Utah Jazz 2021 Off-Season
The Utah Jazz had a horrible end to a phenomenal season. They were two wins away from reaching the Western Conference Finals, and their opponent's best player was ruled out for the remainder of the series.
You’d think they’d handle the following two games and close out the series against the Kawhi Leonard-less Los Angeles Clippers. Instead, they lost the following two games while blowing a 25-point lead in a close-out game. So where do the Jazz go from here?
Addressing the Issue(s)
Just a week and a half after their star C won his 3rd Defensive Player of the Year award, Rudy Gobert got exposed against the Clippers (particularly by Terance Mann and Reggie Jackson). As amazing as he is as a rim protector, his perimeter defense is a huge liability, and it’s come to be their downfall every playoff run now.
The Jazz went from the 4th best defensive rating in the regular season (108.3) to the 5th worst in the playoffs (122.3). Is Gobert’s inability to defend on switches the main reason? If so, how can Utah address this issue? They recently agreed to a 5-year extension with Gobert, worth over $200 million. Is he movable? Is moving on from a 3x DPOY a good idea? What can they realistically get for him?
In back-to-back playoff runs, a major injury has plagued the Jazz. Last season, it was off-season addition, Bojan Bogdanovic, being ruled out after wrist surgery in the hiatus before the Bubble restart. The Jazz went 3-5 in his absence in the Bubble, then proceeded to blow a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets in the 1st Round.
The Jazz were the 6th seed, so having Bogdanovic may have helped them overachieve with an upset over the Nuggets. But how far were they expected to go? And this season, Mike Conley went out with hamstring issues after beating the Memphis Grizzlies in the 1st Round. He was able to return for Game 6 against the Clippers but was a shell of himself, going 1-8 from the field (1-6 from three) while his matchup (Jackson) went off for 27 points on 10-16 shooting.
With an upcoming matchup with the Phoenix Suns, who may be without Chris Paul for the Conference Finals, maybe the Jazz could have made an NBA Finals appearance with a healthy roster. Now, how they’d fare against one of the Eastern Conference powers in the Finals is unknown. But they did have a 6-2 record against the 76ers, Nets, Bucks, and Hawks combined.
Unfortunately for the Jazz, we won’t be finding out how they’d fare against Phoenix OR the East as they lost two games against the Kawhi-less Clippers. Now they look ahead and try to address how to improve this off-season.
Utah doesn’t have much flexibility this upcoming off-season. Though Conley’s deal is expiring, freeing up major cap space, both Mitchell’s and Gobert’s contracts take effect next season.
Gobert will be getting about $8 million more than this season while Mitchell’s deal jumps from $5 million to $28 million, just about negating the space they’d make from shedding Conley’s $34 million tab. Utah will still be over the salary cap and will have to decide on if they want to bring Conley and Georges Niang back (out of their main rotational pieces). Their only logical opportunity to improve would be via trading.
Who they decide to trade and who they decide to trade for is the issue. Mitchell is the big “untouchable” player as he’s proven his value at just 24 years old. But who else should be untouchable? Gobert? Bogdanovic? Joe Ingles? Jordan Clarkson?
Trading Gobert will likely be the big media talk this off-season but what would they target in return? Would losing his interior defensive presence crush the team’s overall defense?
Bogdanovic is on a fairly cheap contract for his production but is he the right partner in crime for Mitchell as another scoring option? He’s had some solid offensive performances and isn’t a horrible defender, but his inconsistency and overall lack of impact on win/losses may make him the most movable player on the Jazz.
Despite being the team’s 3rd leading scorer this year, he was only 6th in win shares. He’s a versatile, floor-spacing forward, but he doesn’t impact the game enough to be a contending team’s 3rd best player.
Ingles may be Utah’s 2nd “untouchable” player as his versatility and floor-spacing has been much more impactful than Bogdanovic.
Ingles is a low-maintenance fan-favorite who shoots well/consistent from deep and can serve as a secondary playmaker alongside Mitchell or whoever Utah moves forward with at PG. Clarkson is yet another good contract Utah has, as his production as a 6th man is worth keeping at a low-end price tag.
Clarkson has his moments that make you scratch your head but he’s one of the 6th men that can win you a game, or at least help propel your offense through struggles. He’s coming off his best season and even though he didn’t perform at the same level in the playoffs, he may become a bit more efficient entering his 2nd full season with the team.
Trade Ideas
Utah Jazz receive: Nikola Vucevic, Tomas Satoransky, future 1st Rd pick swap, two future 2nd Rd picks
Chicago Bulls receive: Rudy Gobert
This is a very unlikely deal, as the Bulls likely won’t give up on the Vucevic experiment this quickly and the downgrade from Gobert to Vucevic defensively would be a bit too drastic for the Jazz. However, the deal would make sense for both teams, in theory.
Chicago essentially recreates what Utah has by pairing their offensively gifted SG, Zach LaVine, with a defensively stout C. Utah moves on from their pairing and looks in a different direction for the future. Vucevic isn’t nearly as impactful as Gobert, but maybe it’s just time for the team to move on from him.
Utah Jazz receive: Kyle Lowry (sign-and-trade)
Toronto Raptors receive: Bojan Bogdanovic, 2024 1st Rd pick
Yet another unlikely deal. Toronto would only be interested in this deal if they didn’t want to lose Lowry for nothing but couldn’t find a viable deal with any other NBA team. Bogdanovic would offer them another shooter in Nick Nurse’s offense, opening more room for Pascal Siakam. The Jazz would replace their veteran PG Conley with a more proven veteran PG. Though Lowry may come with the same injury risks as Conley, his leadership and ability to “do all the little things” could potentially elevate this team’s ceiling.
Other Potential Moves
Besides resigning Conley to a cheaper deal and hoping he can remain healthy; Utah can pursue other moves to bring in a PG. The PG market isn’t deep this off-season, but there are some solid players they can fit next to Mitchell if they’re able to trade away some contracts for salary space. The ideal target would be Chris Paul, who is rumored to be denying his player option.
Landing Paul would require some phenomenal/innovative maneuvering, but it’s not completely impossible. More realistic PG targets would be Lowry, Dennis Schroder, Spencer Dinwiddie, or Derrick Rose. None of them will likely come for the veteran minimum, except maybe Dinwiddie. The Jazz would have to move some contracts around to add a starter quality PG.
Another option would be to move Mitchell to PG. He’s a score-first guard but he’s shown that he can be a playmaker in spurts. Moving him to PG would allow them to re-insert Ingles into the starting lineup as a secondary playmaker, while also starting a bigger guard next to the 6’1” undersized Mitchell.
The Jazz could keep the changes in-house, running Royce O’Neale, Ingles, and Bogdanovic as the SG, SF, and PF, or they can look to add cheap guard/wing in the offseason. Someone like Josh Richardson, Alec Burks, or Wesley Matthews might do the job on a cheap contract if available.
The final option would be moving on from Coach Snyder after seven seasons as their Head Coach. That move seems to be the least sensible as he’s kept the team above .500 for five straight seasons and led the team to their best record since 1999.
The Jazz will come into this off-season just over $20 million over the cap space, so improving this team will likely require some high-risk moves. OR we’ll simply see them return as regular-season dominators who underachieve in the playoffs.