2019 Utah Jazz Off Season Thread

[KqWIN]

It's that time boys. 5 months of speculation, cash considerations, cap flexibility, continuity, and friendship.

Cap Resource: http://saltcityhoops.com/capcalculator/

The basic summary of our cap situation is that we have lots of options and decisions to make. Favors, Rubio, Korver, O'Neale, Niang, and Neto. We are more or less at the cap with all of them. Each one of them we decide not to pick up or resign, it equates to cap space.

One thing to consider is the MLE. The full mid level exception ($9.2 M) has a cap hold worth it's value. Otherwise, the Jazz have to use the room exception ($4.7 M). Let me just play out an example to show how this could become a factor.

The Jazz rescind rights on Rubio, Udoh, and Sefalosha. This gives them $14M in cap space. Add in the room exception for a total of $18.7M. Now lets say they decide to keep Rubio. With his bird rights, they can go over the cap and sign him to whatever amount. Let's just say it's $15M. Now they get a total value of $24.2M.

There is a dead zone at about $5M in cap space that will put the Jazz in lose it or lose mode. But they can only use it or lose it on their own players, so keep that in mind as well.

[KqWIN]

Potential Target List

Scoring Bigs
Kevin Love
Danilo Gallinari
Julius Randle (UFA)
Nikola Mirotic (UFA)
Bobby Portis
Jabari Parker

Shooting Bigs
Kevin Love
Danilo Gallinari
Nikola Mirotic (UFA)
Bobby Portis
Kelly Olynyk
Nemanja Bjelica
Jamychal Green (UFA)

Scoring Wings
Bojan Bogdanovic (UFA)
Jeremy Lamb (UFA)
Terrance Ross (UFA)
Rodney Hood (UFA)
Alec Burks (UFA)

Scoring Guards
Kemba Walker (UFA)
Mike Conley
Malcolm Brogdon (RFA)
Goran Dragic

Other Guards
Patrick Beverly (UFA)
DJ Agustine (UFA)
Tomas Satoransky (RFA)

[Rauxcee]

Random thoughts, mostly ignoring the cap:

-Ingles should come off the bench. He took a step back this season and I'm not sure if its regression due to age or outside factors, but I think its time for him to come off the bench.
-which means we have to have a player good enough to replace him.
-Favors is awesome and I'd love him to come off the bench. He's better than that, but we need a starting quality stretch 4. Badly. Him and Ingles can anchor the bench with their PnR.
-Rubio I'd love to keep, if we can get shooters. I think he'd be fine on the floor with Gobert and 3 reliable shooters.
-we need someone who can take the scoring load off Mitchell. Having someone else out their that can play make and score and be a threat would do wonders.
-I'm not in love with our bench. I think the bench unit could be upgraded. I'd like to see healthier and more consistent play from it.
-We need to uprgade shooting in 2 of our starters in the 1-4 spot. Any 2. However, I'm still not convinced of Mitchell being the PG long term. At least not for next season.

I feel like there are a couple of different options to improve and there is some flexibility. But we absolutely need another go to scorer and more shooting in general.

Reality, which I'm very pessimistic about, is I don't know how we'll do it. We have no trade assests except Royce, Ingles, and Favors. I'm not sure we can even get a third teir FA. I just dont see how we'll be able to upgrade, I really only see lateral moves becoming available to us.

[KqWIN]

Ingles was the plus minus god this season. Had to have him on the court because of his gravity and ball handling ability. I can get behind the idea that he's being asked to do too much and potentially playing too many minutes, but I don't see the point in benching him. If we bench him, we need someone exactly like him. You take him out of the starting lineup, and now we have 5 below average/reluctant shooters. I think we'll have a hard time finding someone better than him.

Rubio/Favors...that's the starting lineup change you have to make. Can't have both of them, with Rudy starting.

If you replace Rubio, you have to replace him with another scorer/ball handler. It does not matter what position that is. Mitchell, Royce, and Ingles is not enough juice for this team.

I wonder where guys like Ross, Lamb, and Mirotic will land. Are they MLE players? If so, I think it makes most sense to bring back everyone due to cap dynamics.

Sign Ross/Lamb/Mirotic to MLE. Then hope to find another rotation player with BAE. Hood or Burks potentially?

[Rauxcee]

Having Ingles come off the bench only works if we have a better player to replace him with. No one on the team is better and so we would have to go get one. That position is at the bottom of the priority list and won't be changed most likely. It was more random musings on what I'd like to see if cap space wasn't an issue.

[KqWIN]

IF (big IF) the Jazz can get Ross/Lamb/Mirotic on a MLE, it makes it a lot easier. Also, Hood is the guy we should be targeting with our BAE ($3.6M). Jabari will be interesting as well. Fresh off of $20M, will he be the next Nerlens Noel?

[KqWIN]

Lamb/Ross + Parker
OR
Mirotic + Hood

Big assumptions based on how much money these guys will get, but I think it's possible. This would add a decent amount of firepower without losing anything.

