I have been cursed by a witch to repeatedly travel back through time to relive every NBA draft. Fortunately, her spell sends me directly to the Utah Jazz war room on draft night and all the executives magically know I’m from the future and will do whatever I say. Unfortunately, the curse prevents me from seeing how my advice altered the future, as I am sent back to the previous year as soon as draft night ends.
June 23, 2016 – Barclays Center, New York
Previous season:
The rebuilding Jazz had a fairly frustrating 2015-16 season. They finished 40-42, just one game short of making the playoffs, which is pretty much the worst possible spot for an NBA team to be. But the future did look bright. Utah was led by a young core of Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood, Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert. And Alec Burks still showed plenty of potential as a solid sixth man, although injuries limited him to just 31 games. The biggest problem facing the Jazz was the point guard position. Trey Burke had fallen out of favor with Quin Snyder and didn’t start a single game. That left the job to Raul Neto and mid-season acquisition Shelvin Mack, who were both solidly mediocre.
The draft:
Utah owned the No. 12 pick in the draft, but Dennis Lindsey chose to solve an immediate need by sending it to Atlanta in a three-team trade for Indiana’s George Hill. The Pacers acquired the Hawks’ Jeff Teague, and Atlanta used Utah’s pick on Taurean Prince.
Lindsey also traded away Utah’s second-round pick (No. 42), sending it to Brooklyn for the No. 55 pick and $3 million. The Nets drafted Isaiah Whitehead at No. 42 and Utah picked Marcus Paige at No. 55.
Thanks to a 2014 trade with Memphis for Jarnell Stokes, the Jazz owned the 52nd pick, which they used on Joel Bolomboy.
Finally, the Jazz also owned the last pick in the draft (No. 60) thanks to the 2013 three-way trade that sent Andre Iguodala to Golden State. Utah drafted Tyrone Wallace with the Warriors’ old pick.
Analysis:
Unfortunately, the witch’s curse brought me back exactly to draft night, making me one day too late to give my advice on the George Hill trade. That said, I do understand the impulse to bring in a proven starter for your weakest position right after missing the playoffs by one game. And Hill did deliver, helping the Jazz reach the playoffs the next season. And I don’t think Utah really missed out on Tauren Prince. Although Pascal Siakam, Dejounte Murray and Malcolm Brogdon all could have been intriguing …
The Brooklyn trade was kind of a wash. Whitehead only lasted a season and a half with the Nets, so Utah didn’t miss anything there. And there wasn’t anyone intriguing taken between the 42nd and 52nd pick, apart from Georges Niang, who eventually spent three seasons as a halfway decent role player for the Jazz. But I’m not seeing a pressing need to reject this trade to draft Niang. Three million dollars is a nice chunk of change (it probably went toward paying George Hill’s salary). And I think I can find better players with the lower picks.
Joel Bolomboy was an exciting pick because he played for Weber State. Unfortunately, he just wasn’t ready for the big time. He played a total of 12 games with Utah (14 if you count playoffs) and six games with Milwaukee before finally going overseas. So let’s find an improvement. Luckily, we have an unusually robust group of undrafted players this year, starting with Fred VanVleet. It took a couple of years for the point guard from Wichita State to get going for the Raptors, but he eventually became a key player on their 2019 championship team and he became an All-Star in 2022. I think it’s reasonable to say he could have developed into a productive player in Utah.
Marcus Paige never played for the Jazz. He toiled away in the D-League for a bit before eventually making Charlotte’s roster, but he only played five games for the Hornets. Let’s find someone better. Since we’ve already grabbed a point guard in VanVleet, I will suggest Dorian Finney-Smith. He’s not the flashiest of players, but he has been a solid starter for Dallas for the past three years. He would have been competing with Joe Ingles and Trey Lyles for minutes, but his defense and shooting might have earned him a role on the team — especially once Hayward left.
Lastly, we come to Tyrone Wallace, who also never played a game for the Jazz. He eventually did make it with the Clippers, Hawks and Pelicans, playing 112 games over four seasons. But he’s out of the league now and not likely to return. Fortunately, I have the perfect replacement who even plays the same position: Alex Caruso. Yeah, he’s not an All-Star or even a regular starter like my other replacement picks, but he would have made a solid pick at No. 60. Caruso was a role player on the 2020 Lakers championship team, which earned him a four-year contract from the Bulls.
My advice:
1. Trade the 42nd pick to Brooklyn for $3 million and the 55th pick.
2. Use the 52nd pick on Fred VanVleet.
3. Use the 55th pick on Dorian Finney-Smith.
4. Use the 60th pick on Alex Caruso.
The best part of my plan is all my replacement picks went undrafted, so there’s no worry about another team scooping up one of these guys. And all three of them certainly had the potential to develop into productive players on the Jazz — even if they would have been initially stashed away on the Stars. Instead of the 2016 draft merely being the year Utah traded for George Hill, it could have been the year where they got the point guard of today and the point guard of tomorrow.
As soon I watch Alex Caruso’s name announced as the final pick, I’m whisked away to June 25, 2015, where the Jazz once again own the 12th pick in the draft, but this time haven’t traded it away.
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