Shep Talk: Jazz stand pat, BYU rises up

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The NBA trade deadline came and went without the Utah Jazz making a deal. I was very outspoken that I believed the Jazz should make a move. I didn't want them to add a piece for this season; I wanted them to make a move that freed up playing time for the "young guys". To my dismay neither happened.

I was somewhat surprised to see CJ Miles and Raja Bell stay on this team passed the deadline. I was sure that the recent "situation" between Raja and head coach Ty Corbin would probably spell the end of Raja's second stint in Utah. I was also pretty sure that someone would see some value in CJ's potential and that the Jazz would jump all over shipping him out of town. Again, neither happened.

With the Jazz deciding to stand pat, it appears the team is looking toward the NBA Draft as an opportunity to make the biggest waves. If all goes like most of us assume it will, the Jazz will finish outside the playoffs and end up with another lottery pick. If the Jazz can get some help from Golden State, they might be able to snatch the Warriors lottery pick as well.

That would give Utah two lottery picks as well as the expiring contracts of Al Jefferson (15 million), Devin Harris (8.5 Million), Paul Millsap (7.2 Million) and Raja Bell (3.48 Million). Those contracts will be much more attractive during the draft and in the offseason.

Kevin O'Connor is all about assets and the Jazz may be in the best position of any NBA team to make those assets work for them. While I was hoping for a trade on Thursday, I can see the big picture too. The Jazz are now positioned to be a major player in the offseason. If they execute it right, they could be back in the playoffs very soon with a young core that's going to be around for a long time.

BYU rises up

I completely understand that most fans last memory of this BYU Basketball season will be losing to Marquette by 20 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. That's ok, that's was happened. What I hope fans will also remember is how impressive this season has actually been for the Cougars.

You can call me a homer, that fine. But when you look at everything that transpired for the Cougars this season and what they were trying to replace from last year (a guy named Jimmer Fredette) this was one of Dave Rose's best coaching jobs.

BYU came into the season not only trying to replace Fredette, the National Player of the Year and their point guard; they also had to find a way to replace the team's best defender in Jackson Emery. Dave Rose implemented a new point guard in Matt Carlino a month and a half into the schedule. The Cougars left the familiarity of the Mountain West Conference for the unknown of the WCC. Injuries also played a big role this season as Chris Collinsworth basically missed the whole year and BYU's best shooter, Stephen Rogers, missed a major chunk of the season with a knee injury.

#poll

With all of those variables working against BYU, the Cougars went 26-9 and won a game in the NCAA Tournament. This is now six years in a row where BYU has won at least 25 games. That's impressive no matter who you are.

Of course the Cougars shouldn't be satisfied with just winning a game in the tourney. The goal every year is to win it all. My hope for BYU fans is that they realize just how good this team was and how good BYU is likely going to be in the future. There are tons of college basketball teams that would kill for the season BYU had.

On a personal note, I can't tell you how much fun it has been to be involved with this team this season in terms of the broadcasting side of things. I'm really looking forward to next season.