FanPost

Improving through Free Agency, Draft, or both?

Mo Williams, Randy Foye, Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll are Jazz type guys, therefore I wouldn’t be surprised if most if not all 4 FA were re signed this offseason. Al Jefferson is a great guy and nice piece on offense but his huge contract and defensive skills hinder us from taking it to the next level.

If Millsap isn’t wiling to come off the bench and we decide not to re up on Al, I would target Jarrett Jack, David West and JJ Hickson in free agency to backup Mo, Favs and Kanter.

Assuming West and Hickson aren’t interested in becoming 2nd unit guys I would target Trey Burke (PG), Tony Mitchell (PF), and Dewayne Dedmon (C) in the upcoming draft.

I think taking the free agency path provides more of a win now environment whereas landing the mentioned talent in the draft allows us the flexibility to provide pay raises to our current youngsters while developing talent for the future. With a young talented core, we might be able to land a legitimate All Star caliber player in 2-4 yrs if Hayward, Favors or Kanter fail to meet that level of expectation.

Ideally I would do a mixture of the 2. I would pick up Jarrett Jack in FA and draft Burke. If Foye was unhappy letting Mo walk, I would re sign Korver to backup Burks. at SF I would stay put with Hayward and Carroll. David West is playing better than Millsap and Favors this season but at 31 might be willing to follow Favors off the bench more than Millsap is willing to? If not, I pick up Tony Mitchell or Alex Poythress. and finally at Center I would test the waters with JJ Hickson. He would be a steal at 6-8 Mil. If he warrants a higher pay raise or fails to buy in on the idea of backing up Kanter I would then draft DeWayne Dedmon as a 7 footer out of USC to develop behind Kanter.

Jack / T Burke
Burks / Foye or Korver / Murphy
Hayward / Carroll / Marvin
Favors / West (or Mitchell) / Evans
Kanter / Hickson (or Dedmon)


All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.