Diamonds in the Rough

O’Neale and a couple of his teammates are great examples of the Jazz’s ability to find rotation contributors in unconventional places (Bill Baptist via utahjazz.com)

There are many paths to building a contending team. At minimum, though, some starpower is needed as a foundation. Some big markets teams are able to lure stars in free agency or be on the short-list resulting from a disgruntled star’s trade demand. Other teams hope to find their stars through the draft. Glance at the current contenders, and it’s easy to see the contrast in star acquisition:

• Brooklyn signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in the same summer, then later cashed in assets gained from a stretch of bad seasons and good player development for James Harden.
• Philadelphia tanked more brazenly than any team in history. It took a long time and some missed picks, but they found Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons in the draft.
• Milwaukee drafted Giannis Antetokounmpo developed him into a star, and along the way traded for Khris Middleton. They then mortgaged future assets for an all-in trade for Jrue Holiday.
• Utah made draft-day trades to pick Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. They cashed in some picks and rotation players for Mike Conley.
• Phoenix drafted Devin Booker and traded modest assets for Chris Paul.
• Denver drafted Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.
• The L.A. Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and traded the farm for Paul George.
• The L.A. Lakers signed LeBron James and traded the farm for Anthony Davis.

There’s a balanced mix of free agency signings, trades, and drafting to add stars. These stars take up most of a team’s cap space. For example, Brooklyn’s star trio makes a combined $112 million, while the salary cap is $109 million.

So what gets interesting is how those teams fill out the rest of the roster. It usually requires paying the luxury tax. This season, the Nets, Lakers, Clippers, Sixers, and Jazz are five of the league’s top six teams in terms of salary. But it’s not as a simple as being willing to spend — building a team within the constraints of the salary cap and luxury tax requires careful use of timing, exceptions, and Bird rights.

Bird rights can be used to develop a low salary player and then give them a payday after stars are signed. We’ve seen this with players like Utah’s Royce O’Neale and Brooklyn’s Joe Harris.

Mid-level and bi-annual exceptions may be the most common way for a contender to add rotation pieces. The Jazz used theirs to bring back Derrick Favors. This is a tool that can be especially leveraged by glamour market teams, who often sign above-market players with the fixed exception amount. For example, Serge Ibaka and Montrezl Harrell both projected to sign for bigger deals but the L.A. teams got them at a discount in the exception market (despite up-and-down results this season).

And then there is building around the fringes. Every contender has to find players at small salaries to fill in the cracks. These could veteran players taking minimum deals, rookie contracts, or generally cheap deals on untested players. Again, bigger markets tend to have an advantage on persuading seasoned players to take less money for the chance to chase a ring.

Teams like the Jazz rely on finding the diamonds in the rough via the back-end of the draft or the pool of undrafted or unsigned players. In fact, a third of Utah’s core rotation is made of such finds: Joe Ingles (waived by L.A.), Royce O’Neale (undrafted), and Georges Niang (waived by Indiana and later Golden State).

Utah has the reputation as a franchise that can find castaways and develop them. How do they compare to other teams? Let’s take a look at the current potential playoff teams and see. We’ll look for rotation-quality players that fit one of these categories:

• A late 2nd round draft pick
• An undrafted player
• A player waived during or after their rookie season

Western Conference

Jazz: Ingles (undrafted), O’Neale (undrafted), Niang (waived by Ind/GS)

Suns: N/A

Lakers: Alex Caruso (undrafted), Talen Horton-Tucker (46th)

Nuggets: Nikola Jokic (41st), Monte Morris (51st), Facundo Campazzo (undrafted)

Clippers: Terance Mann (48th)

Blazers: N/A

Mavericks: Dorian Finney-Smith (undrafted), Maxi Kleber (undrafted)

Grizzlies: Dillon Brooks (45th)

Warriors: Juan Toscano-Anderson (undrafted), Damion Lee (waived by ATL), Eric Paschall (41st)

Spurs: Patty Mills (55th)

Eastern Conference

Sixers: Shake Milton (54th)

Nets: N/A

Bucks: N/A

Knicks: N/A

Hawks: N/A

Heat: Duncan Robinson (undrafted), Kendrick Nunn (undrafted)

Raptors: Fred VanVleet (undrafted), Chris Boucher (waived by GSW), Freddie Gillespie (undrafted)

Celtics: N/A

Pacers: Edmond Sumner (52nd)

Hornets: Jalen McDaniels (52nd)

Some of these players are fringe rotation-level or only have bigger roles because of injuries. The Nuggets may have the best case of finding fringe talent if only because Jokic is such a generational talent.

But beyond Ingles, O’Neale, and Niang, Utah has another batch of promising players that weren’t first round picks. There’s Miye Oni (58th pick), Jarrell Brantley (50th), Elijah Hughes (39th), Juwan Morgan (undrafted), and Trent Forrest (undrafted). They’re not all going to hit. But Utah has a great track record. And the Jazz will face some tough financial decisions this offseason. They could in theory keep both Mike Conley and Niang, but doing so will take them deep into the luxury tax. As Gobert’s and Mitchell’s new deal kick in, the Jazz will rely more than ever on filling out their roster with diamonds in the rough. Ingles, O’Neale, and Niang are proof of concept that it’s something the organization is capable of.