Count down to media day -- player highlights

[Miggs]

Gotta love Royce O’Neal. Great follow on Instagram. One of the highlights of the summer was the video of him skipping down the court during a JR Jazz tour and hitting a three on a bunch of kids trying to guard him. It just looked like so much fun. He seems so genuine and he’s a stud.

Locked on Jazz was really good today and very complimentary towards Royce (see above quote). He talked about how he finished the playoffs playing 30 minutes a game and might be ready to do that. I’ve also heard him say O’Neal probably benefitted the most from having Korver in the locker room as they became shooting buddies and his three point shot has improved.

He’s also on the verge of making $40+ million. I’d hate to see him out of a Jazz uniform, but would be so happy for him.

I’m just a huge Royce O’Neal fan.

Another great moment was when TNT was talking about him and they were like “I’ve never heard of this guy” and Shaq deadpanned “He’s my son. I know it’s spelled different, but he’s my son.”



Sent from my iPhone using JazzFanz mobile app

A huge fan but you can’t even spell his name right? It’s O’Neale.

 

[Miggs]

Apparently he's been working very hard over the summer.

From Locke:
"Royce O'Neale has worked incredibly hard. There's no one they're talking about more, about how hard he worked, than Royce O'Neale. I mean he was evidently in every day, and put in the work every day. He's been in the building more than any other player on the roster. He is...incredibly physical shape right now. He is a brick at 6'6" and he is developing his game and becoming a better player and he is a free agent."

Extend him now please. Can we?

 

[infection]

Extend him now please. Can we?

I don’t believe so. I think to extend him you’d have to use cap space (to extend at a fair value) and we don’t have enough to offer what he’d command.

 

[Miggs]

Not sure how but I’d love to get a real badass on this team. PJ Tucker or someone like that who no one wants to **** with.

 

[infection]

Not sure how but I’d love to get a real badass on this team. PJ Tucker or someone like that who no one wants to **** with.

Marcus Morris. Maybe next year! He’s a FA and we have MLE. Of course, him bailing on SAS is probably a no-go for us (if he wasn’t already).

 

[Jazz Spazz]

We need preseason games right now!

 

[NUMBERICA]

What’s Aaron Gordon’s playoffs resume?

Bojan actually has one. And his performances against Lebron actually speak to his usefulness against the forwards you mention.

Getting those forwards out of the paint (on defense) is perhaps the major ingredient to neutralizing them (to some degree) on that end. Bojan would definitely do this better than AG. (And this is only one way that Bojan was effective against Lebron).

This doesn’t have to be a debate about one or the other. The hope would be to have BOTH. The Jazz are lacking certainty at the starting 4, and the list of players that could conceivably guard 5 positions in a pinch, can protect the rim (and has the athleticism to conceivably guard the corners AND be a threat on the weak side), has size and athleticism to be a headache, can hit open threes, can hit the open man, and is an okay playmaker is, like, what... less than five players? Three? One?

But yeah, I want both.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Marcus Morris. Maybe next year! He’s a FA and we have MLE. Of course, him bailing on SAS is probably a no-go for us (if he wasn’t already).

No thank you... If it was just Marcus Morris the basketball player and he didn't have to be in the locker room and around the team then maybe.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I don’t believe so. I think to extend him you’d have to use cap space (to extend at a fair value) and we don’t have enough to offer what he’d command.

We can extend him now. We can go up to 11-12M per season (it is the average player salary and the amount fluctuates year-to-year). It is a somewhat new CBA item put in a few years ago. Norman Powell in Toronto and Josh Richardson in Miami received deals under the provision.

I think Dinwiddie also received his extension under the provision and they had to do so prior to December 15th. So I think we have some time.

There is a chance we can use cap space next year so they may want to hold off, but if he was willing to accept 6-8M per year over 4 years I'd rather just get that done. I don't see Royce getting more than MLE unless he goes bonkers. 4/30M with some incentives that push it to 4/32M seems fair to me... but I think some would think that way too high.

 

[NAOS]

This doesn’t have to be a debate about one or the other. The hope would be to have BOTH. The Jazz are lacking certainty at the starting 4, and the list of players that could conceivably guard 5 positions in a pinch, can protect the rim (and has the athleticism to conceivably guard the corners AND be a threat on the weak side), has size and athleticism to be a headache, can hit open threes, can hit the open man, and is an okay playmaker is, like, what... less than five players? Three? One?

But yeah, I want both.

Whom are we sending out in the trade to match salaries in this trade? The options that include keeping Bojan, Conley, and Gobert would mean that Orlando was essentially salary-dumping AG for our nickels + Royce (I’m assuming he’d be in the deal), right? Oh, and we don’t currently have good draft capital, so that basically means we’d be out bid by a large number of teams in a salary-dump move.

This is all off-the-top-of-the-head. I’d love to be shown a realistic path to acquiring AG.

 

[NAOS]

We can extend him now. We can go up to 11-12M per season (it is the average player salary and the amount fluctuates year-to-year). It is a somewhat new CBA item put in a few years ago. Norman Powell in Toronto and Josh Richardson in Miami received deals under the provision.

I think Dinwiddie also received his extension under the provision and they had to do so prior to December 15th. So I think we have some time.

