gave Withey a 1 year deal plus one more year on a Jazz option, and what looks to be a training camp deal for Graham. Neto is the most interesting as he has a chance, I think a small one, to be the Jazz starting PG. Ingles was a solid contributor last season but might see his role reduced with the return of Alec Burks. Pleiss and Withey will fight for scrap minutes barring injuries.

Other additions
----------------------------
Alec Burks is back after missing 2/3rd of the season last year. He looks to be a significant contributor to the Jazz this season.

Needs
------------------------
Jazz could REALLY use a PG who is starting quality.

Depth Chart
--------------------------
PG - Trey Burke, Raul Neto, Bryce Cotton
SG - Rodney Hood, Alec Burks, Elijah Millsap
SF - Gordon Hayward, Joe Ingles, Chris Johnson
PF - Derrick Favors, Trevor Booker, Trey Lyles
C - Rudy Gobert, Tibor Pleiss, Jeff Withey

Win-Loss Prediction
----------------------------
I'll say 45-37 and the 8th seed. Somewhere in the 40-50 range seems most likely.

Offseason Grade
--------------------------
I'm going to give them a solid C. I don't think they made any missteps, but neither did they do anything to move the needle to make the team better.

[Crabman]

Losing Exum isn't going to hurt that much IMO. Kid is still one of the worst starting PGs in the league, and his production is easily replaceable. They should've signed a CJ Watson regardless of Exum's injury. That's where I think they messed up. I give their offseason a C just because I like Lyles.

[jazzfan1971]

Got tired of waiting on the other folks to do theirs so I helped them out.

[Trader_Joe]

Would have been kinda cool to see D.Will sign with them.
He has an excellent track records with bigs
Boozer
Millsap
Okur
Jefferson
Lopez
Humphries
Blatche
Plumlee

Him getting to develop Favors, Gobert, Lyle's could have been interesting.

[stitches]

Hanlan signed overseas, won't be playing in the d-league. He's been stashed.

[AingesBurner]

Would have been kinda cool to see D.Will sign with them.
He has an excellent track records with bigs
Boozer
Millsap
Okur
Jefferson
Lopez
Humphries
Blatche
Plumlee

Him getting to develop Favors, Gobert, Lyle's could have been interesting.

I would have liked to see DWill in a Jazz uni as well, maybe a Burke for Dwill will go down.

[eminence]

About how I feel too, only thing to add is that I think Exum still counts against our 15, so I think we'd have to take 1 guy off the roster there. I'd guess one of Withey/Cotton/Johnson (hoping Withey, but it'd be odd to just sign him to cut him).

[BubbleBuddy]

If there was a magical way for George Hill to be there to complete that team I think they would instantly be one of the more troublesome 1st round matchups and dangerous in the future. Nice write up

[Laimbeer]

Yeah, a very uninspiring offseason. C-

Still, a very promising young team on the rise.

[Winglish]

Offseason is a D to me. I'm sad the Jazz have not gone after a starting point guard. Even just a decent steady vet could get Utah into the playoffs. This would be an F grade if not for the C- draft pick.

Trey Lyles pick is a meh pick to me. He passes pretty but takes inefficient shots and misses a lot. If Trey is better than average my grade will go up.

[stitches]

For me it's hard to assess the off-season. 'Incomplete' would be my initial thought simply because we didn't do anything major. Here's my assessment of the little we did:
-Resigning Joe Ingles for 2 year/4M deal - I like this one. Joe is a great locker room guy and an underrated bench piece for us. Great team player, OK defender. I think this deal is fair and I'm giving it an A.
-Drafting Trey Lyles - I didn't like it at the time at all... I've been warming up to it since the draft but I'd still give it a C.
-Drafting Olivier Hanlan - weirdly enough I liked it better at the time, but it seems a bit like a wasted pick right now. He seemed clueless in SL. At least they managed to send him overseas and delay giving him a contract by stashing him. I'd say this one is D-
-Signing Tibor Pleiss - good cheap contract, addressing need at backup 5 spot - B
-Signing Raul Neto - great cheap contract - B
-Signing Jeff Withey - good contract with not much downside, creates competition for backup 5 spot - B
-Not pursuing a PG after the Exum injury - I'm dubious about this one. On one hand getting some stable PG would be nice, on the other there aren't really many PGs available right now that would be clearcut upgrades over what we have. In other words - we would have to massively overpay to bring somebody like George Hill(probably not even available) or Darren Collison and I'm not sure that's worth it. I will be good with waiting for good PG options to become available as the season progresses and some teams fall off in the battle for the playoffs(hopefully that's not us). I'd say C on that one.

In general my overall grade would be somewhere around C+, B-

[KqWIN]

The biggest decision the Jazz made was to choose a direction. They have a ton of assets available to improve the team, but they chose to hold onto everything and tunnel on the future. Avoiding moves and sticking with the core was a large decision on it's own and, in my opinion, it was a good choice. As Dennis Lindsey said, ""We don't need to go to the other farm to realize our grass is green where we sit." As fans, we want to see moves made, but if you have something good going on it's not a bad idea to keep it intact. The Jazz entered the off-season in a good position and will leave the off-season in good position. Boring, but understandable.

