Utah Jazz Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Poll: Will The Jazz Make The Playoffs?

November 24th, 2018 at 9:40pm CST by Luke Adams

Over the last two days, we’ve gauged your thoughts on two surprise Western playoff contenders, asking if you expect the Grizzlies and the Clippers to make the playoffs. In each case, about two-thirds of the respondents in our poll voted yes. But if the Grizzlies and Clippers are pushing their way into the postseason conversation, that means at least one or two teams we expected to be in the playoffs may end up being pushed out.

One potential candidate to finish outside the top eight in the Western Conference is Utah. The Jazz entered the season with high expectations — they finished the 2017/18 regular season on a 29-6 run, then dispatched the Thunder in the first round before falling to Houston. Entering the 2018/19 campaign, many experts and fans viewed Utah as a probable top-four team in the West.

So far though, the Jazz have played more like the team that started last season 19-28, rather than the team that won 29 of its last 35 games. With Donovan Mitchell banged up and struggling to score efficiently, the Jazz have had problems getting the ball in the net as a team, ranking 26th in offensive rating. At a time when many NBA clubs are looking to score as many of their points as possible from outside the three-point line and at the foul line, Utah ranks 27th in 3PT% and 26th in FT%.

Even the Utah defense, which was considered one of the NBA’s best entering the season, has underperformed, ranking 14th in defensive rating so far, despite anchor Rudy Gobert not missing a game.

The season hasn’t been a total disaster for the Jazz. They’ve had good road wins in Houston, New Orleans, Memphis, and Sacramento, and they’ve beaten Boston twice. But they’ve also had their fair share of duds, including a 50-point loss in Dallas and a 27-point defeat in Indiana. In total, Utah is 8-11, which puts the team in a tie for the second-worst record in a competitive Western Conference.

The Jazz still have a ton of time to turn things around, and it would be surprising if they don’t go on a run at some point. Still, it won’t be easy to earn a top-eight spot in the West. Utah would have to leapfrog the Mavericks, Spurs, Pelicans, Rockets, and the surprising Kings just to get to No. 8. As the season nears the one-quarter mark, it’s worth questioning if we overrated the Jazz at all based on their red-hot finish to the 2017/18 season.

What do you think? Do you still consider the Jazz a strong bet to make the postseason, or do you believe they’ll end up on the outside looking in? Vote in our poll, then head down to the comment section to share your two cents.

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Free Agent Stock Watch 2019: Northwest Division

November 23rd, 2018 at 8:22pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Every week, Hoops Rumors takes a closer look at players who will be free agents or could become free agents next offseason. We examine if their stock is rising or falling due to performance and other factors. This week, we turn our attention to the Northwest Division:

Isaiah Thomas, Nuggets, 29, PG (Down) – Signed to a one-year, $2MM deal in 2018
Thomas hoped to revive his career as a high-scoring sixth man for one of the league’s up-and-coming teams. Instead, Thomas has yet to make his Denver debut. Thomas continues to struggle with hip issues and there’s no timetable for his return. Just a couple of years removed from being a candidate for the league’s Most Valuable Player award, Thomas has a cloudy future. It’s more likely he’ll be forced into early retirement than ever approaching his former level of excellence and that would be a shame.

Derrick Rose, Timberwolves, 30, PG (Up) – Signed to a one-year, $2.39MM deal in 2018
Seriously, did anyone think Rose would have another 25-point outing in his career, let alone twice as many points? Rose’s 50-point explosion against Utah on Halloween was a shocker and he’s remained a steady offensive threat since that blast from the past. He’s averaging 22.0 PPG and 4.0 APG over his last eight games. Once thought to be on the verge of retirement, Rose clearly still has a lot left in the tank. He’ll be getting a substantial raise in the open market if he keeps this up.

Abdel Nader, Thunder, 25, SF (Down) – Signed to a three-year, $4.16MM deal in 2017
The Celtics were about to cut Nader loose this summer until the Thunder came calling with a trade offer. The 2016 second-round pick has a non-guaranteed contract and he hasn’t done anything to convince Oklahoma City to keep him around after this season. Nader hasn’t been able to break into the wing rotation, playing a total of just 15 minutes. Nader will probably be looking for another fresh start in July.

Seth Curry, Trail Blazers, 28, PG (Down) — Signed to a one-year, $2.795MM deal in 2018
Curry left Dallas with the hope of reestablishing his value after missing all of last season with stress fracture in his lower left leg. It hasn’t started off the way Curry envisioned. He wasn’t effective in a backup role (6.09 PER) before missing the last four games with a knee injury. There’s still hope for Curry to turn things around and fill the role that Shabazz Napier played last season. The way it’s going now, he’ll be scrounging for another one-year deal next summer.

