Donovan Mitchell still talking with Paul George

While it remains highly unlikely that Paul George brings his talents to the Beehive State, some remain hopeful. One Utah Jazz fan tweeted at Donovan Mitchell, asking him if he was planning on meeting with George (presumably to recruit him). To which Mitchell replied.

Again, this is unlikely to yield immediate results. However, this is one of the things that tends to go under the radar sometimes. Stars communicate with each other and what has happened in the modern NBA is that these budding friendships turn into stars joining forces on one team. Hopefully this kind of networking will pay off with a superstar trio in Utah down the road.

On Wednesday Utah’s sole draft selection, Grayson Allen, was officially introduced to the media and Jazz organization. Yesterday, he received a welcome from fans.

Eric Woodyard of the Deseret News wrote about the event. The article includes some comments from a couple of fans Woodyard spoke with. One topic in particular was Allen’s reputation as a dirty player, which has some fans still on the fence about Utah’s decision to select him at No. 21.

Woodyard said there were a “few hundred” people at the event. Some were Duke fans...

...others were just excited to welcome the newest member of the team.

Our very own Andy Bailey wrote about how Utah is the “best free agent destination” LeBron James would not consider. If you haven’t read it, here it is.

The reason I bring that up is because FiveThirtyEight did an analysis on which team LeBron James should choose to join (or stay with).

Their statistical algorithms produced two main numbers: the likelihood LeBron would win a championship with a given team (as a percentage), and the “Legacy Score,” meaning how much it would impact his overall career legacy (ex: joining the Warriors would essentially be suicide for his legacy whereas staying in Cleveland would help it).

The Jazz showed up on the radar of teams that would be a good selection and they even had one of those fancy graphs.

The writer of this article basically said the same thing Andy did.

If the Lakers are being overvalued as a destination for James, the Jazz are undervalued. LeBron and his people don’t seem to be even entertaining offers from Utah — not that we’d expect them to — but they should be. If James joins the Jazz, which he could do as a free agent if Utah finds takers for veterans such as Ricky Rubio, Jae Crowder and Jonas Jerebko in separate trades, he’d find himself surrounded by rising young star Donovan Mitchell and reigning defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert — making for an underrated Big Three — plus some intriguing supporting pieces such as Joe Ingles and Royce O’Neale.

The Jazz released their official mini-camp roster for the Summer League. Games will begin Monday, July 2.

A couple of names stand out to me in terms of interest, Jairus Lyles and Kelan Martin.

All of us remember Jairus Lyles right? Probably not unless I mention his role in helping the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers become the first 16 seed in NCAA Tournament history to beat a 1 seed this past March.

The then-senior scored a game-high 28 points in the Retrievers’ 74-54 win over Virginia in the opening round.

Martin was also a participant in March Madness this year, leading Butler to the Round of 32. The 6’7” forward was the team’s leading scorer on the season and perhaps most interesting is that he reportedly has a 7’3” wingspan, which is about as crazy a wingspan for a 6’7” dude as Rudy Gobert’s 7’9” wingspan is for a 7’1” man.

In the random tidbit of the day, Carlos Boozer tells us a story about renting out his L.A. home to a certain famous person. I found it rather interesting.