Jazz future on the line this summer


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SALT LAKE CITY — After trading away Deron Williams in February of 2011, the Utah Jazz undertook an ambitious rebuilding process, hoping to turn a series of young players, and recently acquired assets into a championship contender.

Five years later, the Jazz have appeared in four playoff games, all losses, all coming in the wake of a once promising Western Conference Finals team.

Former Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor said the rebuild began after drafting Gordon Hayward and trading for Derrick Favor. Dennis Lindsey, the Jazz current general manager, took the process a step further, stripping the team of veteran players and placing the ball in the hands of his most promising young players.

So far, the results of the rebuild have been mixed.

A process designed to bring young stars to a city through the draft that otherwise couldn’t attract them in free agency has yielded promising young talent, though no can’t-miss superstars. The Jazz ability to develop the talent of Hayward and Favors is admirable, culminating in an Olympic team invite for Hayward ahead of the Rio Olympics, while Favors has become one of the best two-way players at his position in the league.

Lindsey has shown a knack for finding high-level talent late in the draft process, selecting starters in Rodney Hood and Rudy Gobert with the 23rd and 27th pick, respectively, in separate drafts. He’s signed financially prudent contracts for rotations players, signing Favors and Alec Burks at less than market value.

Ownership sacrificed a season of winning to get a high draft pick in the vaunted 2014 NBA draft. The Jazz landed the promising young Australian talents of Dante Exum, who followed up his selection with an intriguing, though statistically underwhelming, rookie season.

Now, it’s time for this rebuilding tree to bear fruit.

The NBA is full of seemingly promising rosters, but realizing the potential of those pieces is less common than their creation.

Whether it was the Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone and Gary Payton led Lakers, or the Deron Williams, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Joe Johnson led Brooklyn Nets, the NBA graveyard displays headstones with more promising teams than this current Jazz roster.

Now it’s on Lindsey, and head coach Quin Snyder to perfect a delicate balancing act.

Lindsey has been hesitant to alter the culture of the roster by adding more talented outsiders that could derail growing chemistry. He broke that trend by acquiring George HIll in exchange for the 12th pick in the most recent NBA draft. With Hill on the roster, Exum returning from injury, young talent in Trey Burke and Raul Neto, and an affordable team option to bring back Shelvin Mack, the Jazz are going to have to make more moves that could affect the team culture in the coming months.

Additionally, the Jazz will have nearly $30 million in salary to spend to this summer to improve the roster. Lindsey will have to add established talent to support proven players like Hayward and Favors, without disrupting the futures of developing young players like Exum, Hood, Gobert and Trey Lyles.

However, if the Jazz fail to add talent, they would risk stretching the rebuilding process beyond its viability, forcing a player like Gordon Hayward to sign with a different franchise next off season to join a winning culture, rather than hoping he continues to rely on the potential of an unproven roster.

According to sources around Jody Genessy of the Deseret News, Hayward “wants to win. He wants better talent around him after a 40-42 season left the team out of the playoffs for the fourth straight year.”

Essentially, if the Jazz want to to stay in the good graces of their best player, it’s time to get serious about winning.

This is the ultimate gamble of rebuilding. Starting over is easy, moving veteran players in order to lose games, and drafting young players takes little more than patience from ownership. But developing those players, then supporting them with more proven talent to win in the postseason is the hard part. For the Jazz, the hard part begins now.

Getting Alec Burks and Dante Exum back from injury helps, and the addition of George Hill shows promise of a team trying to get better. With the free agency period opening July 1, it’s time for the Jazz to make good on the promise they made when they began this rebuild in 2011.


![Ben Anderson](http://img.ksl.com/slc/2556/255612/25561254\.jpg?filter=ksl/65x65)
About the Author: Ben Anderson \------------------------------

Ben Anderson is the co-host of Gunther and Ben in the Afternoon with Kyle Gunther on 1320 KFAN from 3-7, Monday through Friday. Read Ben's Utah Jazz blog at 1320kfan.com, and follow him on Twitter @BenKFAN.

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