2022 Camp begins-The tank is on

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As the regular season approaches, House Jr. opened up on his role with the team and he discussed what he is expected to do out on the floor. “My role is just to be energy,” he told reporters in Cleveland. “Be the guy to make stuff happen. Make plays happen, make a shot, knock down a shot, get a rebound, pass the ball, set the play up, run the play, set the screen, whatever the team needs pretty much. I’m just here to give away myself. Like I said earlier, I’m not really worried about accolades. As long as we win, I feel like that’s my biggest accolade.”
– via Ky Carlin @ Sixers Wire

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In recent transaction cycles, Phoenix has explored adding greater ball-handling depth behind Chris Paul and Devin Booker. And Jordan Clarkson, one of the many veterans thought to be available in Utah, is one dynamic guard the Suns have inquired about landing in exchange for Crowder, sources said. Would Phoenix be willing to attach draft capital in that scenario? That outcome would seem to result in Crowder securing a buyout from Utah, and then his pick of destination, albeit at an unknown salary.
– via Jake Fischer @ Yahoo! Sports

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Gerald Bourguet: The Suns have officially signed Adonis Arms and Saben Lee after waiving Frank Jackson.
– via Twitter GeraldBourguet

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Andy Larsen: The Jazz (finally) officially signed Micah Potter to a two/way contract, the team announced. Also, they waived Jeenathan Williams. Go flourish in West Valley, Jeenathan.
– via Twitter andyblarsen

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Omari Sanfoka II: Bojan Bogdanovic practiced today, Dwane Casey said
– via Twitter omarisankofa

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Andy Larsen: The SLC Stars named former Boston Celtics assistant Scott Morrison their head coach today. Marquis Newman is now the team’s GM.
– via Twitter andyblarsen

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https://kslsports.com/494109/jared-b...-in-jazz-loss/

The Jazz aren’t designed to be good. The goal for the team this season is to find which of the 15 players on the final roster are worth investing in long term, while also losing games to better their odds of landing a top pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

Not 15. Most of them won't be on the team after Danny's draft picks start joining. Looking for the ones that will be here then

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https://basketball.realgm.com/wireta...or-Rudy-Gobert

they likely win that trade. Kessler has looked good so far though

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http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2kkkmw7l

Clarkson for Crowder doesn't work straight across

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Dave McMenamin: Wolves coach Chris Finch says that Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns will be out tonight against the Lakers.
– via Twitter mcten

Dane Moore: Chris Finch said he feels the best way to grow the chemistry around a two-big lineup is to get the two bigs on the same page and then have the surrounding players build off that. Finch was in Denver with Jokic and Nurkic and in New Orleans with Davis and Cousins. Same process.
– via Twitter DaneMooreNBA

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https://kslsports.com/494130/stars-s...on-promote-gm/

Prior to his time in Boston, Morrison was the head coach of the Celtics’ NBA G League affiliate the Maine Red Claws between 2014-17. The coach lead Maine to a 35-15 record and won the Dennis Johnson G League Coach of the Year Award in his first season.

Expecting big things. Looks like at least one lottery pick will be playing for them

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https://saltcityhoops.com/active-oct...igh-decisions/

That leaves an unlucky foursome of young guys fighting for two roster spots: the Jazz can likely only keep two of Udoka Azubuike, Leandro Bolmaro, Jared Butler and Stanley Johnson. All four appear to be outside the main rotation as of today, and all four have no financial guarantees beyond this season. Each one makes between $1.5 and 2.5 million, making them the lowest-paid Jazzmen with guaranteed salaries. For all those reasons, it’s extremely likely the final two cuts come from that group. (The Jazz will also likely cut Zeller, a move which won’t cost them anything on the cap sheet.)

I'd guess Johnson and Bolmaro who I'd hate to see go. Can't see them cutting Udoka unless they think his ankle will never be good. Zeller is better than Olynyk sadly

Bolmaro and Butler are both guards trying to lock up spots on an already guard-heavy roster, so it seems unlikely that both of them will survive final cuts. Each guy has arguments in favor: Butler has more innate scoring ability and was an in-house draft project who has been in the Jazz’s program for a year; Bolmaro is bigger, possesses some more tradiitonal point guard skills, and is a first-round talent. Ultimately, neither guy has established himself as a rotational player — both stayed under the 400 minute mark as rookies. Both were inefficient shooters, but Butler’s per-shot efficiency was closer to respectable territory, and he passed the ball better. Bolmaro rebounded better and showed a bit more defensive ability — unsurprising on both counts given his 6-foot-6 frame.

Butler has struggled to score. He can run the team and plays D though. Bolmaro does it all except shoot well

Johnson is the closest thing to an established NBA player in this quartet, and I’ve heard that he has been great influence in training camp. But he arrived in Utah mostly as salary ballast in a summer trade, and the Jazz are already swimming in guys who are 6’6″ and under. He’s a non-shooter, non-passer and non-ballhandler, all skill sets that you ideally want in your wings in a modern offense. He has generally been a plus defender throughout his career and he plays with energy, but it’s not clear where he’d find minutes.

he's ideally an end of the bench energy guy

Dok can at least be slotted as a third-string center. He has struggled to stay healthy, but had some success in a winter stretch where injuries opened the door for him: he average 10 & 8 over a 6-game stretch in February, on 77% shooting.

if he's healthy and on the team he will play. Kessler might get sent to the Stars until they figure it out

(No, they’re not going to waive Rudy Gay, who is owed salary next season. Also no on the idea that’s been picking up social media steam that they might cut Simone Fontecchio. Just… no.)

