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SALT LAKE CITY — Mike Conley sat down with a sarcastic smile.
"How was y'all's summer?" the veteran point guard said.
Conley was back in a Jazz uniform for Monday's media day, taking pictures and answering questions. That was one of the few things that remained the same from the last time Conley was representing the Jazz at Vivint Arena in April.
Since then, the Jazz have completely overturned their roster. Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert are no longer on the team, and Utah has replaced them with a group of 14 new players. There's a new coach on the sideline and even new jersey designs.
Just about everything is different. No wonder Conley described the offseason as a roller-coaster ride.
Conley re-signed with the Jazz last summer in hopes of competing for a title. That now seems like a pipe dream, at best. Utah's front office torpedoed the roster over the summer as it traded in All-Stars for draft picks and brought in a group of younger players that may or may not be part of the long-term future of the franchise.
With mass changes comes new expectations. Not one player uttered "championship" on Monday during the parade of interviews, and only a few were brave enough to even hint at a playoff run.
So this season is less about wins and losses and more about establishing a culture and potential championship team could be built on.
"I want a team that competes. I want a team that cares about winning," new coach Will Hardy said. "I understand that there are individual aspects to playing at this level, but I want people that are solely focused on winning basketball games for the Utah Jazz."
He has a good roster to start with that; the Jazz have put together a group that general manager Justin Zanik said has a collective "chip on their shoulder."
It features one-time high-scoring players that have been essentially cast out by their former teams in Collin Sexton and Malik Beasley, and defensive stalwarts that were seen as expendable in Jarred Vanderbilt and Stanley Johnson. There's young players looking for a fair chance in the league, and veterans that have seen their value diminish.
It's a rag-tag group in a lot of ways.
"We see what everybody is saying about us," said Sexton, who was traded to Utah in the Mitchell deal. "But we want to go out here and prove people wrong and also show ourselves that we can do it."
Do what exactly? That remains to be seen.
"I'm never gonna put a ceiling on a group before we play a game," Hardy said. "So I think the first thing we need to do is just get to work. Get to know this team, have them get to know each other better, and go from there."
The players themselves are hopeful they will outperform projections that have them winning around 24-26 games this season.
"We're not like baby youth, we're good youth," said Johnson, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers. "I think a lot of guys have had a couple of years in the league and a lot of guys have played well in the league."
Sexton averaged nearly 25 points in his last healthy season (he is fully healthy again entering training camp); Beasley averaged nearly 20 points during the 2020-21 season; Vanderbilt is widely known as a top perimeter defender; Talen Horton-Tucker played 20 minutes per night on a championship-winning Lakers team.
"I wouldn't call these guys established players whatsoever," Johnson said.
Some, though, will be fighting for their NBA lives.
Udoka Azubuike, Jared Butler and Nickeil Alexander-Walker are all on the last years of their contracts and see this season as a chance to carve out a role in the NBA.
"I can't put into words how big it is right now," Azubuike said of this upcoming season.
Throw in some rookies — Ochai Agbaji, Walker Kessler and 26-year-old Italian star Simone Fontecchio — and the Jazz will have some "baby youth" as well. And some decisions to make.
The Jazz enter camp with 18 guaranteed contracts and will have to cut that down to 15 by mid October. They can do that by waiving players, reaching buyout agreements or by trade.
That means the roller coaster might not be done yet.
"I think, mentally, I'm cool with the uncertainty," Jordan Clarkson said. "… All I can do is put the jersey on and go compete, and that's what I'm gonna do."
Clarkson and Conley are the two remaining players that played a significant role for last season's Jazz team. Conley said he was happy to play a mentor role, especially considering how much his family has enjoyed being in Utah —though he said he wouldn't close the door on a move to a contender if it came available.
As for veteran forward Rudy Gay, he said he's hoping for a chance to prove his worth once again after falling out of Quin Snyder's rotations last season.
"I came here to play. I want to play," Gay said. "Imagine you (media) coming in here and not being able to ask questions. That's how I felt last year."
So as of now, the Jazz are a team of established younger players, rookies eager for an opportunity, and veterans who still want to play at a high level.
While there seems to be a lot of individual motivations on his team, Hardy thinks it can all come together.
"They're a really energetic group. I would say there's a collective toughness," he said. "We have a lot of guys that have a chip on their shoulder, and I think that's really powerful to have guys that are competitive and feel like they have something to prove."
Powerful enough to win a lot of games? Probably not. Powerful enough to be competitive and fun?
If they can do that, the new expectations will be met.
