Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I think most people would agree that Utah JazzThe decision to part ways with Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert and begin a rebuild was the right one. However, since Utah’s transformation began, some decisions have worked, while others have not.
Looking back, it’s easy to criticize, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Let’s take a look at three decisions Utah regrets heading into the third season of its rebuild.
Going after Collins seemed like a good move at the time. This was a player who, just two years after contributing significantly to a team that reached the Eastern Conference Finals, had been very cautious. Plus, his situation with the Atlanta Hawks he felt similar feelings to Lauri Markkanen with the Cleveland Cavaliers before he reached All-Star status after arriving in Salt Lake City.
Collins’ first year in Utah was a mixed bag. He averaged respectable 15.1 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, but never made the impact Jazz fans were hoping for. The issue going forward won’t be his play on the court, but the length and amount of money left on his contract.
Utah is set to make $53 million over the next two years, and it doesn’t seem likely he’ll be traded before his contract expires. That doesn’t bode well for a team that’s expected to bottom out in 2024-25 for a top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft that’s expected to be loaded with talent.
Collins has no future in Salt Lake City, and until he’s traded, he’s going to block some of the younger players. That’s not an ideal situation in a rebuilding process or for a team that’s in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.
Rehiring Clarkson wasn’t a bad decision at the time, and the way his contract was structured made sense. Clarkson got a three-year deal with the lion’s share of the money coming in the first year. This gave Clarkson a well-deserved big payday and gave Utah a marketable asset in the second or third year of the contract.
A year after signing the contract, things haven’t gone so well for the Jazz. Clarkson is now over 30 years old and his play on the court has taken a big dip heading into the 2023-24 season.
Like Collins, he’s a tough player to trade and is holding up minutes for younger players who need to develop. His contract is more manageable than Collins’, and there’s still a chance he could boost his transfer stock with a strong start to the year. In the meantime, Clarkson’s re-signing has hindered the rebuild more than it helped.
The Jazz have proven they can hold their own against the best of them. The problem is that the last two seasons, they’ve been turning on the tank after the trade deadline. Entering the third year of their rebuild, the highest draft pick the Jazz have received is the 9th overall pick that was used to select Taylor Hendricks.
This isn’t a criticism of Hendricks, but the Jazz gave themselves little chance of landing a top-five pick in the 2023 draft that included Victor Wembanyama. That could have been avoided by trading Mike Conley, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt before the trade deadline.
In Utah’s defense, they had no idea this group would get off to a flying start to the 2022-23 season. They might have played their cards differently if they had a crystal ball. But in the 2023-24 season, they doubled down and didn’t start losing games at an alarming rate until after the deadline.
Will Utah make the same mistake again in 2024-25? The distribution of minutes between veterans and the youth movement will be one of the storylines to watch going forward. Fingers crossed that Utah doesn’t make the same mistake again.
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