2024 NBA Off-Season Check-In: Utah Jazz

Hoops Rumors checks in on the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures and more. We’ll look at each team’s offseason moves and think about what else could happen before the regular season begins. Today we focus on Utah Jazz.

This is the final installment of our off-season recording series. All 30 articles can be found here.

Free agent signings

Svi Mykhailiuk: Four years, $15,050,000. Second and third years not guaranteed. Fourth year team option. Signed using Cap Room.
Johnny Juzang: Four years, $11,425,252. Second, third and fourth years not guaranteed. Re-signed using Early Bird rights.
Drew Eubanks: Two years, $9,750,000. Second year not guaranteed. Signed using Cap Room.
Patty mills: One year, minimum salary. Signed using the minimum wage exception.
Max Abmas: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using the minimum wage exception.
Taevion Kinsey: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using the minimum wage exception.
Isaiah Wong: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using the minimum wage exception.
Justice Keshawn: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using the minimum wage exception.
- Note: Justice was later waived.
Danish Goodwin: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using the minimum wage exception.
- Note: Goodwin was later waived.
Babacar Sané: One year, minimum salary. Not guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using the minimum wage exception.
- Note: Sane was later waived.

Professions

Acquired Russell Westbrookthe right to trade his own 2030 second-round pick for the Clippers’ 2030 second-round pick, the draft rights to Balsa Koprivicaand money ($4.3 million) from the Clippers in exchange for Kris Dunn (sign and exchange).
- Note: Westbrook was later bought out.

Draft picks

1-10: Cody Williams
- Signed a rookie-scale contract (four years, $24,897,090).
1-29: Isaiah Necklace
- Signed a rookie-scale contract (four years, $12,903,788).
2-32: Kyle Filipowski
- Signed a four-year contract worth $12,000,000. First two years warranty. Third year not guaranteed. Fourth year team option.

Two-way signatures

Departed/unsigned free agents

Other movements

Renegotiated and extended Lauri MarkkanenThe one-year contract worth $18,044,544. Increase in 2024-2025 salary from $24,131,856 to $42,176,400. Added four years, $195,868,144.
Bought Russell Westbrook.
Renounced Darius Bazley.
Renounced Kenneth Lofton.
Renounced Omer Yurtseven

Salary cap situation

I went below the ceiling to use the space.
Now operating above the cap ($140.6 million) and below the luxury tax threshold ($170.8 million).
With a salary of around $144.8 million.
No hard ceiling.
Exception for full room ($8 MM) available.

The offseason so far

Two days after the end of the Jazz season in April, the CEO Danny Aingé vowed the team was ready to go “big game hunting” this offseason after finishing below .500 in consecutive years.

A statement which has aroused some skepticism. After all, despite Utah’s consecutive seasons in the lottery, the team had not drafted higher than ninth overall since beginning its rebuild, and although the front office was able to add some promising young prospects in the 2023 and 2024 drafts, neither of them seem like the kind of franchise centerpiece that the Jazz can build around for years to come.

It wasn’t much of a surprise at the time when reports in July indicated that the Jazz’s offseason efforts to acquire an impact player — such as Mikal Bridges – on the commercial market had failed. Giving up five first-round picks for Bridges was a logical next step for the Knicks, who were just one win away from making the Eastern Conference Finals in the spring and likely considered themselves a piece or two away from becoming true championship contenders.

Giving up that kind of package for a player without an All-Star berth on his resume would have made less sense for the Jazz, who would have been a playoff contender with Bridges on their roster but still wouldn’t have had enough talent to go with. hang on. the best teams in the Western Conference.

It’s also hard to imagine Ainge – whose trades sell like those of Kevin Garnett, Paul PierceAnd Rudy Gobert are among the defining moves of his executive career – finding himself on the other end of this kind of deal, which would have seriously dented the Jazz’s pipeline of future assets without making them an elite team.

Utah’s biggest offseason decision ultimately wasn’t whether or not to meet the substantial asking price for a trade target like Bridges — but rather whether or not to move forward the star. Lauri Markkanen itself in one of these commercial chips.

Markkanen’s situation this summer was unusual and complex. He was in the final year of a contract that was so below market value that any over-the-cap team that acquired him would not have been able to extend him before free agency, because they did not reportedly wouldn’t have been able to offer him more than a 40% raise on his expiring $18 million salary.

The only way to get around this restriction was to renegotiate (i.e. increase) Markkanen’s salary for 2024/25 and then extend this new figure. But cap room is necessary for a renegotiation, and the Jazz were one of the only teams with significant cap room available this summer. Renegotiating and extending Markkanen would have made him a more attractive trade asset for Utah, but it also would have made him ineligible for a deal for six months.

Markkanen became eligible for renegotiation on August 6. He and the Jazz finalized a renegotiation and extension on August 7, ensuring that he would not become eligible for trade until February 7, one day after this season’s deadline.

Utah’s willingness to wait that extra day while giving Markkanen as much money as possible on a long-term, max-salary contract indicated the team was comfortable with the idea of keeping The 2023 All-Star on his roster for at least the 2024/25 season. And comments made publicly by both parties – at the time of the deal and since then – suggest they are committed to continuing their relationship well beyond that, so we shouldn’t necessarily expect Markkanen to found on the trading block during the 2025 offseason.

The Jazz’s decision not to trade Markkanen is understandable. They’ve already been rebuilding for two years – moving Markkanen would have extended the process by at least two more seasons. And without the inability to extend him before trading him, they would have had to move him onto an expiring contract, limiting their ability to maximize return.

Still, a Markkanen trade would have clearly defined the Jazz’s direction, essentially guaranteeing they would retain the protected 2025 first-round top 10 pick they owe to the Thunder and making them one of the leaders in the standings. Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. With Markkanen on the roster, it’s possible the club could find itself in the 30-40 win range for a third straight season, which is not good enough to earn a play-in spot and not bad enough to have a good chance at a match. player who changes franchise in the draft lottery.

Markkanen’s extension was the most notable move in a Jazz offseason that didn’t see them commit more than a guaranteed season to another veteran signee. Svi Mykhailiuk, Johnny Juzang, Drew EubanksAnd Patty mills all signed free agent contracts with the club, but none of them will make more than $5 million in 2024/25 and all four could disappear from Utah’s books by ’25/26 if they don’t impress this season.

The most notable off-season additions to the roster came during the draft, which saw the Jazz select three players in the top 32: Cody Williams at n°10, Isaiah Necklace at No. 29, and Kyle Filipowski at n°32.

Williams holds real intrigue as a three-and-D wing if he can increase his shooting volume without his percentage dropping, while the Collier and Filipowski picks saw Utah rolling the dice on a pair of prospects who fell further than initially expected. At one point, Collier and Filipowski were considered potential lottery picks.

Given that the Jazz front office will likely want to keep their top 10 first-round picks protected for 2025, I expect we’ll see this year’s crop of rookies and 2023 first-round picks — Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte GeorgeAnd Brice Sensabaugh – do a lot of running this season.

To be continued

The Jazz have 15 players on guaranteed contracts and none of them seem likely to be waived before the season starts, so decisions on the opening night roster seem pretty straightforward.

It’s still possible that Utah trades one of its two-way players for someone new, but those three roster spots are also filled at the moment.

Meanwhile, only two Jazz players are eligible for an extension before the start of the regular season: John Collins And Collin Sexton. I wouldn’t count on either veteran getting a new contract with two years remaining on his current deal, but Sexton is the better candidate of the two – I could imagine a scenario where he stays in Utah beyond his current contract, while it is more difficult. imagine for Collins.