Ricky Rubio, Jazz, 28, PG (Down) – Signed to a four-year, $55MM deal in 2015
The Jazz have been one of the league’s most disappointing teams during the first quarter of the season. The team’s starting point guard is partly to blame. Rubio, who is making nearly $15MM in his walk year, is shooting 37.3% from the field and over the last six games he’s averaging four assists while making 2.5 turnovers per game. Rubio needed to adjust his game when the team drafted dynamic creator Donovan Mitchell and right now, their backcourt pairing still seems a bit awkward. It’ll interesting to see if the Jazz look to move Rubio before the trade deadline to shake things up.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Raul Neto Recalled From Stars

November 14th, 2018 at 7:11pm CST by clarkcrum

The Jazz have recalled Raul Neto one day after assigning him to the Salt Lake City Stars while he works his way back from injury, the team tweeted this evening.

Western Notes: Lowry, Covington, Rockets

November 13th, 2018 at 10:09pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Jazz saw Gordon Hayward walk away after the 2016/17 campaign but he wasn’t the only star the team had an eye on that offseason. Utah spoke with Kyle Lowry‘s representatives during the summer of 2017 and the organization felt confident that it could sign Lowry, sources tell Andy Larsen and Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune.

The front office decided to pull out of the Lowry sweepstakes because signing the point guard would have required the team to use the cap space it had planned to use for Hayward. Lowry ended up re-signing with Toronto on a three-year pact.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The Jazz also had interest in Otto Porter and Danilo Gallinari during the 2017 offseason, Larsen and Walden detail in the same piece. Both players signed with other teams while Utah was waiting on Hayward’s decision.
One league executive tells Marc Stein of The New York Times that he expects Robert Covington and Dario Saric to mesh well with Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. Stein adds that the Timberwolves would have likely been better off long-term with the Josh Richardson offer from Miami.
With Carmelo Anthony‘s future in Houston up in the air, Kelly Iko of The Athletic revisits the decision to sign him in the first place, citing sources who say that there were players and members of the Rockets organization who were “wary of what his arrival would bring.”

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/13/18

November 13th, 2018 at 10:08pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Here are Tuesday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

The Jazz have assigned Raul Neto to the Salt Lake City Stars, according to the team’s website. Neto is rehabbing from a hamstring injury.
The Raptors have assigned Malachi Richardson to their G League affiliate, according to the Raptors 905’s Twitter feed.
The Lakers have recalled Moritz Wagner and Svi Mykhailiuk from the South Bay Lakers, the team announces on Twitter.
Elie Okobo will head to the Northern Arizona Suns, as Phoenix has assigned him to their G League affiliate (per the team’s website). The rookie has played in 11 NBA games for the Suns this season.
The Bucks have assigned Christian Wood to the Wisconsin Herd, according to the team’s Twitter feed.

Mitchell Has Allowed Franchise To Turn Page

November 9th, 2018 at 7:08pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Donovan Mitchell‘s emergence as a potential superstar allowed the Jazz to quickly move on from the loss of Gordon Hayward in free agency, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN examines in a post on Hayward’s return to Utah on Friday. Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey and coach Quin Snyder felt they could retool the roster and become a playoff contender again but had no idea Mitchell would emerge as a franchise player in his rookie year, Wojnarowski continues. Mitchell provides the Jazz with a selling point to recruit another star in free agency and he’s well on his way to a max contract extension in 2020, Wojnarowski adds.

Floor spacing, 3-point shooting and defensive intensity have been areas of concern for the Jazz. The Thunder continue to deal with outside shooting woes. David Yapkowitz of Basketball Insiders takes a closer look at issues involving each Northwest club.

NBA G League Assignments/Recalls: 11/8/18

November 8th, 2018 at 10:11pm CST by JD Shaw

Here are Thursday’s assignments and recalls from around the NBA:

The Pistons recalled forward Henry Ellenson and guard Khyri Thomas from the Grand Rapids Drive, the team announced in a press release. Ellenson has averaged 21.3 points in three games for the Drive, while Thomas has averaged 19 points in three games.
The Thunder assigned and later recalled forward Abdel Nader from the Oklahoma City Blue, the team’s G League affiliate. Nader has played six minutes in three games with the Thunder this season.
The Spurs announced they have assigned forward Chimezie Metu to the Austin Spurs in the G League. Metu was drafted 49th overall in 2018 by San Antonio.
The Jazz assigned Tony Bradley to the Salt Lake City Stars (Twitter link). Bradley is in his second season with Utah.

NBA Trade Candidate Watch: Northwest Division

November 8th, 2018 at 3:10pm CST by Luke Adams

Over the course of the 2018/19 NBA season, up until February’s trade deadline, we’re keeping an eye on potential trade candidates from around the NBA, monitoring their value and exploring the likelihood that they’ll be moved. Each of these looks at possible trade candidates focuses on a specific division, as we zero in on three players from that division.

