Utah Jazz: 2016 Offseason Grades

The Utah Jazz could’ve just relied on internal development this summer, but instead had one of the best offseasons in the NBA. Here are their complete 2016 offseason grades.

Last year was supposed to be the Utah Jazz‘s year. Though they weren’t contenders by any means, the 2014-15 season was supposed to be the year this young core found its groove, put that menacing defense to work and managed to land one of the last few playoff spots in a historically competitive Western Conference.

But even in a season where the bottom of the West fell off, the Jazz still failed to make the playoffs, being buried under a hailstorm of injuries as they finished with a 40-42 record. Heading into the offseason, getting healthy and continued internal growth were the top priorities.

However, that didn’t stop general manager Dennis Lindsey from submitting Utah as one of the league’s finest offseasons outside the Golden State Warriors.

Addressing the team’s bench depth and bringing in veterans to provide locker room leadership, the Jazz are as poised as ever to put it all together next season. Here’s a look at Utah’s complete 2016 offseason grades.

Next: Hello Hill

Hello Hill

In the first pre-draft trade of the offseason, the Jazz participated in a three-team trade with the Atlanta Hawks and Indiana Pacers, sending their No. 12 overall pick to Atlanta and netting George Hill from Indiana. The Pacers got Jeff Teague from the Hawks.

More from Utah Jazz

• 5 NBA teams on the rise that will surprise everyone in 2023-24
• Grading the John Collins trade for the Atlanta Hawks and Utah Jazz
• Ranking the 10 championship-less NBA teams by closeness to title
• A former lottery pick may have a permanent home with the Utah Jazz
• 3 Teams that dodged a bullet with Russell Westbrook news

For Utah, this trade is a home run. Though they had to give up a lottery pick to get some long-awaited help at the point guard spot, this team is already bursting at the seams with young talent like Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward, Rudy Gobert, Rodney Hood, Dante Exum and Trey Lyles.

The Jazz didn’t need another late lottery pick at No. 12, so they turned it into a defensive-minded point guard who fits perfectly with Quin Snyder’s philosophy. Hill brings veteran experience, tough perimeter D and three-point shooting to a team that will welcome help in all three of those areas.

Though Hill only has one year left on his contact, many people thought the 2015-16 season was going to be the year this young core took the next step. Injuries and a shortage of talent at the point guard position derailed that hope, which puts the pressure on Utah to make it back to the postseason in 2016-17.

Adding Hill was the first step in the right direction, even if he doesn’t move the needle into the contender category. If all goes well for the Jazz, even a one-year rental of Hill would be enough to help make Utah build momentum as a more attractive free agency destination.

Hill is not a masterful playmaker, but Utah primarily uses Gordon Hayward and Rodney Hood in pick-and-roll situations anyway, making Hill’s efficiency as a spot-up shooter a great fit for this roster.

Taking away starter’s minutes from Exum may seem like an unfortunate byproduct of this trade, but Exum is coming off an ACL tear and is largely inexperienced still.

Giving him the chance to learn from one of the game’s better veterans is a phenomenal opportunity, especially after Utah eased the backcourt logjam a bit by trading away Trey Burke.

Giving up a lottery pick for a 30-year-old point guard doesn’t sound like a great move on paper, but as of right now, the Jazz are the clear winners of this trade as a team looking to make its way back to the playoffs and start building on all this young talent.

Grade: A-

Next: The Rest Of The Draft

The Rest Of The Draft

The Jazz may have traded away their first-rounder in the 2016 NBA Draft, but they used their first second round pick to address an area of need with Trevor Booker hitting free agency.

With the 52nd overall pick, Utah selected Joel Bolomboy, a 6’9″ Ukrainian power forward out of Weber State. In his senior season, the 22-year-old Bolomboy averaged 17.1 points, 12.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game on 57.3 percent shooting.

