FanPost

Jazz Should Gamble and Draft Small

Despite rarely being accurate in predicting the Jazz draft picks, many in the media have speculated the jazz are to draft big. Players like Jeff Withey (Kansas) and Lucas Nogueira (Brazil) can be found on mock drafts across the web. One of the jazz' big weaknesses for essentially the last decade has been at shooting guard. Utah has not had a guy at the two slot who hasn't had a major crutch or someone who has possessed all star potential since Jeff Hornacek. Drafting a mediocre big man is certainly not taking the right step forward in turning into a legitimate playoff team again. Assuming Al leaves, the Jazz are actually perfectly set in the post, as minutes can be split 3 ways between Milsap, Kanter, and Favors (we all know Favors can spare a few minutes at 5 if necessary), not to mention the likelihood that the Jazz scoop up a minimum paid vet to play sparingly (like Nazr Mohammed does for Chi or Drew Gooden on Mil). With that said, I'm afraid that drafting a big guy could do two things: Screw up the rotation like it was last year and stunt Kanter's growth.

This draft has a lot of guards with good potential, although many of them are projected to go pretty high. There are afew guys who could slip that the Jazz could take a gamble on. First, is Tim Hardaway Jr. One of the best performers this past NCAA season who has seemed to be lost in discussion this off season. The son of the former great Tim Hardaway is a speedy, 6'6" guard who can run the floor well, shoot exceptionally, and has the athleticism to become an elite defender. Many draft boards don't have him going in the first round and Chad Ford has him falling all the way to 25.

The other pick that could fall to the Jazz is highly criticized Shabazz Muhammad. Muhammad is coming off one year at UCLA and as had the attention of NBA scouts for most of his youth and high school career. He has tremendous scoring skill but teams are terrified of his attitude and the 'scandal' that revealed his father lied about his age (by one year). Because of this, projections show he will trickle out of the lottery. Regardless if he falls to the Jazz, why not take a big gamble?

The only way the Jazz can quickly return to golden form is by hitting it big consecutively in the draft. Marking the first time of most likely a few more lottery picks to come in the draft in the coming years, the Jazz need to start taking chances on guards, a position they've lacked in for too long now.

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