Where the Utah Jazz go from here after second round exit

The debate on re-signing Derrick Favors can commence

Before most of the other things on their to-do list can really get started, the Utah Jazz have to answer a serious question at power forward. With Derrick Favors now becoming an unrestricted free agent at a crucial position in their linuep, what do they do?

Their immediate reaction might be to re-sign him, but at what cost? We’ve seen it happen far too often in free agency where players that aren’t worth a whole lot (at least when talking about NBA salary numbers) land major deals but aren’t able to back up what they sign for. The Jazz run the risk of doing that with Favors for two main reasons.

First, while Favors has found his fair amount of success this season in Utah, if the asking price is too high from the get-go, the Jazz have to be smart and consider their other options. Assuming Donovan Mitchell gets even better in his sophomore campaign, Rudy Gobert and Joe Ingles are also going to be able to hold down the fort pretty well at their respective positions.

With that being said, the first point is that the star power is more than likely going to come from Mitchell and Gobert with help from Ingles, Rubio, and others. The reason this is important to consider when thinking of whether or not to bring Favors back is answering whether you really believe he can fill in the gap whenever the other stars have an off night.

If you doubt that, even a little bit, it’s something the franchise is going to need to think about long and hard. The problem with this point, however, is that the league is already more shooter- and scorer-driven anyway, and the Jazz have a big man advantage in Gobert and might be just fine without Favors.

The second reason the Utah Jazz need to be careful about jumping the gun with Favors is simply because there is one much better power forward that will be on the market that would be a tremendous difference-maker for the position they are in — none other than Julius Randle.

With the Los Angeles Lakers seemingly set on the idea of Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball running a lot of the offense, it’s hard to see how Julius Randle would choose a somewhat dysfunctional scenario in L.A. over a chance to be a starter with quality minutes in Utah.

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The reason bringing Randle up is important is that if Randle were to sign elsewhere for an unusually large contract before the Jazz make an attempt to sign him, that gives Favors the advantage when it comes to negotiations.

And that’s not what the Jazz really want to be worried about all summer…right?

One final note on the power forward situation when thinking of what Randle could really do for this team is this. When you look at a head-to-head comparison of Julius Randle and Derrick Favors, the numbers almost all give Randle the edge.

Randle averages four more points per game (16.1), twice as many assists, and a whole rebound more (8.0) per contest than what the Jazz got from Favors this season. If they had the option between signing Favors or Randle and the cost was only slightly higher for Randle but still reasonable, why would they not go for the latter?

The problem here, of course, is that Randle is a restricted free agent and the Lakers have the power to match any offer sheet he signs. It’d take a lucrative offer — and the Lakers landing one or two of their big fish in free agency — to convince Magic Johnson that Randle is expendable.

If the Jazz were to make that happen, however, there’s even more reason to be optimistic moving forward from what’s brewing in Salt Lake City.