Every week during the regular season begins here at SCH with the Salt City Seven, a septet of recurring features that let us relive the biggest moments, key performances and hot issues in Jazzland from various angles. Check in every week for the quotes, stats, plays and performances that tell the stories from the last 168 hours in the world of the Jazz.
To get through the final 14 games with so many players currently rehabbing various injuries, the Jazz have some roster maneuvering still to do this season.
They currently have 13 roster spots filled with standard contracts. That leaves them two regular roster spots to play around with, assuming they don't waive any of those players[fn]Which they almost certainly will not. 10 of them have guaranteed or cheap non-guaranteed salary next year. One is a restricted free agent. And the other two are good-vibes vets.[/fn].
They also have two guys on 10-day contracts, but can't keep either through game 82, so one way or another, something will change about their roster by the end of the season. They have a few options.
Finish the season with 13 + 3. The Jazz could simply let Andersson Garcia's and Bez Mbeng's 10-days run their course, but that means they can't employ them through the end of the season. If the Jazz re-sign them with no gaps between their first and second 10-days, then Garcia's second one will expire after the game on March 30, Mbeng after the very next game on April 1.
But that puts them within 11 days of the end of the season, and you're allowed to have 13 on the roster (plus the three 2-way guys) for up to two weeks. So the Jazz technically don't have to sign anybody at all. However, with all of the guys they currently have unavailable, they'll probably fill one or both of those final roster spots just to field a team.
Cycle though 10-day guys. They could choose to sign someone else to 10-days after Garcia and Mbeng become ineligble. It could be a way to take a look at some different guys who could be candidates for summer league auditions or even training camp battles. However, finishing the season with a guy on a 10-day doesn't give the team as many options for keeping a guy around if they wind up being intrigued enough to give him a longer look.
Use exceptions to sign a player (Garcia, Mbeng, or someone else) to a multi-year deal with options. This has been Utah's[fn]And most teams', honestly...[/fn] preferred gambit at the end of similar seasons. The Jazz would have no advantage at keeping a 10-day signee into next season if his last few games went superbly, so it can make more sense to sign a guy to a contract that extends into future seasons, but with non-guaranteed salary so the Jazz can cut bait at any point. Of course, a player has to accept that kind of contract structure, and it's easier to get a player to sign a team-friendly deal like that if he gets extra money up front. Teams often do that by using what's left of their various exceptions..
Utah's remaining Mid-Level Excpetion is shrinking by the day because of proration rules, but they will still have $2.6 million left by March 31, the day after Garcia expires. That's still enough to make a minimum-level player plenty happy in exchange for sacrificing some future freedom. A prorated minimum contract signed that same day would only be worth $172K to a 2-year veteran, $95K to a rookie. So Utah has plenty of MLE left to sweeten the deal in exchange for a multi-year commitment on team-friendly terms. For that matter, they'll even have $532K left of their Bi-Annual exception[fn]They used most of this exception to acquire Kevin Love, and the remaining $984K began to prorate down after January 10.[/fn], although that tool only allows them to sign a player into next season.
By the last day of the season, they'll still have $2.3M left of the MLE and $464K of the BAE. It's not uncommon for a player to reach that point in the season and get a few hundred thousand dollars for a single day of work, if he'll agree to team's conditions on years two through four of a multi-year deal.
Utah could use this maneuver to retain Garcia and/or Mbeng if they see enough from either or both in the next fortnight to consider them worthy of a lengthier audition. Or, if they've seen enough of those guys and want to give another player a shot, they can sign an available free agent using those same tools.
They could even use those same exception to do the following...
Convert one or more of their 2-way guys. Elijah Harkess, Blake Hinson and Oscar Tshiebwe could also be candidate to graduate from their 2-way contracts with a late-season deal. Hinson in particular is close to the point where he can no longer offer his services to the Jazz.
Based on his late signing date, Hinson can only be on Utah's active list for 18 total games, and after Sunday's game in Sacramento, he's already at 12. In order for Utah to be able to use him down the stretch, they'll either need to send him down the G League[fn]Probably partially why he was on assignment with the Stars for Wednesday's and Friday's games.[/fn] or convert him.
The issue is that new 2-way deals can't be signed after March 4, so if they upgrade any of those three, they can't then backfill that person with another 2-way signing. That could matter given that Utah might just need warm bodies in some of these late games.
