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#22 in the LBB end of the season team rankings...

For those of you just jumping in on the team rankings, the Jazz are a good opportunity to remind everyone that these rankings are not just about what I expect next year’s results to be, but rather a holistic view of the franchise and its direction.

If you were to begrudge me for having the Jazz too low, I’m not sure I could fault you. Even as I was writing this ranking, I had moments of second-guessing. The reality though, is that until Utah plants their flag on who they want to be next season, it’s hard to put them ahead of the more clearly defined franchises ranked higher than them. That being said, I have a crush on what this organization is doing, and between general manager Danny Ainge and head coach Will Hardy, I have full faith they are steadfastly enacting a smart and effective game plan and process. Utah may still not be very good next year, but they will be, sooner rather than later.

#22 Utah Jazz

Record: 31-51 (23^rd); 100.26 Pace (10^th); 114.5 Offensive Rating (18^th); 119.6 Defensive Rating (30^th); -5.1 Net Rating (23^rd)

Total Salary Cap Allocations: $151,093,987 (28^th)

Cap Space: $-10,093,987 (3^rd)

Current Roster: Darius Bazley, Jordan Clarkson, John Collins, Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks, Walker Kessler, Kenneth Lofton Jr., Lauri Markkanen, Jason Preston, Brice Sensabaugh, Collin Sexton, Omer Yurtseven

Key Free Agents: Kris Dunn (Unrestricted), Talen Horton-Tucker (Unrestricted), Johnny Juzang (Restricted – Two-Way), Kira Lewis Jr. (Restricted), Luka Samanic (Unrestricted)

Single Word Description: Wiley

Biggest Positive: Flexibility. I’m not sure there is a more adept general manager in the NBA at resetting a roster and getting a head start on viability than Danny Ainge. After completely reconfiguring the team two summers ago by dealing Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, and in the process gathering more assets than a politician—across the two trades, Utah received a haul of seven first-round picks, three pick swaps, and eight players—Ainge managed to put together a roster that is now not only chock full of up-and-coming talent, but, with the acquisitions of Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton, and John Collins (acquired separately last summer for essentially a bag of Skittles), could absolutely compete for an 8-10 seed. Despite the rapid rebuild, Utah wisely opted to punt on the second half of the last two seasons to better their draft positions for both years. Last season, that meant that rookies Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks, and Brice Sensabaugh got a ton of playing time after the All-Star break to develop their games. Over that stretch, the results were a bit mixed, as Sensabaugh looked in over his head, shooting just 39.4% from the field on a lot of rushed looks. George also shot just 39.2% but scored 25 or more points five times in the team’s last 25 contests and seems poised to be Utah’s starting point guard of the future. Hendricks shot a very encouraging 47.9% from the field, including an impressive 40.4% from distance on 1.7 makes per game, and flashed all the 3-and-D skills the Jazz had hoped for. This process is just *chef’s kiss* perfect. While the rookies got some great experience, Utah continued to grow all the flexibility they need by making two more savvy deals at this season’s trade deadline, moving impending free agents Simone Fontecchio and Kelly Olynyk during this season. Utah now has more than enough cap space and assets to be an under-the-radar landing spot for either a free agent or a star player available in trade this summer. With all their exciting young talent, they can also do absolutely nothing and no one will blanch. If the Jazz ultimately just stand pat, they can use their available cap space to just re-sign Markkanen a year early and go into next season unburdened by the weight of high expectations as they continue to develop. This is the brilliance of Ainge, who executed a very similar process in Boston, where all of a sudden we blinked and the young Celtics were in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Biggest Negative: Collin Sexton. Bear with me here, because this is not a knock on Sexton as a player in totality but rather as it pertains to how he fits with this Utah team going forward. The Jazz were dead last in defensive rating this season, and a big part of that is their backcourt. With Keyonte George and Collin Sexton, Utah has one of the more offensively incendiary pairings of starting guards in the league, but also one of the smallest backcourt combinations, meaning that they are in trouble defensively against big scoring guards. While the solution would seem to be to bring Sexton, who can score in bunches as effectively as any player in the league, off the bench, he seems to need to be a starter to get his game in gear before he gets going. Take a look at the difference in his numbers as a reserve and as a starter last season for Utah:

Those are pretty stark differences in both counting stats and efficiency, particularly when you consider that the difference in minutes per game is only 6.2 per contest. And this has been the story for most of Sexton’s career; he just produces at a much higher volume as a starter. The assumption has to be that there is some combination of a confidence factor that Sexton gets from starting and an element of needing some time to allow his offensive game to go from simmer to boil. Whatever the reason, Sexton is a diminished version of himself as a reserve in a way that basically undercuts his impact. With George clearly being the guard of the future for Utah, that means the Jazz have to make a decision on what to do with Sexton, who has value as an asset as he is under two more years of team control, particularly this summer, when a lot of teams will be shopping for guard play. If Utah goes big game hunting this summer, expect Sexton to be a part of any deal that lands them a player on the move via trade.

What’s Next: I have to imagine that re-signing Dunn and Horton-Tucker are fairly high priorities, as both players provide good depth and versatility, along with veteran leadership; though I don’t think Utah is apt to loosen the purse strings too much for either considering their on-court impacts aren’t great enough to leverage their cap flexibility overall, especially as both will likely see their impacts diminished over last season as Utah continues to develop their young players. So, if some squirrely team comes calling for either in an effort to wrest them away or drive up their price, the Jazz likely bid them adieu. The larger question here is just how big of a player Utah ends up in the free agent/trade market. With Brandon Ingram, Paul George, DeMar DeRozan, Jerami Grant, and a few players we haven’t even been made privy to yet, all possibly on the move, Utah is as well-positioned as any secondary market team to snatch one of them up. Ingram in particular seems interesting here, as Utah has the assets to get him, the cap space to re-sign him long-term, and the need positionally (I prefer Markkanen at the four and like the idea of Collins as punch off the bench). Though, if I’m Danny Ainge, the prospect of your two best players being as injury-prone as Markkanen and Ingram have proven to be—neither player has ever played 70 games in a season over their combined 15 years of NBA play—would give me some serious pause.

What They Shouldn’t Do: Trade for Brandon Ingram. I know what I said above because I think it’s in play for Utah, but I don’t like the idea of Ingram’s fragile body alongside Markkanen’s considering the type of cap space those two will occupy. From an on-court standpoint, Markkanen’s versatility and ability to be a highly impactful player without requiring much usage is an amazing asset for a team to build around, so the fact that Ingram is a tough fit in a lot of places because he has to work on-ball to be effective doesn’t hurt Utah, but I just would be scared off by the prospect of having my two best and most expensive players potentially missing so many games.

Is There Hope?: Oh hell yes. Honestly, this may be too low a rating for Utah if they become a landing spot for a star. They have the perfect combination of veterans, a star player, exciting young talent, and a wealth of assets to be very good, very soon.

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Links to Other Team Reviews:

#30 Brooklyn Nets

#29 Washington Wizards

#28 Portland Trail Blazers

#27 Detroit Pistons

#26 Charlotte Hornets

#25 Toronto Raptors

#24 Chicago Bulls

#23 Atlanta Hawks

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Jazz Facing Big Conundrum With Collin Sexton (si.com)