What to watch for in Utah during Thursday's NBA Draft


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SALT LAKE CITY — The NBA Draft is on ESPN Thursday at 5 p.m. Mountain time, and with it, the single busiest day of the year in the NBA begins. What's going on around Jazzland? Here's a quick primer.

Jazz searching for a point guard

On Wednesday, The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the Utah Jazz have inquired about Patrick Beverley, the defense-first point guard for the Houston Rockets. The Rockets would be looking to dump Beverley's salary ($5.5 million next season, a nonguaranteed $5 million in 2018-19) in order to get their name into free agent conversations come July.

Beverley isn't a talented scorer, but he's a decent enough shooter and may be the best point guard defender in the league. And that salary isn't bad at all for a player who contributes as much as Beverley.

The Jazz have a chance to get Beverley because of their cap space, which will expire at the end of June 30 thanks to Gobert's extension and the cap hold of their own free agents. Thus, the Jazz could acquire Beverley by only trading away picks, if the Rockets are so inclined.

Acquiring Beverley wouldn't necessarily be a replacement for George Hill, either. The Jazz could still bring Hill back and play them next to each other, realistically being able to form one of the best defensive backcourts in all of basketball. Beverley, of course, could also play backup PG minutes.

If the price is right, look for the Jazz to strike on this deal soon.

Update: Meanwhile, the Deseret News' Jody Genessy is reporting that the Jazz "have explored trading for point guard Ricky Rubio":

It seems quiet on the Jazz front, but I'm told they're "very active" in trying to package picks, current and future, to get a shooter. — Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) June 22, 2017

That being said, if there's less traction currently on Rubio, it may mean that Beverley is the preferred option.

More to come on this situation throughout the afternoon.

Do Jazz keep 4 picks?

The Jazz have four picks in the 2017 NBA Draft: No. 24, No. 30, No. 42 and No. 55.

But it's hard to imagine the Jazz keeping all of their picks. Four rookies is a lot for any team, and certainly for one that was one of the top five teams in the Western Conference last year. Furthermore, there's the aforementioned expiring cap space, which may behoove the Jazz to take in a veteran while trading one of their picks.

What picks will they keep? The strength of this year's draft is in its depth, so the Jazz will likely get a much better selection at 42 than they would in a normal year. Meanwhile, Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey told 1280 AM last week that "24 has very good market value around the league." That means he's been exploring deals, we'll see if one of them gets done.

Does Favors get traded?

It's not a secret that Derrick Favors' future in Salt Lake City might be short lived. Favors doesn't anticipate staying in Utah beyond this next season, partially due to his reduced role and partially just because of the economics of the situation. Favors is a free agent after this upcoming season, and his agent, Wallace Prather, said that "It's going to be difficult to commit to a $300 million frontcourt."

Favors listed his house on the market in Utah on Tuesday, KSL.com has learned. That may be unrelated to the draft and the trade season; Favors had also had it listed in the summer of 2016.

The Jazz are receiving "a lot of interest" in Derrick Favors, according to sources. — Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) June 22, 2017

So will Favors get traded Thursday? If the Jazz are going to trade him during the summer, the draft is one logical time to make a move. Whether or not they do likely depends on if they feel they can get a power forward in free agency or trade that can replace some of Favors' minutes next season.

Players the Jazz like

To give you an idea of how tight-lipped the Jazz are being about their preferences in this year's draft, look no further than Chad Ford's Big Board. Every single player on the board between 20 and 30 has the Jazz listed as a possible destination; in other words, Ford doesn't have any real sense who the Jazz like and don't like in this range. To be honest, neither do I.

There are a couple of hints. Walt Perrin, Jazz vice president of player personnel, said some very positive things about Utah forward Kyle Kuzma on KSL SportsBeat Sunday. Tony Bradley seems to be going higher in mock drafts to Utah than he is anywhere else, including being selected by David Locke at No. 24 in his Locked on NBA podcast and No. 30 in Chad Ford's mock. It's not clear if that's informed by a knowledge of what the Jazz are actually planning on doing of just the mockers' preferences.

There's the matter of D.J. Wilson. The Jazz have been reported to like him, and there was even a rumor that the Jazz had given a first-round guarantee to Wilson. The Jazz strongly denied that guarantee. Then, Chad Ford today said that he had heard that it was actually the Nets who had given a guarantee to Wilson, so then a league source denied that to NetsDaily. Regardless, there's more smoke here than there is with the other possible selections, so it's worth noting.

Finally, France's Mathias Lessort really dominated his workout with Utah, even against a very productive big man in Purdue's Caleb Swanigan. If Lessort is available at 42, I'd be surprised if the Jazz didn't take him, especially given that it seems likely that the Jazz could stash Lessort overseas for a couple of seasons to keep developing.

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Andy Larsen

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