[Crunch 99]

Yes, Ingles was asked to do a lot this season, especially when all of our PGs were out. Nonetheless, he had outstanding post All Star regular season stats: 13.1 ppg on 10.1 attempts, 46.1%/43.5% shooting and 7.5 apg. The only temptation to bring from the bench imo would be to hook him up with Favors on the PNR more when Favors is playing Center. Those two are so darn good together. But I would keep starting him and play him a few less mpg to hopefully keep him fresher for playoffs, giving the extra minutes to Royce O'Neale.

[KqWIN]

Yes, Ingles was asked to do a lot this season, especially when all of our PGs were out. Nonetheless, he had outstanding post All Star regular season stats, 13.1 ppg on 10.1 attempts, 46.1%/43.5% shooting and 7.5 apg. The only temptation to bring from the bench imo would be to hook him up with Favors on the PNR more when Favors is playing Center. Those two are so darn good together. But I would keep starting him, but maybe play him a few less mpg to hopefully keep him fresher for playoffs, giving the extra minutes to Royce O'Neale.

He's already playing those bench minutes w/Favs with his 3 stint rotation. I can maybe see him bringing him off the bench if you also bring Favors off the bench. But Favs off the bench is tricky because you have to give him more than 16 MPG in the regular season. To do that, he has to play with Gobert. Right now, it's the first 6 minutes of each half. Maybe that should come later in the game.

[babyjax13]

Posted this mock offseason in the trades and transactions board and it generated a lot of discussion. I think both of the trades are pretty plausible. That being said, I'm not sure that this is what I'd want to happen, but I think if we had made deals like this we would be better than Houston:

Utah releases cap holds of Derrick Favors, Ricky Rubio, and Georges Niang. Some minor assets might need to be added to balance these one way or the other, but these are presented as the core of each trade.

Utah either a)fails in getting meetings with big free agents, or b) assumes that there are some good values to be had by not participating.

Trade 1:
Utah trades: Jae Crowder
LA Clippers trade: Danilo Gallinari
Clippers open up cap space for two max spots while getting another player for their bench unit. Utah gets the perfect stretch 4 for them, and a second scorer to help Mitchell.

Trade 2:
Utah trades: Dante Exum, Grayson Allen, Tony Bradley, 2019 UTA 1st
Memphis trades: Mike Conley
Memphis gets a first round pick and a bunch of prospects. Dante's contract is a negative, but a young team might want to take a shot on him (and it's needed for salary balancing). Allen has looked pretty decent in the last month, Bradley is a throw-in but might make a decent backup center, and they get a first.

Utah takes the risk of adding two players with significant injury histories in the hopes that Houston with an aging Chris Paul, and Golden State without Durant can be beaten by a well-balanced team.

Salaries after trades: $106,165,464 + minimum roster charges (3 x 838,464) = $108,680,856

Room MLE: DeMarre Carroll
BAE: Ekpe Udoh
Minimum: Thabo Sefelosha, Georges Niang, Troy Daniels, Dragan Bender

Rudy Gobert/Ekpe Udoh/Dragan Bender
Danilo Gallinari/DeMarre Carroll/Thabo Sefelosha/Georges Niang
Joe Ingles/DeMarre Carroll/Kyle Korver
Donovan Mitchell/Royce O'neale/Troy Daniels
Mike Conley/Raul Neto/Donovan Mitchell

Can this team give Houston a fight? Would it be competitive with Golden State (without Durant)? Could it contend with Philadelphia/Boston/Milwaukee/Toronto? I think the answers to all of these questions is 'yes.' I doubt that Utah would be a favorite to win a title, but I think they would be a contender, and the increased spacing would really help Mitchell's game.

[KqWIN]

.

I think the Crowder - Gallo swap is ambitious, but let's go with it.

I don't see the need for Carroll, and I don't think Udoh will warrant more than a minimum. He hardly played this season. I'd use the room exception + BAE to try and get another guard and a 4/5 type. Maybe Jerebko + Satoranksy.

[babyjax13]

.

I think the Crowder - Gallo swap is ambitious, but let's go with it.

I don't see the need for Carroll, and I don't think Udoh will warrant more than a minimum. He hardly played this season. I'd use the room exception + BAE to try and get another guard and a 4/5 type. Maybe Jerebko + Satoranksy.

Should have corrected this, we wouldn't have the BAE since we start under the cap, only the room exception.

[KqWIN]

DL Exit Interview. Will post link later (at work).

DL - Podium

TL/DR: Mitchell had bad summer due to injury and FO restrictions. Favors likely coming back. Rubio...doesn't sound like they want him back.

- Donovan didn't have a typical off-season due to injury. Mandated rest from FO. Mitchell wanted to play, FO told him to be patient.

- Mitchell + Defense + Schedule lead to tough start. Continuity showed during early season struggles.

- HOU was better than us.

- Defensively played well, gives props to Quin's defense in the face of criticism.

- Shot the ball poorly in playoffs. Shot the ball well in regular season...but "didn't feel that way". Team needs a sniper (Korver hurt).

- Late season injuries played a factor in the first couple of games. Kyle was injured during the series.

- The Jazz will look heavily into the make/miss and see what's next.