Entering the 2018/19 season, all five Northwest teams were projected to finish above .500. That scenario would create a dearth of sellers in the division, but that doesn’t mean there are no trade candidates to be found. In fact, the NBA’s most notable current trade candidate, one who has dominated headlines since mid-September, plays in the Northwest.

Here’s our early-season look at a few possible trade candidates from the Northwest…

Jimmy Butler, G/F
Minnesota Timberwolves
$20.45MM cap hit; $19.84MM player option for 2019/20

Since Butler’s trade request went public on September 19, our archive of Butler-related rumors and news items features a staggering 74 additional stories.

The saga has taken a number of twists and turns along the way, and we don’t need to belabor it in this space. Suffice it to say, Butler is very much available and at this point, it seems like just a matter of when – not if – the Timberwolves will move him.

While the Wolves could drag out the process to the trade deadline, Michael Rand of The Star Tribune offers five reasons why it would make sense for Minnesota to find a deal right now. When the club gets serious about moving its All-NBA swingman, the Heat, Rockets, Sixers, and Clippers are among the likeliest trade partners, though a dark horse suitor could always emerge.

Derrick Favors, F/C
Utah Jazz
$16.9MM cap hit; non-guaranteed $16.9MM salary for 2019/20

The Jazz have insisted for years that the Favors/Rudy Gobert frontcourt pairing can work, and at times it has. But Favors is a better fit at center than power forward, and Utah is a better team with a smaller power forward alongside Gobert — so far this season, the four-man duo of Gobert, Ricky Rubio, Donovan Mitchell, and Joe Ingles has a +18.6 net rating with Jae Crowder filling out the lineup, compared to a -7.5 rating with Favors in that last spot.

Sean Deveney of The Sporting News recently wrote that few people around the NBA expects Favors to remain in Utah in 2019/20, when his $16.9MM salary is non-guaranteed. Deveney suggested that if the Jazz could move Favors for a more versatile forward, an in-season trade would be a possibility.

It won’t be easy to find a forward who would improve the Jazz and whose 2018/19 salary is similar to Favors’, without any guaranteed 2019/20 money. DeMarre Carroll, who has a $15.4MM expiring deal, could be one option, but the Nets wouldn’t have much need for Favors.

Malik Beasley, G/F
Denver Nuggets
$1.77MM cap hit; guaranteed $2.73MM salary for 2019/20

Beasley hasn’t been the subject of any trade rumors this season and there’s no indication that Denver wants to move him, so this is merely speculation on my part. However, if and when Will Barton and Isaiah Thomas get healthy, there likely won’t be enough minutes to go around in the backcourt and on the wing for the Nuggets, so someone like Beasley or Torrey Craig could be the odd man out.

If the Nuggets, who currently rank 28th in the NBA in three-point percentage, go shopping for outside shooting help at the deadline, they have three sizeable trade exceptions they could use to acquire a player without sending out any salary, but they’re only about $7.5MM shy of the luxury tax threshold. In certain trade scenarios, they might want to move a small salary like Beasley’s or Craig’s in order to avoid the tax.

Here’s one hypothetical scenario involving a popular trade candidate: If the Nuggets were to send a draft pick to Cleveland for Kyle Korver, they could use one of their trade exceptions to land him, but his $7.56MM salary would nudge the team slightly over the tax line. Attaching Beasley or Craig to that draft pick would improve the package for the Cavs and allow Denver to stay under the tax.

Previously:

NBA Trade Candidate Watch: Central (10/25)
NBA Trade Candidate Watch: Atlantic (10/31)
NBA Trade Candidate Watch: Southeast (11/6)

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Thabo Sefolosha Returns Following Five-Game Suspension

October 28th, 2018 at 3:53pm CST by JD Shaw

Jazz guard Thabo Sefolosha will be available to play Sunday against the Mavericks, according to Eric Woodyard of the Deseret News. Sefolosha served a five-game suspension this season for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy in April, and played just 38 games with the team last year.

Raul Neto Out At Least Two More Weeks

October 26th, 2018 at 3:58pm CST by Luke Adams

Jazz point guard Raul Neto still isn’t ready to return, according to the team, which announced today (via Twitter) that Neto will be re-evaluated in two weeks. He continues to battle a right hamstring injury.

For Neto, who was expected to add depth to a point guard depth chart that also features Ricky Rubio and Dante Exum, being re-evaluated in two weeks is becoming a common refrain. Utah made similar announcements on September 24 and again on October 10, so there’s certainly no guarantee that the 26-year-old will be ready to return in 14 days.

Neto, who averaged 12.1 minutes per contest in 41 games for the Jazz last season, re-signed with the team over the summer inking a two-year, $4.3MM contract. The second year of that deal is non-guaranteed, so if Neto is nagged by health issues throughout the season and/or fails to reclaim a rotation spot, he’d be a release candidate next summer.

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Raul Neto