The Downbeat: Vivint finishes latest renovations

It’s your Friday Downbeat, the Jazz are less than one moon cycle away from their season opener, Vivint Arena finished its latest round of renovations and somebody on the Jazz is about to get cut.

ESPN’s Rumor Central discussed who might be on the Utah Jazz’s roster bubble (they cite a Deseret News article in the piece). Raul Neto, Royce O’Neale and Joel Bolomboy are the three players who are listed as most likely to get cut.

It may be a toss-up as to who will get cut from the final roster. O’Neale’s 2017-18 contract is fully guaranteed, which could protect him for a year, even if coaches think he’s the least talented of the three on the bubble.

Raul Neto is the third point guard, but the Jazz have a handful of players (Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles) who could play spot minutes at point guard to fill in minutes not taken by Ricky Rubio and Dante Exum.

Bolomboy is fairly expendable. He’s the fourth power forward on the roster in a league where power forward is a very undervalued position. Despite some hometown love from fans, Bolomboy seems more likely to be on his way out than the other two.

For the fantasy basketball fans out there, Fansided released a breakdown of the Utah Jazz’s best fantasy prospects. There wasn’t much, but some players got some love. Here’s a summary of where Jazz players might get picked.

Early-round picks

• Rudy Gobert
• Ricky Rubio

Mid-round picks

• Rodney Hood

Late-round picks

• Derrick Favors
• Joe Ingles

Waiver-wire fodder

• Raul Neto
• Dante Exum
• Alec Burks
• Donovan Mitchell
• Thabo Sefolosha

If anyone is expecting any player on the Jazz to be a stat monster, they’ll probably find themselves lacking. Gobert and Rubio will likely find their way to 10/10 seasons (taking entirely different routes to that 10/10) but other than that, no one on the Jazz will be blowing up a stat sheet, which will unfortunately draw national attention even farther from the Jazz.

So this happened...

Vivint Arena is open again after it underwent what feels like a yearly renovation, keeping up with the Jones’ so to speak. But I think it’s really great that the Jazz are trying to keep the arena modern and giving the fans the best product they can.

Even Jerry Sloan was there to take a tour of the arena.

If you want to help out JP Gibson and his family, the Jazz just came out with these t-shirts.

It’s great to see all the support for this great young man.

This made my day.

If any of you are like me at all, you’ve been caught up in work, class (in my case) or life in general. The season felt so far away until I got this friendly reminder from the face of the Utah Jazz. I can hardly wait.