2017 Utah Jazz

Written by Paul Banks of the Washington Times, David Kay and Peter Christian of the The Sports Bank. Send Paul an e-mail here: paulb05 AT hotmail DOT com.
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Utah Jazz (Last Year: 51-31)

2017-18 Projected Depth Chart:

C: Rudy Gobert

PF: #Boris Diaw/Derrick Favors/Trey Lyles/Joel Bolomboy

SF: *Gordon Hayward/Joe Johnson

SG: Rodney Hood/Alec Burks

PG: Dante Exum/#Raul Neto

NBA Free Agents:

*SF-Gordon Hayward (PO)

#PF-Boris Diaw (TO)

#PG-Raul Neto (TO)

PG-George Hill (UFA)

F-Joe Ingles (UFA)

PG-Shelvin Mack (UFA)

C-Jeff Withey (UFA)

2017-18 Team Salary: Approximately $66.7 million

NBA Offseason Team Needs:

1. Re-sign Hayward: Hayward will certainly opt out of the final year of his contract and test the free agent market. It will be a priority for the Jazz to re-sign him, though it will come at a hefty price. Whatever the cost may be, Utah cannot afford to lose Hayward.

2. Point Guard: With both George Hill and Shelvin Mack free agents, Utah needs to figure out their point guard situation. Hill is 31 years old and was limited to 49 games last season, so the Jazz will have to decide if he is worth a long-term deal that could run north of $15 million per year or if they are better off looking elsewhere.

3. Shop Favors: Derrick Favors was hampered by injury this past season, and as a result, he took a pretty significant step backward in his production. Favors is entering the final year of his contract, which will pay him $12 million. The Jazz should shop him since they likely won’t be wanting to re-sign him to a long-term extension in the next year.