I've been thinking about this for several days now, and here's the patented "Colton off-season plan".
* Re-sign: Watson (hopefully for close to same salary, for 2 years max), AK (if he will really give the Jazz a SERIOUS discount, and not for more than 3 years)
* Let walk: Price, Elson, Fesenko
* Trade away: Bell, Miles (re-sign Miles for team option prior to trading)
* Trade for: #2 pick in the draft, using whatever it takes within reason to move up from #3
* Draft: Derek Williams, Jimmer Fredette
* Sign with MLE: Fairly good quality veteran wing player. I don't know who specifically, but presumably one of the guys listed here:
https://jazzfanz.com/showthread.php?5990-2011-NBA-Free-Agent-List. I bet we can get a pretty good SG/SF if we spend the whole MLE on him. The idea here is that this person can backup Hayward the 2 and possibly play minutes at the 3 if D. Williams is a complete bust there and if AK gets injured and/or pouty.
For the dollar amounts below I'm using salary numbers from
HoopsHype, and I'm assuming the MLE/cap/lux tax/rookie scale will all be same as last year. (Obviously, probably not true.)
12 players on roster:
Harris ($9.3 mill)
Watson (~$1.6 mill)
Fredette ($1.7 mill)
Hayward ($2.5 mill)
AK (~$6 mill)
Williams ($4 mill)
Evans ($0.8 mill)
Favors ($4.4 mill)
Millsap ($6.7 mill)
Jefferson ($14 mill)
Okur ($10.9 mill)
MLE guy ($5.8 mill)
Total salary: $67.7 million, which is safely below the luxury threshold of $70.3 million (and well above the salary cap of $58.0 million). If injuries strike, can still afford a cheap player or two to fill in. Next year Memo's salary comes of the books, so the Jazz are in good shape then.
Depth chart:
PG: Harris, Watson, Fredette (hopefully moving up to #2 PG before season is over)
SG: Hayward, MLE guy (or maybe #1 SG if better than Hayward right now), Fredette
SF: Williams, AK, MLE guy, Hayward
PF: Favors, Millsap, AK, Evans
C: Jefferson, Favors, Okur (hopefully healthy, in which case can be #1 or #2 center)
main wing rotation: Hayward, Williams, MLE guy, AK
main big rotation: Favors, Jefferson, Millsap, Okur
There you go. It's a team I would love to cheer for. Should be good right now, should be improving, and shouldn't be in serious salary cap trouble for the future. And doesn't have Bell, Miles, Price, Elson, or Fesenko, all of whom I've given up on.