[tmorgan]

I visited the Jazz board after Exum's tear was confirmed to commiserate and to also urge everyone to start sending tweets, texts, emails, whatever to the Jazz FO -- this team needs an average PG in the worst possible way. Good, young players at the 3-4-5, competent 2's, and a big stinking hole at PG. I love Trey Burke and will be forever grateful for the memories a few years ago (damn Louisville), but he's just barely an NBA player at best. He's not even a particularly good backup 1, and starting him is just pissing away potential wins.

[californiadude]

In response to the whole "Utah needs a PG in the worst way"... I'm not so sure I don't like Burks at PG anyway. Hayward is a good enough passer that I really like Burks-Hood-Hayward as the starting backcourt. Those three all have a great height for their positions and can run the pick and roll with effectiveness (With Hood looking like a P/R monster).

I didn't love Lyles as a pick but it could've been worse. Lyles has a nice pedigree and has a decent chance you at being a nice player. Nice write up by the OP.

[jazzfan1971]

Do you mean Burke? (it's quite easy to confuse the two)

I think Trey is going to get a once in a lifetime chance for a do-over on his career. I hope he makes the most of it.

[The59Sound]

Do you mean Burke? (it's quite easy to confuse the two)

I think Trey is going to get a once in a lifetime chance for a do-over on his career. I hope he makes the most of it.

I think he meant that Hayward is a good enough floor general -- and Burks and Hood competent enough at pick-and-rolls -- that the three can play together without a "true" PG.

[tmorgan]

Do you mean Burke? (it's quite easy to confuse the two)

I think Trey is going to get a once in a lifetime chance for a do-over on his career. I hope he makes the most of it.

Unless he just grew three+ inches, got better court vision, got quicker, and got a better shot, I seriously doubt it. Burke has balls, and that's about it.

[californiadude]

Do you mean Burke? (it's quite easy to confuse the two)

I think Trey is going to get a once in a lifetime chance for a do-over on his career. I hope he makes the most of it.

I actually mean Alec Burks as others have mentioned. He's not a point guard obviously. But I think your best linrup might just be Alec Burks, Rodney Hood, and Gordan Hayward. I think there's enough passing among that trio to have a "by committee" aproach to who runs the offense.

I'm not a big Trey Burke fan...he seems like a replacement level player honestly.

[jazzfan1971]

Well, we've seen Alec run the point before. It's not that good of an option, he's a rather poor point and running point detracts the things he does do well from his game.

[cammac]

Losses
------------------------------
Dante Exum - Lost to ACL tear, likely out for season.
Jeremy Evans - Lost to free agency
24th pick in 2nd round - Sold for ca$h

The loss of Dante really hurts, we were counting on improved play from Dante in his 2nd year to lift the Jazz fortunes this season.

Draft
------------------------------
Trey Lyles
Oliver Hanlan

Trey looks like an interesting player to me. I compare him to Lamar Odom. Got that PF build with SF skills. He's not strong enough to do much this season IMHO, but, given a year he could be a nice rotation player. Hanlan looks like a bust of a 2nd rounder and will be stashed overseas.

Trades
------------------------------
24th pick in 2nd round sold for cash.
(you might count the Kanter deal, but, that was last season, however the impact might be felt more this season.)

Free Agency
------------------------------
Signed our own draft pick Raul Neto to a multi-year contract
Signed our own player Tibor Pleiss to a multi-year contract
Signed Jeff Withey to a multiyear contract.
Signed Treveon Graham
Signed Joe Ingles to a 2 year deal.

Nothing major here, bringing in a couple of guys we had rights to in Neto and Pleiss, gave Withey a 1 year deal plus one more year on a Jazz option, and what looks to be a training camp deal for Graham. Neto is the most interesting as he has a chance, I think a small one, to be the Jazz starting PG. Ingles was a solid contributor last season but might see his role reduced with the return of Alec Burks. Pleiss and Withey will fight for scrap minutes barring injuries.

Other additions
----------------------------
Alec Burks is back after missing 2/3rd of the season last year. He looks to be a significant contributor to the Jazz this season.

Needs
------------------------
Jazz could REALLY use a PG who is starting quality.

Depth Chart
--------------------------
PG - Trey Burke, Raul Neto, Bryce Cotton
SG - Rodney Hood, Alec Burks, Elijah Millsap
SF - Gordon Hayward, Joe Ingles, Chris Johnson
PF - Derrick Favors, Trevor Booker, Trey Lyles
C - Rudy Gobert, Tibor Pleiss, Jeff Withey

Win-Loss Prediction
----------------------------
I'll say 45-37 and the 8th seed. Somewhere in the 40-50 range seems most likely.

Offseason Grade
--------------------------
I'm going to give them a solid C. I don't think they made any missteps, but neither did they do anything to move the needle to make the team better.

Agreed but the problem is obviously at PG which wasn't addressed even if Dante wasn't injured .
You have Hood starting ahead of Burks? Think both will be below average SGs this year. Your starting front court is very strong but you depth is very bad.

Agree C off season see 500 as optimistic but this year might be enough to get into playoffs.