Starting with last offseason's Derrick Favors trade, Utah will send Oklahoma City a top-10 pick in 2024, a top-10 pick in 2025 or a top-8 pick in 2026 first.

2024/05/1316:02:33 hotcomm 1274

The Utah Jazz have all but confirmed that roster continuity has an expiration date. Since they return the same lineup without making wholesale changes, they don't think the mistakes of last year's Los Angeles Clippers series will be repeated. But losing their first three games to a Dallas Mavericks team that lacked Luka Doncic (two losses) proved them wrong. The offseason now raises one of the most important questions in franchise history. Does Utah want to explore moving Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, or completely rebuild and trade the two All-Stars? So what's the future for head coach Quin Snyder?

Team Status

Things are constantly changing, and in March 2021, the Jazz are heading in the right direction. With Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley Jr. selected for the All-Star Game, Utah is heading toward the best record in the NBA. That distinction puts them at No. 8 in ESPN's annual Future Force rankings, as the health of the organization is safe for the foreseeable future. Gobert and Mitchell just signed 5-year max extensions (Conley will eventually sign a 3-year extension), and now it's up to Jazz management to continue adding the right players around them. What happened was an unfortunate loss to the Clippers without Kawhi Leonard and exposed a roster that had won 52 games on the defensive end. "It was a tough night in a lot of areas defensively, but I'm certainly not jumping to any conclusions," Snyder said after last year's Game 6 loss to Los Angeles. Rather than tearing up the roster, Utah decided to rejoin it, adding veterans Rudy Gay and Hassan Whiteside , figuring that 's playoff loss to would serve as a learning experience and motivation. The Jazz won a respectable 49 games this season, but once again struggled in the playoffs. The team's streak eventually turned into a failure, but several warning signs emerged along the way. Utah ranks 23rd in clutch net rating this season. They have lost 6 games when leading by 10+ points in the fourth quarter (tied with Knicks for the most). The root of their problems is poor perimeter defense, which is developed by being constantly beaten off the dribble. Donovan Mitchell 's struggles at the end of the game didn't help. The Jazz are shooting 83.5 percent from three-point range, the league's third-lowest three-point shooting percentage this season, per Second Spectrum tracking. Last year, they ranked 29th in that category. According to research from ESPN Stats & Information, Mitchell shot 33 percent from the field in clutch situations, ranking third among 37 players who attempted 50 shots in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime and scored five points. Within minutes. He attempted just six of 32 3-point attempts and shot just 25 percent from at least 10 feet away. Defensive deficiencies and Mitchell's struggles at the end of games became vivid again in the first round. Mavericks has the most three-pointers attempted (41.6) and ranks second in three-point field goal percentage (15.2). In the losses in Games 2 and 3, Mitchell shot 25 percent in the final five minutes of the game. To make matters worse, the Jazz's offense, which relied heavily on three-point shooting (they were second in the regular season in field goal percentage and attempts), has stalled in the playoffs. In the loss to Dallas, they were third among playoff teams in three-point attempts per game (28.8) and last in three-point attempts per game (8.0). This offseason raises more questions now than last year. There are two years of work in the postseason that show a change is needed. But where do the Jazz even begin? Is ownership willing to spend on a roster that lost in the first round? The Jazz return 11 players and once again plan to have one of the highest player salaries in the NBA. As part of the Conley trade, their 2022 first-round pick went to the Memphis Grizzlies, while a young protected 2024 first-round pick was sent to Oklahoma City to get rid of Chandrick Fee. Worth's $20 million.The earliest the No. 1 pick could be sent in a trade before 2026, but that would only be if the No. 1 pick in the top 10 names was sent to Thunder in 2024. In the second round, they only have three picks (2025, 2026 and 2029). In addition to Mitchell and Gobert, their tradable contracts also include Conley, Jordan Clarkson, Royce O'Neal , Rudy Gay and Bojan Bogdanovic . The rest of the roster includes Juancho Hernangomez, Jared Butler, Nick Alexander-Walker and Udoka Azubuike. Five players were out of the playoff rotation, with only Hernangomez seeing meaningful playing time. The Jazz do have a $6.3 million tax hit and a $9.8 million trade exception available to use, but that comes with financial penalties. Remember, Guy signed the same mid-level exception last offseason and didn't appear in the playoffs. If he wants to shake up the roster, he can start by deciding the future of the All-Star players.

Starting with last offseason's Derrick Favors trade, Utah will send Oklahoma City a top-10 pick in 2024, a top-10 pick in 2025 or a top-8 pick in 2026 first. - DayDayNews

Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert

Considering both just signed max extensions at 5 years, and neither will become a free agent until the 2025 offseason (both have 2025- Player option for 26 seasons), breaking up the duo of Mitchell and Gobert shouldn’t be a topic. The contract status of both players and their impact on both sides of the ball should make Utah want to build around them, rather than dissolve their partnership. Mitchell is coming off a regular season in which he averaged 25.9 points per game, the second time in his career that he's averaged at least 25 points per game - the only other Jazz players to do that are Karl Malone , Adrian Dantley and Pete Maravich. Defensively, however, he ranks tied for No. 256 according to FiveFiveThirtyEight's RAPTOR metric, which uses home games and player tracking data to measure a player's impact. While Mitchell struggled defensively, Gobert was the Jazz's go-to guy. Utah ranks No. 1 in defensive efficiency when Gobert is on the floor. When he left the court, they were tied for 21st with the Los Angeles Lakers . Gobert also ranks third in field goal percentage at the rim and has his lowest points-per-game rating (0.84) when he's a supporting guard, according to ESPN Stats & Information. It's fair to say Gobert was exposed by the Clippers and Mavericks' small-ball schemes in the series, but that had more to do with Utah's poor perimeter defense and the need for a 7-foot-1 center to provide help on defense. Gobert's strengths on the defensive end met with flaws on the offensive end. Gobert is not a perimeter threat, relying heavily on second-chance opportunities (28.7 percent of his possessions, the most of any player) and lobs (third-most). The strengths of his game — screen assists and pick-and-roll shooting — were marginalized in the Dallas series. When Gobert served as cover during the regular season, Utah State averaged 1.04 points per straight pick, according to Second Spectrum. This number dropped to 0.85 points in the first round. Gobert also ranks in the top 10 in pick-and-roll field goal percentage this season, but only made five in the Dallas series. Can Mitchell and Gobert coexist? If the answer is yes, how will this roster improve? If not, which of the two could Utah State explore? This question will define the Jazz's offseason.

Starting with last offseason's Derrick Favors trade, Utah will send Oklahoma City a top-10 pick in 2024, a top-10 pick in 2025 or a top-8 pick in 2026 first. - DayDayNews

Utah Jazz 2022-23 Salary Breakdown

Rudy Gobert

. Donovan Mitchell

2,680,000$

. Bojan Bogdanovic

. Jordan Clarkson

. Nickeil Alexander -Walker

,009,633 $

Players

Cap Fees

8,177 ,$414

0,351,780$

.Mike Conley

html $119,550,000

html $113,340,000

. Royce O'Neal

html $19,200,000

. Rudy Gay

html $16,184,500

. Udoka Azubuike

,174,880 $

0. Jared Butler

$1,563,518

1. Juan Hernangomez

$7,307,130 (non-guaranteed)

2. Xavier Sneed

Two-way

3. Eric Paschall