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The Utah Jazz suffered through a 25 win season in 2013-14 and were rewarded with the #5 draft pick, one of their two 1st rounders. Utah picked Dante Exum and Rodney Hood. The Jazz traded away their #35 pick, Jarnell Stokes, under the official pretense that the team did not wish to carry three rookies this season. As fate would have it the team has played 9 rookies this season. Furthermore, the team currently carries 7 of them into the off-season.
You can argue that some of our rookies should be in contention for the All-NBA rookie teams, though I don't expect them to be recognized as such. With 9 people here you basically have enough for two All-Jazz rookie teams. Instead of ranking them I decided to have two team leaders, and then go alternating picks to make these teams. The point is to find out which team is better, because that's supposed to be fun.
The team that picks first, well, picks first. The team that picks second gets the extra player -- and thus has a sub to play in the hypothetical 4 on 4 game. Dante gets first pick because his #5 draft spot was higher than the #23 for Rodney.
Team Dante | Team Rodney | ||
1 | Joe Ingles | - | Elijah Millsap |
2 | Jack Cooley | - | Bryce Cotton |
3 | Patrick Christopher | - | Grant Jerrett |
4 | Jerrelle Benimon |
So what do these teams look like?
Team Dante has played more this season, but mainly just two guys. They are a little out-gunned and very pass happy. Team Rodney has a lot of aggressive players, but no real bigman.