The Jazz didn’t use the second-round pick exception to sign No. 32 selection Kyle Filipowski. Instead, Utah dipped into its remaining cap room to give Filipowksi a four-year, $12MM contract that includes a $3MM first-year salary, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.
By comparison, a “maximum” deal using the second-round exception would have been worth $9,062,682 over four years, with a $2,087,519 first-year salary.
Filipowski’s contract, which includes a flat $3MM cap hit across all four seasons, is fully guaranteed for the first two years, with a non-guaranteed salary in 2026/27 and a non-guaranteed team option for 2027/28, Hoops Rumors has learned. Filipowski will have to remain under contract through June 30, 2026 to ensure he receives his full ’26/27 salary.
As our chart of rookie scale salaries shows, The Jazz rookie will receive more guaranteed money in the next two seasons than the final eight picks of the first round.
We have more out of Utah:
- Johnny Juzang‘s new four-year contract with the Jazz is worth a total of $11,425,252, with a first-year salary of $3,087,519 for 2024/25, Hoops Rumors has learned. The final three years of the deal are non-guaranteed, so if Utah were to waive Juzang next June, the club wouldn’t be on the hook for his remaining cap hits of approximately $2.84MM (2025/26), $2.71MM (’26/27), and $2.79MM (’27/28). Re-signing Juzang using his Early Bird rights pushed the Jazz slightly over the 2024/25 cap ($140.6MM) — they’re now carrying $141.6MM in player salaries.
- According to RealGM’s transaction log, the team renounced Luka Samanic‘s free agent rights as part of its series of moves in recent days. Samanic signed a contract with Turkish club Fenerbahce earlier this month.
- With Lauri Markkanen no longer a trade candidate for the 2024/25 season, oddsmakers are projecting the Jazz to win between 27-30 games, according to Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune (subscription required). That wouldn’t be enough wins to contend for a play-in spot, but may be too many to give the team a good shot at a top-four pick. With that in mind, Larsen considers what’s next for Utah, suggesting that the team could improve its odds in the 2025 draft lottery by giving significant playing time to young players and/or trading away veterans like John Collins and Jordan Clarkson, even if it’s not getting anything of value in return for those vets.
- Oscar Tshiebwe‘s two-way contract with the Jazz is for one year, Hoops Rumors has learned, so the 24-year-old will be eligible for restricted free agency in 2025.
All these recent contracts have led people to speculate that the Jazz intend to tank these next two years. Then, in 2 years they’ll have a ton of cap space to do whatever they want.
Wait! The Jazz announced a rebuild 2 seasons ago. Surely they’re not waiting until year 3 to start tanking for 2 more years?
Are they offering season ticket holders their money back?
You sure they announced a rebuild? They always said it was a retool. Hence the trying to win the first half of each season.
It’s been annoying, yes. But really, outside of getting Wemby, have the players they’ve drafted really been worse than teams higher than them in the last two years?
You’ll have to educate me on the distinction between a “rebuild” and “retool”. You sound like the wife who continues to praise her husband when everyone knows he’s cheating on her.
Is it because it’s only a “retool” that Jazz fans were fine with selling off 2 young superstars with recently signed 5 year contracts? Just asking for all the other NBA GM’s who say that reaching that point is the goal of a successful “rebuild”?
Is it because it’s called a “retool”, and not a “rebuild”, that Jazz fans are fine with missing the playoffs for at least 5 seasons (and not the 2 that Ainge promised in 2022)?
The other NBA teams doing “rebuilds” were forced to do it because players aged or left for free agency. Utah is “retooling” because it hired a big ego GM and has a fan base that doesn’t care about losing.