With the Utah Jazz having the Nos. 23 and 53 picks in the 2019 NBA Draft in June, let’s take a look back at their draft history prior to 2019.
With May quickly coming to a close and the 2019 NBA Playoffs starting to wrap up, it’s time to look ahead to the 2019 NBA Draft for the Utah Jazz.
The offseason is in full swing for the Jazz, who have a handful of decisions to make in regards to how they want their roster to look ahead of the 2019-20 campaign. Utah holds the No. 23 and No. 53 overall picks in the upcoming draft on June 20.
With the draft quickly approaching, let’s take a look back at some of the draft picks from the past few seasons for the Jazz and look at some of the notable players they have selected in recent history.
2018: Grayson Allen and Vince Edwards
In the 2018 NBA Draft, Utah held the No. 21 and 52 overall selections, going out and grabbing Grayson Allen out of Duke and Vince Edwards out of Purdue.
Allen went on to play in 38 games for the Jazz during the season, averaging 5.6 points, 0.7 assists and 0.6 rebounds in 10.9 minutes per game. Edwards was traded to the Houston Rockets and appeared in just two games, averaging 1.5 points and 1.0 rebounds in 8.0 minutes per game.
Although Allen didn’t make a huge impact in his rookie campaign, he could prove to be nice piece to add to the mix in Utah moving forward.
2017: Tyler Lydon, Josh Hart, Thomas Bryant, Nigel Williams-Goss
Although the names listed above aren’t initially an impressive list of names, Utah’s draft in 2017 was one of their more successful drafts in the last handful of seasons.
The Jazz, which entered the draft with the No. 24 pick, traded that pick (which ended up being Tyler Lydon) and Trey Lyes to the Denver Nuggets to move up to No. 13 and grab Donovan Mitchell out of Louisville.
Utah also selected guard Josh Hart and center Thomas Bryant, which were selections on behalf of the Los Angeles Lakers as a result of a previous trade. The final pick in the 2017 NBA Draft was guard Nigel Williams-Goss, who has yet to play in the NBA.
Overall, the selection of Mitchell has proven to be successful enough to make this draft one of more important drafts in Utah’s recent history.
2016: Taurean Prince, Isaiah Whitehead, Joel Bolomboy, Tyrone Wallace
The 2016 NBA Draft was somewhat of an uneventful one for Utah.
The Jazz picked forward Taurean Prince with the No. 12 pick, which was on behalf of Atlanta Hawks in a trade that brought George Hill to Utah.
In the second round, the Jazz selected guard Isaiah Whitehead and traded him to the Brooklyn Nets for Marcus Paige and cash.
Utah went on to draft forward Joel Bolomboy, who played in 12 games with the Jazz in 2016-17, and guard Tyrone Wallace in the second round.
2015: Trey Lyles, Olivier Hanlan, Dani Diez
In the 2015 NBA Draft, the Jazz found a nice piece to their franchise in drafting forward Trey Lyles with the No. 12 overall pick.
Lyles spent two seasons in Utah, averaging 6.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game in 151 appearances before being traded away following the 2016-17 year.
The Jazz later selected guard Olivier Hanlan, who was sent to the San Antonio Spurs, and forward Daniel Diez, who was sent to the Portland Trail Blazers, in the second round.
2014: Dante Exum, Rodney Hood, Jarnell Stokes
In the 2014 NBA Draft, Utah found two pieces in the first round of the draft that helped its franchise for a few seasons.
With the No. 5 pick, the Jazz took guard Dante Exum out of Australia while later picking forward Rodney Hood with the No. 23 selection. Exum just wrapped up his fourth NBA season in Utah, while Hood spent 3.5 years with the franchise before being traded in 2017-18.
Utah’s final pick was Jarnell Stokes in the second round, who was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Other Notable Picks
Outside of the last five years, there have been multiple successful drafts and picks throughout the course of the Jazz history.
There are multiple Hall of Fame players, such as Karl Malone (1985) and John Stockton (1984), who were outstanding selections that proved to help the franchise in many ways.
The Jazz also selected Hall-of-Famer Dominique Wilkins in the 1982 NBA Draft, but later traded him to the Atlanta Hawks before the season began.
Other notable successful draft picks from Utah history include Enes Kanter and Alec Burks in 2011; Gordon Hayward in 2010; Kosta Koufos in 2008; Ronnie Brewer and Paul Millsap in 2006; Deron Williams and C.J. Miles in 2005; Kris Humphries in 2004; Sasha Pavlovic and Mo Williams in 2003; Andrei Kirilenko in 1999; Nazr Mohammed in 1998; Jacque Vaughn in 1997; Bryon Russell in 1993; Eric Murdock in 1991; Blue Edwards in 1989; Dell Curry in 1986; Thurl Bailey in 1983; Darrell Griffith in 1980 and Rich Kelley in 1975, among others.
First draft pick
The first pick in the history of the Jazz franchise came in the second round of the 1974 NBA Draft.
The New Orleans Jazz picked forward Aaron James out of Grambling State with the 28th overall pick (10th pick in the second round). James appeared in 356 games for the franchise, holding career averages of 10.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game over five seasons.
There have been many successful drafts that have included multiple solid players in Utah’s history. We will see if the Jazz continue to add to that list in June during the 2019 NBA Draft.