Redrafting the Jazz: 2012

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 28, 2012 – Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey

Previous season:

With a lockout-shortened 2011-12, the mediocre Jazz earned a 36-30 record and were swept by the Spurs in the first round of the playoffs. The team was built around the front court of Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap and a young Gordon Hayward. This combo was never going to amount to too much, especially when they were surrounded by aging, underachieving veterans like Devin Harris, Raja Bell and Josh Howard. Youngsters Alec Burks, Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter were showing a little bit of promise, but Tyrone Corbin’s antiquated view of rookies kept them on the bench.

The draft:

Kevin O’Connor had a remarkably quiet draft in his last year as general manager of the Jazz. Utah would have had the 18th pick, but O’Connor had traded it to Minnesota in 2010 for Al Jefferson. The Timberwolves then traded that pick to the Rockets, who used it on Terrence Jones, who was last seen playing professionally in Puerto Rico.

The Jazz did keep their 47th pick, which they used on a shooting guard from Tennessee Tech named Kevin Murphy.

Analysis:

I don’t really take it upon myself to suggest trades under my witch’s curse situation. I’m only with the Jazz front office on Draft Night, and really good trades take days or weeks to pull off. Sure, I could say Utah should do everything it could to move up into the top five to grab Damian Lillard, but I just don’t think it would be feasible. So I’m just going to turn all my attention to that inconsequential second-round pick.

The Jazz clearly had a glaring weakness in their backcourt. A sharpshooting guard would have been just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, Kevin Murphy was not that guard. He only played 17 games with the Jazz and never got back into the NBA again. He is currently the starting small forward of Lebanon’s Al Riyadh Club Beirut. 

Obviously, we need to do better. Sadly, though, this wasn’t a good year to have such a low second-round pick. There isn’t a single solid option to fill that sharpshooting guard role. I did consider thinking outside the box and drafting a 3-point-shooting big man in JaMychal Green, but the last thing this Jazz roster needs is another young power forward/center. So I’m going to go with the safe pick and recommend the Old Dominion swingman Kent Bazemore. Yeah, he’s out of the league now, but he did have a pretty solid three-year stretch as a starter for Atlanta, which is far more than you can say about Kevin Murphy. Plus, Bazemore could help fill the void left by Raja Bell and Josh Howard.

My advice:

1. Use the 47th pick on Kent Bazemore.

And that’s it. You probably can’t find a more boring draft than that. Bazemore would not have been a difference-maker by a long shot. But sometimes you’ve got to settle for a mild improvement. Luckily, the 2011 draft will be much more interesting.