Plus, they already have Hinson secured for next season since his 2-way contract includes next serason as well. They also have the option to make Harkless and Tshiebwe restricted free agents, so there's not really a huge advantage to converting any of them now. Perhaps it could be argued that it's better to have Harkless' defensive peskiness locked down on a multi-year deal with team outs, but if he'll accept that type of contract today, then he'll probably also accept it in July.
It's not super likely that anybody the Jazz sign in late March or early April will significantly impact their ability to win next season. But it's worth the Hail Mary try. With a more competitive and costly roster next season, it's going to become more important to find low-cost depth pieces. Swinging on Garcia- and Mbeng-level prospects probably doesn't yield anything they'll really trust next year when they're in the playoff hunt, but you never know. Neemias Queta was a late-season conversion and now starts for the contending Celtics. The Jazz have been obsessed over the past four years with generating more "swings," especially when it costs them so little. They might as well take another low-cost flyer.
"As cliché as it sounds... I get to go play basketball for a living. Like, if that doesn't put a smile on your face and motivate you to go play, I don't feel like you should be playing in this league. Just always having that mindset of just, I'm blessed to be here, and you're always playing for something bigger than yourself."
- Cody Williams after a career night on how he's gotten through ups and downs, via KSL Sports Zone
It's impossible to not feel really happy for Williams, whose rookie stats left some wondering if he had a NBA future. His coach always insisted that the basketball IQ was there, and suddenly it's starting to show up in a real way on the floor. He has had consecutive career-high games: 19 and then 34.
As for his record night in Sacramento, he actually credited a film session with Jazz assistant Chad Forcier that same day for his aggressive and efficient 34.
"(He) was showing clips of when I was driving with force versus not. And going too deep in the paint versus stopping," Williams explained. "The more I've been watching it, I kind of get a feel for my game. Feel like today I was able to get the midrange because I was recognizing when to go to the basket or when to stop short."
We'll examine in the Playbook section below how he did it.
±14
Jazz-Warriors last Monday tied for the narrowest spread in a Jazz game this season. In Sacramento in the second game of the season, they led by as many as six and trailed by eight on the way to a 1-point loss. Against the Zombie Dubs[fn]No Steph, Jimmy, Porzingis, Moody, etc.[/fn] their max lead was 11 and they trailed by three, but ultimately won 119-116.
22
That's how many points GSW failed to convert just on fourth-quarter free throws (6) and paint tries (8).
14.5
That's the amount of time that elapsed from when Garcia checked into the games against the Knicks until his first NBA score. His inaugural bucket was a fastbreak layup.
+18
The Jazz gave up 18-point leads in back-to-back losses, tied for the biggest leads they've surrendered this season. They also gave up an 18-point lead in a November home game against OKC. On the flip side, they've won twice after trailing by 15 (vs. Min and at Mia).
56th
Stealing this concept from my guy Francisco Vázquez: Williams scored his 34th point of the season on December 15, during the 25th game of the Jazz season. It was day 56 of the regular season. That makes it all the more remarkable that he dropped 34 in one evening of basketball in Sacramento.
Let's zoom in on Williams for the second straight week, because he just had his best night as a pro by a wide margin. He became just the eighth Jazzman ever to record a 34-7-7 game or better[fn]Piston, Dantley, Malone, DWill, Hayward, THT and Clarkson are the others.[/fn].
The vast majority of his buckets were self-created, too, which makes his random March explosion all the more unpredictable. The Jazz put the ball in the second-year forward's hands and let him do work.
The Jazz start with a little stagger slip by Blake Hinson, but the corner helper reads it and comes in, so the layup isn't there[fn]Bez Mbeng is wide open as a result of that help, but the Jazz are still feeling him out, it would seem.[/fn]. So the Jazz flow right into a dribble hand-off (DHO) for Williams to the outside, but his man predictably goes under. The Jazz are ready with the counter, though: they rescreen, this time with an angle that makes it almost impossible for Nique Clifford to go under, so he trails over the screen but is mostly concerned with cutting off a paint drive. That gives Williams the space for a pull-up jumper.
Here's one that just says, "cooking."
Sacramento did this a lot where the screener's man would prevent him from screening — almost like icing, but against the picker instead of the handler. Still, Hinson gets close enough to screening that Williams' defender instinctually shifts his weight in that direction, and that's when Williams denies the screen and goes hard in the other direction. Because of those long strides, it takes exactly two steps for Cody to have put his body in between his man and the hoop, so he can either finish through the contact of the bigger Precious Achiuwa, or he can do what he does here: again punish the "prevent" defense with a fader.