they're tanking. If they don't see him having trade value eat it now

The reality here: it’s highly likely this decision won’t matter much in the long run. Whoever the Jazz hang onto for now could eventually be cut for roster flexibility or could lose his job later as Utah adds talent via the grundle of draft picks they own. It still behooves them to factor in which guys have a better chance of “hitting” and offering some value to their rebuild, which is why my guess is they keep the less redundant Bolmaro and Dok for now.

it probably won't matter in the long run but still sad when Clarkson and Gay are still here

A Jordan Clarkson-to-Phoenix rumor surfaced on Wednesday, but honestly, it feels like Phoenix is one of those teams that could actually use a productive version of Gay. He’d play the exact role/position that Crowder vacated in the rotation, and he’d be $18-19 million cheaper than Crowder when factoring in luxury tax costs. A construct where Phoenix gets Gay, a team like Memphis or Atlanta gets Crowder, and the Jazz wind up with a contract they could cut and a small asset doesn’t seem all that crazy. (My theory is that the Jazz would probably consider cutting Gay if not for the $6.5M player option for next season, so trading his two years for even a slightly larger 1-year salary they could cut actually makes some sense.) Of course, that’s all very contingent on whether the Suns believe Gay can access his pre-Utah performance level.

Suns don't want Crowder on Memphis. Gay is risky for Suns. Clarkson still on Jazz

Even a direct Gay-Dario Saric swap would save the Suns $14 to $15 million without too much basketball cost, and they haven’t really been using Saric. But again, it’s unclear whether Phoenix has any interest whatsoever in Gay, who struggled last season.

had his moments. Finished the last 6 games playing well I thought

And then there’s the Laker stuff. Los Angeles would still likely be open to surrendering a single unprotected pick to get off of Russell Westbrook’s $47 million expiring contract, but supposedly doesn’t have interest in Mike Conley, whose contract could hurt their 2023 cap flexibility. The Jazz would almost need to include Conley in a Westbrook swap, but maybe there is a team out there who could use Conley and would flip an expiring to L.A. Washington addressed its point guard need by adding two floor generals, but neither is a solid starter type. Would they send Will Barton to Hollywood in order to upgrade their playmaking? Dallas still seems like a team that needs another offensive creator, but it looks like they may instead talk themselves into the unspectacular Facundo Campazzo. Chicago makes some sense as a Conley spot with Lonzo Ball’s injury, but they have few tradable contracts in that range.

I like Campazzo but someone needs Conley. Can still ball

Up to six guys can be acquired by each G League team in this manner, and the SLC Stars can already claim affiliate player rights to Paris Bass, Jeenathan Williams and Darryl Morsell because of their brief Jazz contracts. It was reported earlier this summer that Kofi Cockburn would get similar treatment, and then the Jazz/Stars can still perform that operation up to two more times.

I thought there were some others in the summer

Expect them to sign (and then waive) Cockburn and potentially a couple of other G League-bound prospects in the next few days. But since they’re currently at 20 roster spots, they’ll first need to waive Zeller or make one of the cuts/trades we speculated about up top.

been wondering if Zeller is going to play with the Stars until an NBA team comes calling

If the Jazz decline those options and then one of Azubuike/Bolmaro pop this upcoming season, they’ll still have free agent rights that enable them to re-sign them next summer, but they will be unrestricted free agents at that point.


This month — October 18, to be exact — also brings the deadline for players entering the fourth season of their rookie scale contract to agree to an extension. The only player the Jazz have in that situation is Alexander-Walker, and it’s unlikely he gets an extension given that the Jazz value flexibility as they rebuild. They can still make the Canadian guard a restricted free agent next summer if they choose to.

I doubt anyone gets an extension. Most of these guys won't be on the team once the tank is over

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Josh Lewenberg: Nick Nurse anticipates Juancho Hernangomez being part of the rotation, especially early in the season with Porter and Boucher banged up. Nurse says they’ve been managing his minutes in preseason after his busy summer but need his shooting with the second unit.
– via Twitter JLew1050

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They believe Gobert isn’t just a championship-level acquisition but that he provides an injection of rocket fuel to the rest of their team, particularly their other star players. “We put up the 30 best players in the league on a board,” said Wolves coach Chris Finch, broadly gesturing with his hands as he described meetings when the deal was first seriously contemplated. “At any given time, like there’s maybe three or four of them available. Some aren’t even available if you gave 10 picks. And if you have one you can get and he fits and does a lot of the things that we like — the more that we looked at it and the deeper we went, like just the more we felt like we couldn’t not [trade for him].”

– via Brian Windhorst @ ESPN





The general idea was to keep Towns and Edwards together all the time — they were the heart of an offense developed last season that was No. 1 in the league after Jan. 1 — and then have Gobert and Russell out there together as much as possible, ensuring 48 minutes of firepower if the groups were staggered correctly. The Wolves, however, ranked 16th on defense in that span, and in their playoff loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, rebounding was a major thorn. In narrow losses in Games 5 and 6, the Wolves were outrebounded by a combined 28 boards. Gobert led the NBA in rebounding last season. As the hours passed and the Wolves mulled this move, they fell more and more in love.

– via Brian Windhorst @ ESPN

goes from the #1 offense last season to the #1 offense after the Jazz injuries started to come. I thought they were 10th in D last year? Must've been great the 1st half?

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Eric Walden: Malik Beasley (left ankle sprain) did not practice for the Jazz today. Udoka Azubuike (ankle surgery) was a full participant in practice.

– via Twitter tribjazz

Dok is back!