- Mitchell has a few committments this summer, but Jazz will work with him. Reiterates that Mitchell want to play more last summer, but the Jazz didn't allow him to. DL Expects a big summer and will make recommondations to Mitchell on how to spend his time.

- DL asked about Favors/Gobert. Says it's an easy answer, they want them back. Says Favors and Gobert are two of the most unique defenders in the league. Provide different things. Says it's a false narrative that they can't play together. Calls Favors arguably our most effective player vs Rockets past two seasons. "Favors isn't part of the problem he is part of the solution. Favs went from 274 with bone bruise to 248 now. Credits his maturity.

- Change doesn't automatically mean better. We have a lot to be proud of, be thankful of. Needs to be a better alternative in order to make change. Must fit organization values. Will make every attempt to examine roster+organization to improve. DL believes he has good options.

- Very happy w/freedom of movement changes. DL pushed hard for this. Was very vocal about pushing for changes. Allowed Gobert to be top finisher in the league, Favors a top 5 finisher.

- Free agents do want to come here. Cites....Joe Johnson, Sefalosha, and Udoh.

- Goes into "win the press conference moves". DL says he has routinely turned down those moves and taken the hit for it because it was best for franchise. "We're not far away".

- Ricky's greatest trait are his empathy and care factor. Competes like Manu. Other team leaked Rubio trade rumors, calls it "unethical". Will re-evaluate Ricky this summer. "There are a lot of scenarios in which [DL] sees Ricky back".

- Studying this draft hard. Likes some of the players even if they create redundancy issues.

- Reiterates confidence in Donovan having a good summer.

[Inigo Montoya]

- Free agents do want to come here. Cites....Joe Johnson, Sefalosha, and Udoh.

That really says it all, doesn't it?

[KqWIN]

Derrick Favors

TL/DR: Wants to be back. Limited role is tough, but he makes the most of it.

Favors - Podium

- Felt comfortable in his role as the season went on, had to buy into it.

- Put a lot of work into his body to become lighter, quicker. Plans on slimming down even more.

- Wants to continue playing for Jazz. Likes stability. Wants his option picked up. Grass isn't always greener.

- HOU was tough matchup, but shot the ball poorly. Team has room for improvement.

- Tells other players that Utah is different but grows on you. Praises organization. Thinks guys around the league are thinking about Utah (sounded like he really doesn't).

- Wants to continue to improve on 3 pointer.

Favors - Radio

- Thinks he had a good season given his role.

- Thinks Jazz org appreciates him.

- Low minutes is tough, but does his best to make the most of it. Focuses on giving his all in limited minutes.

- Enjoys Quin's system. Loves the passing and very little isolation. Believes in Quin and DL, loves the org.

- Believes he has a lot of room for improvement. 3 pointer main area. Needs more reps. Favs believes confidence is biggest issue. Lack of frequency makes it tough.

[stitches]

Do we even have 20M of capspace if we keep Favors?

Oh, just for the record, in case I haven't made it clear before - I **** LOVE FAVORS!

[KqWIN]

Do we even have 20M of capspace if we keep Favors?

$21M with:

- Waive+Stretch Korver
- Rescind Rubio, Thabo, Udoh

[KqWIN]

Korver - Podium

TL/DR: Injured in series. Impressed with Utah. Weighing retirement.

- "Really bad bone bruise"

- Enjoyed coming back to UTA

- Org + City are better now than before. Quin is one of the best, if not the best coach in the league. Org is great at supporting the players. Good food!!!

- Doesn't know where career goes from here. Still loves playing. It's been a long few years with heartbreak. Weighing cost of family time. Will talk to family about retirement.

- Players Tribune article + Mitchell soliloquy came from the heart. Felt the need to speak up.

- More praise about Mitchell. Cites his work ethic and being humble. Says that Mitchell is very accountable. Quin is very hard on top guys.

Thabo - Podium

- Will keep options open. Great experience here in Utah.

- Jazz lacked experience in playoffs. Snowballed into bigger issues.

- High praise for Quin

[stitches]

Thanks for your summaries KqWIN Much appreciated.

[KqWIN]

Crowder - Podium

- Team needs shooting (leading question though).

- Works with Grayson a lot. Grayson is still learning the speed of the game. He listens and is open to criticism. Got better during the series.

- High praise for Quin. Cites accountability and work ethic.

- Will continue to work on conditioning and playmaking. Wants to make plays with the ball in his hands.

- Will recruit players. Lots of friends in the league. Winning, free style, and strong locker room is the pitch. Players love the way the Jazz play.

- Players bought into his leadership and appreciated him. Eye opener for him.

- Team needs to improve playmaking ability and shooting. Can't have too many playmakers.

- It's harder to go from good to great than trash to good (lol Tony Jones). Told Donovan "growing hurts". Going from good to great is the hardest thing in this league.

- Korver was a great leader.

Udoh - Podium

- 50 wins is special, also book club is special.

- Wishes team had more competiveness/fire to start the series. Can't explain why it was like that.

- No indications on where he play next seasons. Last two seasons were good. Did not get opportunities that he wanted.

- Thinks guys need to have a good summer. Mitchell+O'Neale, playmakers in particular.