The Utah Jazz continue gearing up for the NBA Draft

The NBA Draft is just around the corner, and the Utah Jazz as busy as ever preparing for another draft day trade with the Nuggets to land that next star. Per usual, Dennis Lindsey is among the league leaders in the number of prospects he has brought in for a workout. HoopsHype has been keeping a running list of the players each team has brought in, which can be found here. These are the guys that have come to Utah so far:

Abudushalamu Abudurexiti, Grayson Allen, Rawle Atkins, Sedrick Barefield, Jaylen Barford, Keita Bates-Diop, Trevon Bluiett, Brian Bowen, Troy Brown, Jalen Brunson, Elijah Bryant, Jevon Carter, Kameron Chatman, Dwight Coleby, Angel Delgado, Donte DiVincenzo, Wenyen Gabriel, Dayon Goodman, Devon Hall, Mustapha Heron, Aaron Holiday, Jock Londale, Caleb Martin, Yante Martin, Jalen McDaniels, Chimezie Metu, Shake Milton, Matt Mobley, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, Malik Newman, Kenneth Ogbe, Theo Pinson, Shamorie Ponds, Malik Pope, Tyler Rawson, Ryan Richardson, Omari Spellman, Elijah Stewart, Khyri Thomas, Moritz Wagner, PJ Washington and Thomas Wilder.

Dennis Lindsey likes to workout as many guys as he can to have first-hand intel on any player that may or may not make it in the league. This type of tireless effort can make a significant difference, especially for a small market team like the Jazz.

He does his due diligence so he can find diamonds in the rough like Joe Ingles a few years ago, and Royce O’Neale last year. I’m excited to see what he and his team are able to accomplish at this year’s draft.

Speaking of Royce O’Neale, I don’t feel like he gets enough credit amongst Jazz fans, but especially around the league for how great of a rookie season he had. He was an undrafted rookie that apparently wasn’t supposed to be good enough to play in the NBA.

Then he found a role within Quin Snyder’s system as a solid defensive wing that made good basketball decisions. Suddenly, after some unfortunate injuries, he found himself starting for a team in the Western Conference semifinals and averaged over 10 points a game. He was an awesome story this year, and I think it’s worth your time to see his player recap on the Jazz website and watch his highlight reel from the season.

Theo Kamis gets our weekly FanPosts started off by talking about “My Favorite Year”:

The 2017-18 Utah Jazz was a classic and underrated team starring Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, that truly is my favorite year in NBA-watching, and that I highly recommend rewatching.

A previous Downbeat article asked us Jazz fans to select one favorite moment. But this season was so good, I just can’t do it.

I don’t even know if I can limit it to just five YouTube moments - but I’ll try.

BIGBABYJAM considers some Offseason Moves for the Jazz:

The Jazz are in a great spot right now. Stacked with a young core fresh off a second-round playoff appearance, things seem like they can only go up. But in order to climb the ladder in the West, the Jazz need to make moves this summer.

However, this may prove difficult for the organization, because as it sits right now, the Jazz may only have around $10 million in cap space.

The following is what I would do if I were in Dennis Lindsey’s seat (but thank the Lord I’m not).

And ADS_BRAKES wonders if Dennis Lindsey made a mistake this season:

was thinking a lot about how Dennis Lindsey seems to get almost everything right. Heading into the Draft, I can’t think of a GM I’d rather have pulling the strings. As a fanbase, we are almost expecting another Donovan Mitchell. Maybe not to the same degree as lightning rarely strikes twice but moreso a Royce O’Neale, Joe Ingles or Wes Matthews (credit KOC).

Obviously he isn’t perfect (no one is) but can anyone actually think of a significant mistake he has made this season? The Gordon Hayward saga was far from a mistake on his part as with Gordon we would actually have that missing piece. I’m sure someone will point out some other minor mistake but there really aren’t many.

The thing that springs to mind for me is Derrick Rose...

It wasn’t just the Jazz players here in the USA that had a great season. Nigel Williams-Goss, the Gonzaga guard that the Jazz selected with the 55th pick, also had a really successful season for the Serbian team Partizan. He averaged about 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists as the starting point guard in the ABA league. He then lead that team to the 2018 Korac Cup, being named MVP at the end. Eurohoops.net spoke with him and wrote a story about his professional basketball experience so far.

He was drafted by the Utah Jazz in the second round and then he did something that nobody expected. He signed with a traditional but struggling powerhouse, which raised many eyebrows.

However, as he explained to Eurohoops, his decision was almost a no-brainer: “I wanted to come to a traditional program that has a history of developing young players. And I knew the intensity of the game in Serbia that can help a young player like myself develope. So those were the main reasons for my choice to come to Europe and especially to Partizan. I was familiar with players who have started their career in Partizan, like Jan Vesely, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Nikola Pekovic who became a starter with the Minnesota Timberwolves. There’s a long line of players, going back even to names like Vlade Divac”...

“The whole experience is invaluable to me. After leaving college, I wanted to grow as a player and also as a person and I think that what happened was the best possible way in order for this to happen”.

So what’s next? Nigel Williams-Goss knows that if he continues to improve like he did this year, only good thing will happen.“I just want to continue my path and continue playing and growing. Obviously, if I return to the States and get a chance in the NBA, it will be great. I was drafted by the Jazz, so I know my NBA team. I am focused on my own game, on how I can improve and how I can get to the next level as a player”.

I hope he’s able to come back during the summer leagues so we can see his progression as a player. He may yet work his way onto a deep Jazz roster.

LeBron James has dragged another inferior roster to the NBA finals, which prodded The Ringer to write about and rank every teammate LeBron has ever carried to the finals. Several prior Jazzman made this list. I made a roster out of this group, and included their ranks:

• 7 Deron Williams, 11 Mo Williams
• 23 George Hill, 10 Kyle Korver, 29 Rodney Hood
• 14 Richard Jefferson, 57 Sasha Pavlovic
• 21 Donyell Marshall
• 33 Kendrick Perkins

Assuming each of these guys is in their prime, how many games would this team win and would they make it to the playoffs? How far could they go?