Utah Jazz waive Saben Lee

According to Tony Jones, the Utah Jazz have waived Saben Lee.

With the Jazz roster having over 15 players, it’s not surprising. Lee had some highlight dunks in the recent Jazz scrimmage, but there haven’t been a lot of reasons to expect the Jazz to keep him on the roster. It appears the Jazz are keeping two types of players this season, players with trade value or players they’re hoping to develop. Obviously, Lee didn’t fall under one of those categories.

It’s also interesting to consider the Bojan Bogdanovic trade after this news. The Jazz received Saben Lee and Kelly Olynyk in the move, so it looks like Olynyk for Bogdanovic is the end result. It would have been nice to get more, but the Jazz have also been dealing with a deadline to end the season. All things considered, there’s two ways to look at that trade. The first, and obvious observation, the Jazz made a move to fill a hole in the roster and didn’t get equal value back.

But there’s also something else to consider from this. Was this actually the first move the Jazz made to make sure they position themselves better in the draft? It certainly makes sense considering all the recent hype surrounding Victor Wembanyama. When you consider the Jazz had to trim their roster, and be bad enough this season to lose the right amount of games, the Detroit Pistons likely took advantage of the Jazz with this trade and didn’t have to give them a pick to make it happen. It’s unfortunate, but it makes sense.

Tony Jones also mentioned the Jazz are making roster moves. We’ll likely see more soon, including the signing of Micah Potter.