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The Utah Jazz self-disclosed that they will be holding a free agent mini-camp which will start tomorrow, and last till the weekend. Some of the details can be found on the nba.com mothership site here. All of these guys were not on playoff rosters, or finished the season on a roster in the NBA. As a result, this is WHY the Jazz can hold this camp now, and not have to wait until later on after the cap is reset on July 1st, 2013. As you probably know the Jazz really don't have anyone on the roster right now. Our entire 2013-2014 team is: Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward, Jeremy Evans, Enes Kanter, Alec Burks, and Marvin Williams (we're assuming Marvin doesn't use his ETO now that he's injured and will miss all of training camp and a few weeks of the season). Bringing in 24 guys isn't a bad move for the Jazz as we need people, period.
The Jazz will be working out four full-time PGs, 10 wing players, and 10 bigmen. Of this group, only seven have NBA experience (Travis Leslie, Jermaine Taylor, Lazar Hayward, D.J. Kennedy, Chris Wright, Henry Sims, and Luke Zeller). And of those guys, only three of them were even drafted. So -- these guys aren't guys you are going to build your franchise around. Still, they have their value. First of all, none of them are YOUNGER than our Cowabunga Four. So that's good. Many of them played over-seas and they will be, at the very least, training camp fodder.
So here's the list -- broken up by position.
| Draft | Last | 2012-2013 Season | ||||||||||||||||
| Name | POS | Age | Ht | Wt | College | Rnd | Pk | Yr | Team | League | G | MPG | PPG | RPG | APG | |||
| 1 | Cedric Jackson | @CedJackson9 | PG | 27 | 6 | 3 | 209 | Cleveland St. | - | - | 2009 | Skycity Breakers | Australia | 33 | 30.4 | 14.3 | 5.9 | 6.8 |
| 2 | Marquez Haynes | PG | 26 | 6 | 3 | 185 | Texas Arlington | - | - | 2010 | Art Dragons | Germany | 6 | 27.2 | 8.5 | 2.3 | 2.5 | |
| 3 | Dee Bost | @3DeeBost | PG | 23 | 6 | 2 | 176 | Mississippi St. | - | - | 2012 | Buducnost | Montenegro | 54 | 21.5 | 8.3 | 3.0 | 1.8 |
| 4 | Jorge Gutierrez | PG | 24 | 6 | 3 | 194 | California | - | - | 2012 | Canton Charge | NBA DL | 43 | 31.3 | 10.5 | 4.9 | 4.7 | |
| 5 | Edwin Jackson | @edjacks | SG | 23 | 6 | 3 | 201 | France (INT) | - | - | 2011 | ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne | France | 36 | 29.9 | 15.9 | 3.4 | 3.0 |
| 6 | Rodney Green | @rodneygreen10 | SG | 24 | 6 | 5 | 205 | La Salle | - | - | 2010 | Novipiu Casale | Italy | 28 | 32.3 | 18.2 | 4.1 | 1.8 |
| 7 | Harouna Mutombo | @HMutombo22 | SG | 6 | 5 | 200 | West Carolina | - | - | 2012 | KB Peja | Kosovo | ||||||
| 8 | Will Buford | SG | 23 | 6 | 6 | 220 | Ohio St. | - | - | 2012 | Bluesens Monbus | Spain | 31 | 14.2 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 0.5 | |
| 9 | Travis Leslie | @FlightLeslie23 | SG | 23 | 6 | 4 | 205 | Georgia | 2 | 47 | 2011 | Santa Cruz Warriors | NBA DL | 36 | 27.3 | 15.4 | 6.9 | 2.1 |
| 10 | Jermaine Taylor | @jtaylor8ball | SG | 26 | 6 | 4 | 209 | Central Florida | 2 | 32 | 2009 | Maine Red Claws | NBA DL | 8 | 32.4 | 24.4 | 3.4 | 1.9 |
| 11 | Toure Murry | @toure_murry | SG | 24 | 6 | 5 | 200 | Wichita St. | - | - | 2012 | Rio Grande Valley Vipers | NBA DL | 46 | 23.5 | 8.3 | 2.5 | 2.8 |