After the majority of their offseason moves were done, the Jazz signed him to a three-year, partially guaranteed deal. With 16 guaranteed contracts for 15 available roster spots, Bolomboy’s signing all but ensuring the writing on the wall for someone on the edge of the rotation.

That player wound up being Tibor Pleiss, who was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in late August (more on that later). Bolomboy will try to fill the void in the frontcourt with his elite athleticism and rebounding ability. In NBA Summer League, he impressed with 7.6 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.

He needs to get stronger and his game lacks offensive polish, but his athleticism is undeniable. For that late in the second round, the Jazz did well to scoop him up. More than $1 million of his contract is guaranteed, which is not a common occurrence for someone drafted so low.

Utah also took UNC’s Marcus Paige at No. 55 by trading their 42nd overall pick (Isaiah Whitehead) to the Brooklyn Nets, and they selected California’s Tyrone Wallace with the final pick in the draft. Neither has been signed to a contract, however.

Grade: C+

Next: Bye-Bye Burke

Bye-Bye Burke

With Hill joining a backcourt that already included Dante Exum, Shelvin Mack, Raul Neto and Trey Burke, something had to give. That “something” wound up being Burke’s shaky future with the Jazz.

In a quick swap with the Washington Wizards, Utah jettisoned Burke to D.C. in exchange for a 2021 second round draft pick, helping alleviate the team’s backcourt logjam despite not getting great value for the former ninth overall pick.

A second round pick five years down the road is not terrific compensation for Burke, but his inability to carve out a concrete role in Utah was frustrating and ultimately forced the front office’s hand in giving up on him.

Fluctuating between a starting role and a sixth man role during his time under Tyrone Corbin and Quin Snyder, Burke averaged 10.6 points and 2.3 assists per game last year, watching his minutes plummet from 30.1 per game the season before to 21.3 per game last year.

His paltry 41.3 percent shooting from the field and 34.4 percent shooting from three-point range last year both marked career-highs in his three NBA seasons, which is not a great sign.

Being able to get rid of Burke and clear out minutes for Hill, Exum and Alec Burks was a luxury, not a necessity, but the return for a 23-year-old who might just need a change of scenery wasn’t particularly grand either.

Grade: C+

Next: Joe Jesus Joins Jazz

Joe Jesus Joins Jazz

The biggest move of Utah’s offseason that wasn’t a trade was landing seven-time All-Star Joe Johnson on a two-year, $22 million contract, adding yet another useful veteran who will provide a scoring punch off the bench.

Last season in his 24-game stint with the Miami Heat, Joe Jesus proved what he could do when he actually cared about the team he was playing for, averaging 13.4 points per game on .518/.417/.765 shooting splits.

In Utah, Johnson will once again be playing on a competitive team that will bring out the best of whatever’s left of his game. Though he’s 35 years old now, this 15-year veteran can still knock down threes, score in isolation and hit clutch shots late in games.

As a veteran, Utah’s newest sixth man will teach Rodney Hood quite a bit and with a fair amount of depth on the wing, the Jazz can afford to ease up on his minutes to make sure their new sharpshooter is 100 percent healthy for the playoffs.

At a meager price of $11 million a season, Utah bolstered its bench, added a player who’s had a long and successful NBA career to set an example for the younger guys and battened down the hatches for a playoff run in 2016-17.

Grade: A-

Next: Bringing Boris Aboard

Bringing Boris Aboard

The Jazz weren’t done getting the better end of the bargain in trades after the Hill swap. In a one-sided deal with the San Antonio Spurs, Utah got Boris Diaw and only had to give up the rights to former second round draft pick Olivier Hanlan.

This deal is an absolute slam dunk for the Jazz, who managed to flip the rights of a D-League caliber player into a veteran with championship experience that will bolster the team’s bench for a return to the playoffs.

With a young, promising core, the Jazz went about their offseason trying to add more experience and bench depth. The Diaw trade is just the cherry on top of some pretty fantastic execution in that plan, as Utah just added quite possibly the team’s best passer and yet another three-point threat to spread the floor off the bench.

