SALT LAKE CITY — The NBA draft is just over a month away, and the futures of some of the best amateur and international basketball players will be decided by the teams that select them on draft night.

The Utah Jazz expect to be one of the busier teams on draft night, owning four draft picks between the 24th and 55th overall pick. Only the Philadelphia 76ers have more picks — five.

While the biggest question of the offseason revolves around whether or not the Jazz will be able to re-sign Gordon Hayward, much of their pitch to the free-agent star may depend on what they’re able to accomplish on draft night.

While the Jazz will surely not make any moves that would jeopardize their ability to bring back Hayward, they may try to improve the roster enough that the budding star would be enticed to stay, and also stay playoff competitive should he choose to leave.

With four picks (24, 30, 42, 55), the Jazz could look at adding depth to the existing roster while planting seeds for the future should a roster rebuild be necessary in the future.

A candidate for a future Jazz rebuild may be familiar to basketball fans in the state of Utah in the form of Duke guard Frank Jackson.

Jackson arrived at Duke by way of Lone Peak High School in Highland, Utah, where he was the 12th ranked prospect in the country by Rivals.com. A one-time BYU commit, Jackson held offers to most major college basketball programs in the country.

While a once highly-touted high school prospect declaring for the draft after just one season at Duke doesn’t sound out of the ordinary, Jackson’s decision to make the leap is one of the more interesting decisions in this year’s draft.

Unlike most one-and-done NBA prospects, Jackson wasn’t a star during his time at Duke. In fact, Jackson started fewer than half of his 36 career games with the Blue Devils, only locking in a starting spot over the team’s final eight games of the season.

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How locals Kuzma, Mika, Jackson fared at the NBA Draft Combine

Kyle Kuzma signed with an agent, Frank Jackson announced his own signing last Friday and Eric Mika’s decision to stay in the draft or return to BYU should be made within the next 10 days.

The former Lone Peak star opted to test the draft waters before fully committing to the next level by attending the NBA Combine without hiring an agent, leaving open the opportunity to return to Duke for his sophomore season. However, after a standout performance in day one of the combine, Jackson opted to hire an agent and lock in his future.

Jackson will now have to work out for NBA teams, hoping to lock in a spot as a first-round draft pick, guaranteeing a set contract for the first three years of his career. Currently, of the three major draft websites — draftexpress, nbadraft.net, and ESPN — only nbadraft.net has Jackson slated to be selected in the first round.

While being selected in the first round will be a matter of importance for Jackson, slipping to the second round won’t drastically impact his odds of making an NBA roster as a rookie. In the NBA’s newest collective bargaining agreement, teams will be allowed two additional roster spots, reserved for developmental league players, that will prevent other NBA teams from being able to sign the designated players as free agents.

If Jackson were to assume one of these roles, he’d earn roughly $75,000 in his first year, with a chance to make up to as much as $275,000, while being able to appear on both an NBA and D-League roster.

Enter a return to Utah.

The Jazz will have a litany of options as to how to best improve their roster on draft night, including simply making their four assigned picks; packing those picks together or with an existing roster player to acquire another player, or to move up in the draft, or to trade out of the draft altogether.

The most likely strategy will be to add an immediate impact player to the roster that could help the roster in year one and assume a bigger role as his career progressed. To do that, the Jazz would likely have to move up in the draft by packaging their first-round draft picks for one higher selection.

The Jazz could, however, choose to select more proven college players with picks 24 and 30, hoping to get rotation players to help the roster at a discounted price.

In either scenario, the Jazz could use their second-round picks with an eye for the future, hoping to select an unproven but higher potential player like Jackson, and stash him in the D-League.

As an athletic, shooting and slashing combo guard, Jackson may have a game better suited to the spacing of the NBA than it was for college. The Jazz could explore that potential by selecting Jackson in the second round, making a relatively small financial commitment to a long term project.

Though the Jazz have already spoken with Jackson at the NBA Combine, it’s likely several other franchises will prize Jackson on draft night, with the plan of developing him in their developmental systems.

If the Jazz were to highly value the former Utah prep star, they could choose to package their two second-round draft picks together to move to a higher pick in the second round to better their odds of Jackson being on the board, or simply select him with one of their first round picks.

While many doubted Jackson’s decision to leave Duke after his solid but mostly unremarkable freshman season, he’ll likely have the last laugh as the NBA will value players with his upside more and more with late first-round, and early second-round draft picks. Don’t be surprised if the Jazz opt to take a flier on the former hometown hero, hoping to find a steal with the Lone Peak product.

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