| 12 | Chris Roberts | @23Croberts24 | SG | 25 | 6 | 4 | 205 | Bradley | - | - | Austin Toros | NBA DL | 42 | 33.0 | 14.4 | 4.2 | 2.3 | |
| 13 | Lazar Hayward | @LazarHayward11 | SF | 26 | 6 | 6 | 225 | Marquette | 1 | 30 | 2010 | Los Angeles Defenders | NBA DL | 14 | 31.6 | 15.9 | 8.0 | 2.2 |
| 14 | D.J. Kennedy | @bigplaydj1 | SF | 23 | 6 | 6 | 215 | St. John's | - | - | 2012 | Rio Grande Valley Vipers | NBA DL | 49 | 37.4 | 16.6 | 7.7 | 5.1 |
| 15 | Drew Gordon | @xtraGORDONary32 | PF | 22 | 6 | 9 | 235 | New Mexico | - | - | 2012 | Dinamo Sassari | Italy | 47 | 25.2 | 9.7 | 7.4 | 1.0 |
| 16 | Rasid Mahalbasic | @Rasid11 | PF / C | 22 | 6 | 10 | 220 | Bosnia (INT) | - | - | 2012 | Asseco Prokom | Poland | 46 | 22.8 | 10.6 | 6.8 | 1.7 |
| 17 | Rick Jackson | PF | 24 | 6 | 9 | 235 | Syracuse | - | - | 2011 | Austin Toros | NBA DL | 48 | 25.7 | 10.8 | 10.0 | 1.1 | |
| 18 | Arinze Onuaku | @youngflashy21 | PF | 25 | 6 | 9 | 255 | Syracuse | - | - | 2010 | Canton Charge | NBA DL | 32 | 23.7 | 12.6 | 9.5 | 0.7 |
| 19 | Chris Wright | @SELF_MADEest89 | PF | 24 | 6 | 8 | 220 | Dayton | - | - | 2011 | Maine Red Claws | NBA DL | 39 | 35.1 | 18.3 | 9.2 | 2.0 |
| 20 | JaMychal Green | @Jmyke1 | PF | 22 | 6 | 8 | 220 | Alabama | - | - | 2012 | Austin Toros | NBA DL | 40 | 24.2 | 12.3 | 8.1 | 1.4 |
| 21 | Josh Owens | @j_cowens | PF | 24 | 6 | 8 | 245 | Stanford | - | - | 2012 | Idaho Stampede | NBA DL | 42 | 17.9 | 5.4 | 4.6 | 0.4 |
| 22 | Henry Sims | @H_Sims14 | C | 23 | 6 | 10 | 244 | Georgetown | - | - | 2012 | Petron Blaze Boosters | Philippines | 6 | 38.8 | 22.8 | 15.7 | 1.0 |
| 23 | Xavier Gibson | @zaygibson | C | 24 | 6 | 11 | 229 | Florida St. | - | - | 2012 | Panelefsinlakos | Greece | 23 | 14.3 | 6.4 | 2.9 | 0.4 |
| 24 | Luke Zeller | @LukeZeller40 | C | 26 | 6 | 11 | 244 | Notre Dame | - | - | 2012 | Phoenix Suns | NBA | 16 | 3.6 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.2 |
And yea, really, I have no stats on that Mutombo kid. First of all, he's Canadian -- so I can't expect him to be an assertive defender. So don't get your hackles up . . . I think the Jazz wish to remain "flexible" over this season, so they're trying to build an okay team on the cheap. Some of these guys could make our team next year. And this camp will help our team evaluate who we should be looking at.
That said, I want Travis Leslie on our team. I'd rather stick with Jerel McNeal as our 4th PG, and Kevin Murphy as our 7th wing, or whatever. I did discover anecdotal info on each of these guys -- but I don't think you guys would really care. (E.g. Sims played in the NBA, the NBA-DL, and finished last season in the Philippines)
It's going to be a good camp, and thank Dennis Lindsey for organizing this. Man, I was skeptical about the Lin-man, but after he wrangled up a busload of Jazz people to go to Chicago for the draft and now he's getting two 12 man rosters to go at each other for two-a-day practices in June . . . I feel a lot better about him. Sucks to be the former Jazz brass guys who used to just show up to work to play free cell on their computers then leave early to play golf. (Some of the off-the-record stuff you learn about NBA Gms and front office execs help you really understand how some teams are okay with being mediocre)