Hanlan, a 6’4″ combo guard from Boston College, spent the last year playing for Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania. He has yet to play an NBA game, and even in a salary dump move, the Spurs didn’t come close to getting full value for Diaw.

The deal was only this one-sided because San Antonio needed to clear cap space to sign Pau Gasol, but Utah deftly sniffed out a deal they could capitalize on and added a key veteran and bench presence for its young core.

Diaw only averaged 6.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 18.7 minutes per game last year, but it’s worth noting that with Favors and Trey Lyles logging minutes at the 4, Diaw may not be needed as much anyway.

Even in a token locker room veteran role, however, the Diaw trade is a nice response to Trevor Booker’s offseason departure, with the Jazz adding a brilliant interior passer and all-around versatile player who is on a team friendly contract of $7 million for next season.

Considering how little he had to give up, general manager Dennis Lindsey deserves a ton of credit for the depth he added to this roster.

Grade: A

Next: Trading Tibor

Trading Tibor

As first reported by The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Jazz sent third string center Tibor Pleiss to the Philadelphia 76ers in a salary dump move. Utah also had to send two second round picks and cash in exchange for Kendall Marshall, whom the team plans to waive before his $2 million salary becomes guaranteed.

The 26-year-old Pleiss only got one year of run with the Jazz, but was disappointing in his first season, posting a grand total of 24 points and 15 rebounds in 82 minutes of action.

As underwhelming as his first NBA season was, the Jazz had to add in two second round picks in order to dump a 7’3″ behemoth. However, the good news is that Utah had plenty of those to blow, since were slated to have four second-rounders in the 2017 NBA Draft, plus an extra one in 2021 and 2022.

The signing of Joel Bolomboy made it difficult to see how Pleiss could last in this crowded frontcourt, but the Jazz now have around $13 million in cap space. Could they possibly have something up their sleeve this late in August?

Grade: C

Next: Odds And Ends

Odds And Ends

Utah’s roster was all but set with the additions of Hill, Diaw and Johnson, so our “Odds And Ends” section is really just limited to signing Quincy Ford to a three-year, partially guaranteed deal.

A four-year player from Northeastern, the 6’8″ wing averaged 16.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game as a senior, shooting 40.9 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from three-point range.

Playing for Utah’s Summer League team, Ford averaged 5.1 points and 5.2 rebounds in 19 minutes per game in eight games, shooting 43.2 percent from the floor and 30 percent from downtown.

The Jazz liked Ford heading into the draft, and this will give them a chance to get an extended look at a player who can play the 3 or the 4 and spread the floor because of his shooting. This is a no-risk move, but it doesn’t really move the needle much for the immediate future either.

Grade: C-

Next: Overall

Overall

For years now we’ve been hearing about how the young Utah Jazz are on the cusp of taking the next step, returning to the postseason and living up to their projection as a team on the rise in the Western Conference.

By addressing the team’s bench depth and locker room leadership with a couple of shrewd trades and an opportunistic free agency signing, Utah looks as prepared as ever to take that next step.

This summer, the Jazz added a starting-caliber point guard until Exum is ready to take the next step after coming off an ACL tear; they landed a spot-up shooter in Johnson to serve as sixth man; and they brought in a do-it-all glue guy who will do wonders in the locker room, even if his on-court production is not as intrinsic to Utah’s success behind Favors and Lyles.

To be honest, Utah’s summer would’ve been relatively successful if only for Dante Exum and Alec Burks simply returning to full health.

But with those two back on the court, the continued internal growth of Hayward, Favors, Rudy Gobert and Rodney Hood and these new additions, Utah is as balanced as ever.

More hoops habit: Minnesota Timberwolves: 2016 Offseason Grades

The Jazz are deep, they’re young, they’re balanced and they’re on the right path. It’s still early in free agency, but a top-4 seed in the West could very well be in play. Barring another plague of injuries raining down from the heavens, there are no excuses for the Jazz this time around.

Grade: A