https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2685500-155/kragthorpe-utah-jazz-shouldnt-create-own
Skipping to the end of the story, we all know how NBA free agency will play out for the Jazz.
No high-profile player with sign with them, and then the Jazz publicly will rationalize that the costs were too high, the team is built for internal improvement and they'll have money to spend next summer. There will be a fair amount of truth to those explanations.
The pursuit of free agents is highly competitive, and not all 30 teams can land a notable player. That's the reality of July. Already, at least two potential Jazz targets are off the market. San Antonio forward Danny Green is sticking with the Spurs and former Jazz forward DeMarre Carroll is moving from Atlanta to Toronto.
The Jazz should keep making pitches, though. If they fail to land a suitable player, they will remain on an upward trajectory. Yet their growth will not come as quickly as many fans would hope, and everyone will have to deal with some degree of deferred rewards with a team who last victory in a playoff game came in 2010.
The Jazz won 38 games in 2014-15 and finished 10th in the Western Conference. So what would be disrupted, exactly, if they signed a free agent?
Amid concerns that bringing in another player who will command playing time could risk affecting the team's chemistry and individual growth, I would remind everyone that the Jazz remain a long way away. This team missed the playoffs by seven games and fell 17 games short of San Antonio, the No. 6 seed.
The team's 19-10 finish reflected the influence of coach Quin Snyder and the impact of center Rudy Gobert. Yet any projection of that run to a 50-plus-win season in 2015-16 with basically the same roster is a big stretch. Adding one or more of the international players whose rights the Jazz own would help, but not necessarily right away.
If the Jazz could have landed Green, he would advanced their rebuilding project. He's just the style of player who would thrive offensively and defensively under Snyder. But he's a Spur for life, apparently.
So the Jazz's defense mechanism is already in play, with general manager Dennis Lindsey likening Alec Burks' return from injury to a free-agent acquisition.
Here's the issue: Does anyone know for sure that Burks is a good fit in Snyder's system? Athletic ability aside, I'm not convinced he's the kind of outside shooter and defender the Jazz need to make another climb in the West. Rather than just believe in Burks and award him playing time in advance, the Jazz would do well to create more competition on the wing. If Burks earns a big chunk of minutes on a deeper roster, that's fine.
The art of building a team involves more than just stocking talent, but that's certainly part of it.
As for saving money, there's always next summer, right? It's true that spending opportunities carry over, but as the salary cap rises in 2016, the Jazz will lose some of the advantage they hold over other teams with their current flexibility. They don't have to use the money this summer, but it wouldn't hurt them to do so.
Overpaying for a player is not part of the Jazz culture, but they can play that game once in a while. This is not like casting a movie, with the payroll dictated strictly by roles. NBA teams can't always assign salaries according to everyone's relative importance to the team.
The Andrei Kirilenko example doesn't quite apply here. Kirikenko's problem was that his role diminished from what he was accustomed to, not that his team-high salary created an issue - other than causing the Jazz to run out of money for other players.
It's true that the free-agent market could get ridiculous this month. The Jazz also must plan for eventual contracts for players they already have. Yet when it comes to contract numbers of the near future, they shouldn't hesitate to pay someone who can help them now — if that guy is still out there.
kkragthorpe@sltrib.com