Shelvin Mack Finalizing a Two-Year, $12 Million Dollar Contract With Orlando

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Shelvin Mack is officially on the move.

It looks like yet another member of the 2016-2017 Utah Jazz roster will be moving on to another team. This means the Jazz officially have 12 players under contract, leaving essentially five more roster spots to fill when including the new spaces for designated G-League players. Tony Bradley will likely fill one of these five spots, and we may see the return of Jeff Withey if the price is right. Further coverage on this site concerning the state of the Utah Jazz will come over the next week. As for now, let’s say goodbye to a player that caused a lot of emotions.

Shelvin Mack was a stop-gap point guard for us in the 2014-15 season, when we needed one the most. Dante Exum was injured, Trey Burke was a poor fit for the Jazz’ play style, and Raul Neto simply hadn’t completely developed yet. Shelvin was a step up from what we had, and helped us (unsuccessfully) pander to one of our former player’s affinity for his college experience. On the court, Shelvin brought a toughness that the team lacked at the guard position, and this toughness was contagious to the whole team. Some players who lacked toughness before, in my opinion, began to show a little more fight.

Not only did Shelvin help the team when we needed him most, but he bolstered our bench after he was no longer the starter after the draft-day trade for George Hill. After the trade deadline of the 2016-17 season, it was made known by media members that Shelvin had hoped to have been traded, and yet, Shelvin showed his professionalism and put on some great performances in key games late in the season that helped us find some of our biggest successes as a team.

While there may be debates pertaining to how much of an overall contribution Shelvin was capable of giving our team, he was arguably the best option we had. He did what we needed him to do, and he should be respected and commended for that.

Shelvin tweeted congratulations to a particular former player for his new contract with the Boston Celtics, and many Jazz fans interpreted the message as a slight to the Jazz. Regardless of whether it really was meant as a slight or not, I believe Shelvin should receive a respectful goodbye from Jazz Nation. He was like Yellowstone’s “Old Faithful”: not the most impressive geyser in the park, but you consistently knew what you were going to get from him. There is a value to that.

So, from SLCDunk and Jazz Nation, we respectfully thank Shelvin Mack for his services in the Blue, Gold and Green, and we wish him the best for his future in Orlando.