NBA SIMS LEAGUE
NSL Insider - Team by Team: Utah Jazzby Nenjabin, updated on Thursday, October 28 2021, 05:28 am EST Utah Jazz Team Review 2020-21 Finish: 13-69 Season Highlight: To be brutally honest, it�s actually hard to choose a highlight for the
Jazz in the type of year they had, all round. You�ll see what I mean in the
lowlight. But, when a team gets a new manager, so a new set of eyes and outlook
then that�s a positive step. Jason has been particular in his moves, and strong
in his stance which is great news for the team as we didn�t just see it blow
up, and we saw the asset pool get deeper and deeper and that�s exactly where
you need to start in these types of things. Jason�s 1st year in
charge and the new direction, is the highlight. Season Lowlight: The lowlight for the Jazz in many ways is�well�the whole season in a
nutshell. They had only 4 guys play more than 61 games, such was the injury cloud
and the movement of pieces. They had the 2nd worst record in the
league. And, while a new direction is a positive, they lost a founder GM in Tim
who was the godfather of this format. To name just one lowlight would simply
not be doing justice to the year they had. But, it�s all up from here. Best Trade: Jazz send: Kyle Lowry and Justin James Ok so Lowry was the piece that made an Eastern Conference Champ, but for
the Jazz he was an expiring aging star with all signs to him ending up
elsewhere in the offseason in some form. They got Dragic who has some value
himself, Barton the same and a 1st and 2nd in the future
when they might have lost out on Lowry in the end. Worst Trade: Jazz send: Kevin Love and Landry Shamet In the end, this looks like a fair pull of the pin on a big man at his
lowest value point, when he could have been held a lot longer (years in fact)
with little issue given the massive Utah cap space anyway. In the end, KCP is a
low value guard and Iggy was never staying, so they get a likely 20s pick for
Love AND an RFA rotational shooter? Other Notable Trades: Jazz send: Austin Rivers Cash in for assets. Jazz send: Wesley Matthews Perfect deal. Solid young kid on a good deal for the old man. Jazz send: Frank Kaminsky Cash in the lowly big for assets. Jazz send Kent Bazemore Seeing a trend here? Jazz send: Rodney Hood Keep on cashing in! Jazz send: Portland 2022 2nd Solid role player for a late 2nd. Jazz send: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Wenyen Gabriel and Chris Silva Way to multiply KCP. Jazz send: Will Barton, Bojan Bogdanovic and Andre Iguodala They give up two solid starters, but get Griffin who has value now he
was bought out, cap space because of that, and a swathe of youth. Jazz send: 2021 Pick 6 Way to pick up the kid for 1 spot dropped! Free Agency: The Jazz had a few decisions to make over the offseason. It became clear
that a handful of the UFAs were not going to come back, so they dropped them
pretty quick. Denzel Valentine, Nemanja Bjelica, but they had some nice looking
RFAs and the obvious big name in Blake. They were always going to be quiet on
FA day, despite the cap space, which was a shame. Blake Griffin � UFA, must
return. Jarred Vanderbilt � RFA, lock to come back. Deal on the table. Terrence Davis � RFA, lock to return. Gabe Vincent � RFA, kid got a deal, lock to return. Amir Coffey � RFA, back as a 2way. Star: But�he�s not on the team anymore? Correct. But Bojan played and started
61 games last year and averaged 16 a night doing so before being shipped off.
He was their star. Only Kyle Lowry averaged more points, but he only played 16
games. Kevin Love played 20 games, averaging 15 and Dragic 17 games averaging
12. The guys like Kennard, Rui, Vassell and Davis all had under 10 points per
game despite playing 78 games plus. Boj was the man and they are looking for a
new identity this year. Is it Blake Griffin before he�s dealt? Flop: There is a lot of pressure on Rui to be the Jazz�s man given the high
pick position and now he�s 2 years in. Last year, his 2nd year, he
was meant to step up and start giving some more meaningful production but
managed only 8 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal per game in 78 games,
69 starts, 27 minutes a night shooting 44/15/91 and boasting a -11.9 on the
year which was only bested by 2 small time role players and Blake Griffin
playing down the tanking stretch. Rui is needed to step up, now. Draft Grades: #7 � Josh Giddey Did the Jazz have a draft or what?! They went
for the kid who could be anything at 7 in Giddey. LaMelo anyone? He put up
LaMelo numbers in Oz. Then caught the �falling� Wagner, and possibly the steal
of the draft in Duarte at 23, also a big �faller�. All the pundits raved about
their draft and A+ was bandied around multiple times. The Future: The Jazz are all future. Only Blake Griffin at 32 and KCP at 28 (other
than new signee Khem Birch) are older than 25 and the list reads like a who�s
who of the last couple of drafts. They�re not going to be good this year�but
that doesn�t matter. They don�t need or want to be and the kids are going to be
great to watch on their way to a development year where they hopefully finally
see some growth out of Rui as he moulds with the 2021 draft class and the other
youth that will surely be brought in for Griffin, likely KCP and possibly even
Birch. C: Khem Birch (New signee) / Kai Jones / Moses Brown |
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