2017-18 Finish: 47-35

Season Highlight:

Utah had an awesome season, a highlight was finishing 3^rd and going into the playoffs with home court advantage in the first round. I would say the sweep in the first round another highlight. Winning Game 1 and 3 against the Western conference champions and taking the lead twice in that series would have to be the season highlight, knowing how close they were to being in the Western conference finals against the Oklahoma Thunder.

Season Lowlight:

It was a pivotal moment in the Utah season, parting ways with GM Merencio on the eve of the playoffs. He knew his players, the playbooks and the team strategies for this Utah team better than anyone. Very good chance he had moves and rotations up his sleeves for the finals which never eventuated.

Best Trade:

Vince Carter, P.J. Tucker and Tarik Black for Trevor Ariza and Chris McCullough, Patrick Mills and 14 GM points.

This was the net result from a 4 team trade, and what an incredible result for the Jazz. They walked away with 2 better players than the 3 guys they gave up and got GMs thrown in on top of that. This was a huge win, Ariza slotted straight into the starting line-up and Mills the backup PG position.

Worst Trade:

As there was no other trades made before or during the season, I will leave this empty and talk about the trades made after the season below.

Other Notable Trades:

I wanted to group to the 2 trades made post season, with the new GM Spudspace at the helm.

LaMarcus Aldridge and Willie Cauley-Stein to the Philadelphia 76ers for Louis Williams, Markieff Morris, Aron Baynes and Dario Saric.

Utah gave up superstar LA and promising big man WCS for some much needed depth, in the process reducing salary by $3.4m. Utah got 3 starting quality players in return, super-sub Lou Williams who at the time was a top 10 rated shooting guard on a long term bargain contract, 2 quality power forwards on great deals and backup Centre. I think Philly may have won this deal, but worked out perfectly for Utah.

Patrick Mills and Markieff Morris to the Indiana Pacers for Taj Gibson and Jonathon Simmons to the Utah Jazz

Utah managed to save another $1m on this deal, making a dent into what projects to be a hard capped salary.  Utah were a little too deep at PG, and could see a weakness at shooting guard. With only a slight downgrade at PF, this helps Utah into the future with Gibson on an expiring contract. This was a trade of need and it’s very solid.

Free Agency:

Chris Paul (FA)

CP3 is a priority, and will be back at minimal cost.

Aron Baynes (FA)

Will return to the Jazz for another season.

Davis Bertans (FA)

At $7m, Going into Hard cap, may look for a sign and trade, otherwise will walk.

Derrick Rose (FA)

Looks for Rose to return on veteran minimum.

Sean Kilpatrick (FA)

Currently unsigned

Star:

Marc Gasol had an awesome year, he was statistically Utah’s best player, that’s even with 2 weeks in the second unit. He led the team in scoring, rebounding, blocks, Free throws made and the 2^nd most 3s made, which is an incredible stat for a big man. It was the opposite in the nba, with his rating slipping from a peak of 90 to its currently level of 85. That’s just fire in the belly for Gasol, expecting him to prove any doubters wrong and be back at his peak for the upcoming season.

Goat:

Derrick Rose, Utah had to put all there GMs to keep Rose, with the slight hope he would be healthy. He was almost pipped for this honour, with Wiggin’s very poor shooting behind the arc.  Rose lived up to expectation, only managing 24 games for the season. It was handy he came back for the playoffs, but the team was actually better with him off the court, than on it, with the temporary GM not being able to get the best out of him.

Draft Grades (from Insider):

Only drafted on behalf of Toronto with the 23^rd pick.

The Future-

Utah are top team, stacked with talent. They will be up there fighting for a top 4 spot again, hoping to go further next season. They have locked in future all-star Andrew Wiggins into a long term, and should see superstar CP3 leading again from the front. With the moves over the off-season, Utah has now became one of the deepest teams in the league, and will take advantage of that with flexibility in the line-up. Utah are in a win now mode, with no picks until 2021. They have a new GM at helm who has allot to prove, I expect him to set aside any doubters and lead this team deep into the playoffs for years to come..