There is a chance we can use cap space next year so they may want to hold off, but if he was willing to accept 6-8M per year over 4 years I'd rather just get that done. I don't see Royce getting more than MLE unless he goes bonkers. 4/30M with some incentives that push it to 4/32M seems fair to me... but I think some would think that way too high.

I would lovvvvve to see this get done.

 

[NUMBERICA]

Whom are we sending out in the trade to match salaries in this trade? The options that include keeping Bojan, Conley, and Gobert would mean that Orlando was essentially salary-dumping AG for our nickels + Royce (I’m assuming he’d be in the deal), right? Oh, and we don’t currently have good draft capital, so that basically means we’d be out bid by a large number of teams in a salary-dump move.

This is all off-the-top-of-the-head. I’d love to be shown a realistic path to acquiring AG.

That’s the big question. But it’d basically be a kitchen-sink scenario and that’s if a couple of variables also go just right (basically that Exum has to be good, Orlando has to be bad enough, and Gordon would want out). See if taking some protection off the pick owed to Memphis in later years would permit the Jazz to send an unprotected 2020 1st to satisfy the Stepien rule (if even possible), a bevy of pick swaps, 2nds, Royce, and whatever other salary (Davis if necessary).

All that being said, I would seriously, seriously consider trading anyone that isn’t Gobert or Mitchell if it came down to that as well.

But yes, it is a fringe possibility. But so was what happened this offseason.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

This doesn’t have to be a debate about one or the other. The hope would be to have BOTH. The Jazz are lacking certainty at the starting 4, and the list of players that could conceivably guard 5 positions in a pinch, can protect the rim (and has the athleticism to conceivably guard the corners AND be a threat on the weak side), has size and athleticism to be a headache, can hit open threes, can hit the open man, and is an okay playmaker is, like, what... less than five players? Three? One?

But yeah, I want both.

Gordon is a pipe dream doe... we don't have the assets, contracts, etc. to make it happen. I also don't think Gordon would be cool going full Draymond, so he may not play the role we want... think he still wants to be more like Paul George and he's not good enough to be that type of player.

There may be guys available in season, but for stretchy 4s I think we are fine with Green, Royce, Bojan, Niang. If a better option comes up for cheap then I'm all for upgrading. I could see Aminu, Bjelica or Ariza, Davis Bertans (not athletic, but a shooter), Thad Young (if Chicago decides its young bigs need more playing time)… if San Antonio sucks and wants to move some parts then Gay and Carroll are guys I'd have interest in.

Younger guys that could become available - Hernangomez, Saric… honestly don't think either guy is an upgrade over playing Royce/Green/Bojan/Niang at the 4.

I think we are good and the obvious upgrades are likely too spendy. Jae Crowder was not very good as a small ball 4 and we killed with him on the court... Adding in Conley to that mix will make it even better. A low usage guy like Royce works so well with that group and shifts minutes from Ingles to Royce, which I think is a good thing. Green is likely the starter though... and I think he gives us a solid 15 minutes per night in that role.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I would lovvvvve to see this get done.

Me too... only downside is eating up cap space and if Conley bailed on us we'd have some room to operate. I think we have to operate as though Conley is staying and we will only have the MLE available next season. So go ahead and extend Royce.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Whom are we sending out in the trade to match salaries in this trade? The options that include keeping Bojan, Conley, and Gobert would mean that Orlando was essentially salary-dumping AG for our nickels + Royce (I’m assuming he’d be in the deal), right? Oh, and we don’t currently have good draft capital, so that basically means we’d be out bid by a large number of teams in a salary-dump move.

This is all off-the-top-of-the-head. I’d love to be shown a realistic path to acquiring AG.

Just to get the salary it'd have to be Dante/Davis and parts or Ingles and parts or Bojan. If they suck and are rebuilding then they want young players and assets... Joe/Bojan could be flipped to other teams for picks... but I just see both of those guys as more valuable to us than to other teams.

If they wanted to move AG I'd think they'd have several very appealing packages and our scraps would be a pile of meh to them.

 

[NAOS]

Just to get the salary it'd have to be Dante/Davis and parts or Ingles and parts or Bojan. If they suck and are rebuilding then they want young players and assets... Joe/Bojan could be flipped to other teams for picks... but I just see both of those guys as more valuable to us than to other teams.

If they wanted to move AG I'd think they'd have several very appealing packages and our scraps would be a pile of meh to them.

Precisely

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

If you look at what we need from a 4 Royce provides a lot of it. There are some additional features that would be nice to have but the price is gonna be steep to get those. There is not a creation deficiency anymore so bringing on more guys that want to use possessions is going to have some diminishing returns.

 

[NUMBERICA]

Me too... only downside is eating up cap space and if Conley bailed on us we'd have some room to operate. I think we have to operate as though Conley is staying and we will only have the MLE available next season. So go ahead and extend Royce.

The other part is free agency next offseason is trash so what is real cap worth anyway.

 

[infection]

The other part is free agency next offseason is trash so what is real cap worth anyway.

I think we’re at a point where we put all our eggs in this basket and just got for MLE.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

The other part is free agency next offseason is trash so what is real cap worth anyway.

I think we’re at a point where we put all our eggs in this basket and just got for MLE.

I think it is likely we get more value in the MLE market too... no need to overspend on someone that is considered a tier above the MLE guys.