Utah Jazz Mailbox: June 20, 2013
By Tyson Newman
Here at www.thejnotes.com we have been making a conscious effort to be as interactive as possible with our viewers. Every single one of our writers have a twitter account:
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So please do us all a favor and go follow us on twitter. We post Jazz content daily and we would love to be the main source of all your Utah Jazz news. There’s also a twitter account for this website where all of our content gets posted @purpleandblues1 so go follow us there as well! In my attempt to include you guys as much as possible, I have taken questions from a few readers and answering those questions in an article! I hope that this will work out well and I get tons of questions from you. Submit all your questions to tnewman@connect2.com and I appreciate all of you for reading!
Which direction do you see the Jazz going in the draft and free agency… Go young with a rookie PG and a rookie big? Or do you think they will get veterans or 4-5 year players to help out the core? Your work is great! Keep up the good writing!
-Brad Mortensen
Great question Brad! Honestly for a long time I couldn’t see the Jazz doing anything but taking either Dennis Schroeder or Shane Larkin with the 14th pick but if Shabazz Muhammad drops to 14 then I think they could go with him. The issue is that both Schroeder and Larkin will probably be off the board at 21 so the Jazz have to decide on if it’s worth it to miss out on one of those two guys. I don’t think they go completely young next season. The core 4 will start (hopefully) but don’t be surprised if the Jazz bring in veterans to surround them. I don’t see the Jazz dishing out any big contracts unless they land a star which seems very unlikely. We should expect another 1-2 year contracts to free agents and then hopefully we make a big splash with a star next off-season when the CBA really starts to hit teams with the luxury tax.
Tyson, I have a 2 part question. 1st part is how far do you expect the Jazz to drop in the standings if they let Millsap and Jefferson walk? 2nd part is, is it worth riding it out with the young guys for a year and developing them in order to secure a high pick in next years LOADED!!! Draft?
-Ethan Tucker
I love this question Ethan because me and the rest of the thejnotes.com staff have recently had a conversation about it. I expect both Millsap and Jefferson to be playing for different teams next year first of all. The Jazz may make an offer to Jefferson but someone is going to offer the guy more money and he’ll have no choice but to take it. That being said I do expect the Jazz to have a little bit of a drop off this season unless they make a huge trade or free agent signing. I can’t see the Jazz finishing higher than 10th in the Western Conference. This isn’t because I lack faith in the core 4 but the fact is that they haven’t played a ton of minutes together and while they may be extremely talented and have a huge upside I think it will take time for it to mesh.
As far as the 2nd part of your question there is no doubt in my mind that it is 110% the right thing for the Jazz to do. There is no downside to playing the young guys this season. The core 4 gain experience and confidence by playing together and in turn we possibly snag the best player since Lebron James in next years draft. Dennis Lindsay was a great hire by the Jazz and he is well aware that the players in next years draft have that kind of potential. I think the fans get what they want this season by seeing the core 4 get more minutes and the organization gets itself in an even better situation financially at the same time as getting its players of the future very valuable experience. 1 season drop off for a decade of success. I’d take that any day.
What does the addition of Karl Malone really mean? How much of an impact can he make on Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter next season?
-Spencer Taylor
First of all, it has been the biggest mystery to me why the Jazz haven’t hired Karl Malone before now. Regardless of any issues off the floor Karl Malone, in a lot of people’s opinion, was the best Power Forward in the history of the NBA. The guy was a work horse that busted his butt every season and every off-season. The Jazz literally could not find a better guy out there to workout with young bigs. Now it is possible that Karl is a terrible teacher and can’t relay what he needs to for these guys to make the improvements the Jazz are looking for but the risk/reward in this hire has too much of an upside for them not to do it. I think this hire means that the Jazz are serious about sticking with Favors and Kanter. I think they believe that those two young guys can dominate the paint for the next decade for the Jazz. I think Karl could possibly have a huge impact on these guys next season. I really wouldn’t be surprised at all if Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter show us things we didn’t expect and it’s an exciting thing for Karl to be back apart of the Utah Jazz organization.
Thank you to those who submitted questions to me. I would love to answer more questions so please submit any questions you have to me and I will definitely put them in my next addition of this mailbox. Feel free to send me questions on twitter @TNewm2215 or you’re welcome to email them to me at tnewman@connect2.com.