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Utah Jazz Roster Analysis: Steve Novak, Carrick Felix, and Jeremy Evans are the only second rounders on the roster

The Utah Jazz are a team built mostly from the draft, and beyond that, mostly with 1st round picks for the first time in team history. Let's take a look at what they have.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Having crunched all the numbers I am left with the sense that the Utah Jazz have:

  • the fewest second rounders in recent memory, ever;
  • and slightly more efficient players who have very small sample sizes.
The Jazz have only three second rounders on the roster right now in Steve Novak (#32), Carrick Felix (#33), and Jeremy Evans (#55). I broke down those positions in greater detail earlier. And just for fun, I'm including Jernell Stokes (#35) here as well as some people are not quite ready to move on. (We all grieve at our own pace) Anyway, on their own these guys don't look like much.

2014_2015_offseason_roster_analysis_-_32_33_35_55_jazz_players

However, against the last forty years you see the value of our guys. The average is here, and really, it's bumped up because of huge playing time discrepancies.

2014_2015_offseason_roster_analysis_-_32_33_35_55_forty_avg

The only real solace is that, well, in the last decade the 2nd rounders haven't been that amazing.

2014_2015_offseason_roster_analysis_-_32_33_35_55_decade_avg

Sure, the #35 looks great right now, but the larger sample size shows us that just because there are a few guys like Glen Davis, DeAndre Jordan, and Draymond Green doesn't mean that everyone is going to be a solid rotation player.

Is there anything to really discover here? Well, against all the other players in their respective draft classes, and draft picks our three guys don't have a lot of experience. Even Novak, the most hardened guy, he only plays 12.8 mpg for his career, while the average for the last 40 years of #32 picks is 18.3 mpg. The feather in the cap of the Jazz is that Felix and Evans are efficient players right now. Efficiency like theirs is supposed to go down with a larger role. Time will tell if they will.

At the end of the day, the Jazz will rely on second rounders the least they ever have in recent memory. And the second rounders on the roster right now don't look like game changers either. So that makes sense. (Of course, we need to revisit this when Raul Neto comes on board . . . but until that time . . . )

It's almost comical to do an analysis like this. And if we are looking at the big picture the one take away is that I clearly need more sleep.

The analysis of the first rounders will start tomorrow.