He also hit a preposterous (for him) number of above-the-break threes. He was 3-for-23 on such shots before Sunday, and then went 3-for-6 in that game alone. Still, it's not his most comfortable shot, so when the Kings' zone leaves him open from angle left, watch him smartly turn that into an advantage for a teammate.
One way an inconsistent shooter can punish teams for sagging off is by decisively sprinting into a DHO for a teammate. If nobody's guarding you, then there's nobody to help execute the coverage of the DHO defense. The Kings are zoning here, so already there's going to be a seam that Brice Sensabaugh can settle into for a three on the hand-off. But since nobody was anywhere near Williams to begin with, he has tons of time to fire before Killian Hayes can close that space.
Wherever this burst came from, it's encouraging to see Utah's former top-10 pick break out here in year two.
We get the rare-as-late pleasure of awarding a game ball this week, after shorthanded Golden State went cold late in Utah.
Jazz 119, Warriors 116: Kyle Filipowski. I'd have no problem giving this to Hinson after he nailed a go-ahead three in the final half minute. It just felt like Flip did more overall: 19-15-5 (and two steals) in 25 minutes. He and Sensabaugh (21) were Utah's high scorers, and both did it while doing better than a point and a half per shot attempt. Harkless also did a ton of attacking and foul-drawing, finished with 16 points.
Strong in defeat:
- Jazz 117, Knicks 134: Brice Sensabaugh. Brice was hot throughout, finishing with a 29-5-5 line and again scoring very efficiently: 47-55-83 splits. Ace Bailey had 21 points, albeit less efficiently and with fewer rebounds (4) and assists (2), making it easy to choose Sensabaugh here.
- Jazz 114, Blazers 124: Brice Sensabaugh. This time it was 31 for the third-year wing, including a 10-point first quarter during Utah's best stretch. Williams had the first of two consecutive career-high scoring nights (19), and Isaiah Collier took the reins in the fourth quarter on the way to 17 points and nine assists.
- Jazz 111, Kings 116: Cody Williams. This might be the most out-of-nowhere 34-point game in recent NBA memory, to say nothing of the fact that he also grabbed seven boards and dished seven assists. He was centrally involved in everything, and also took tough defensive assignments like DeMar DeRozan and the bigger Achiuwa. Sensabaugh's 22 and Collier's 21 deserve mention, but nobody really challenged Cody here.
The Jazz will start the week in Minneapolis, but then play four straight at home, their longest remaining homestand.
Wednesday 3/18 at Wolves: The aspiring contenders and two-time West finalists hit another road bump with a 2-4 stretch, and now right knee inflammation will keep star Anthony Edwards out for one to two weeks. Julius Randle so far this season averages 26.9 points this season in the 11 games without Edwards, including 32 in their latest win. They'll also be on a back-to-back after hosting Phoenix 24 hours earlier.
Thursday 3/19 vs. Bucks: It was just announced that Giannis Antetokounmpo will be out for at least a week, which could be the start of the Bucks reconsidering their competitive ambitions since they're 6.5 games out of a playoff spot and own the least favorable of their pick and New Orleans'. They're 2-9 in their last 11, although Kevin Porter Jr. had a nice game (25 points and 10 assists) in their home loss to Cleveland on Tuesday. They don't get to the line (28th) or offensive rebound (30th).
Saturday 3/21 vs. Sixers. Stars Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey remain out, which is why they trailed by 33 before halftime in Denver. Rookie VJ Edgecombe looks awesome, but isn't quite at a point where he can do it by himself. Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes are doing a lot of the heavy lifting at the moment. Utah is the last stop on a 3-game trip for the Sixers, who just fell out of the top eight.
Watching Jordan Clarkson soak up the love from his former teammates last week got me thinking about how few Jazz alumni there are around the league who actually have a ton of connections left in the Jazz locker room.
For example, when Mike Conley Jr. faces Utah this week, he will only see two former Jazz teammates[fn]And they'll both be in street clothes.[/fn], whereas his present-day colleague Kyle Anderson has shared a locker room with every current Jazzman on a standard contract.
Omer Yurtseven just made his way back to the league via a 10-day contract, meaning 14 teams now employ a total of 22 former Jazz guys. But five of them won't recognize a single person from down the sidelines, at least from their own Jazz tenures. Call it a byproduct of the rebuild.
