Salt City Seven: All-Star Fun, Roster Choices, Playoff/Lotto Watch & More

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.

In the words of Jazz players/people

“Pretty surreal. I was excited to get out there the whole weekend. I mean, I got to participate in the 3-Point Contest, but this was what we were waiting for… Just a great experience to be a part of. I can’t wait to be here again.”

-Lauri Markkanen, the 16th NBA All-Star in Jazz franchise history

Well, that was fun.

Markkanen’s involvement in Sunday evening’s NBA All-Star game capped a weekend of festivities that put Salt Lake City at the center of the NBA universe. By all accounts, the three-day basketball party showcased not just the league’s top talent, but also an underrated NBA city. The February weather even cooperated, with three straight days of sun to welcome a cadre of celebrities and basketball dignitaries.

For Markkanen specifically, Sunday’s main event was particularly validating. After being picked last among the starters — hard to take that too personally since he was a replacement starter anyway — he wound up as the fourth leading scorer on the victorious Team Giannis. After a hot 7-point start, he landed on 13 points and seven rebounds. He was even presented the opportunity to score the game-winning shot, but his corner three rimmed away.

It would be slightly patronizing to say he belonged, because of course he did. He has been a legitimate All-Star performer this season. There’s nothing he could prove in a defense-less exhibition game that he hasn’t already exhibited over the course of a 24.9-ppg, 51-41-88 season for one of the league’s most surprising teams. But nonetheless, it was fun to see him soar in for dunk after dunk while playing next to some of the NBA’s biggest stars.

It wasn’t the only moment from the weekend that prominently featured Jazzmen or other Utah-affiliated players:

• The Jazz trio of Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton and Walker Kessler won the 3-man version of the skills challenge. Despite coming in last in the skills course relay in phase one of the competition, they nailed the passing portion behind (surprisingly) Kessler, and then ran away with the shooting contest.
• While Markkanen didn’t make it to the final stage of the 3-point contest, Weber State University alumnus Damian Lillard did, and the 7-time All-Star eventually won the whole shebang while sporting a jersey from his nearby alma mater. 
• Former Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell poured in 40 points in the All-Star game, and also doled out 10 assists. There was a while in the third quarter when it looked like he and eventual game MVP Jayson Tatum were sparring for the award, but the latter was a little more persistent in seeking his shot and got the trophy. Mitchell did speak very maturely after the game about his time in Utah, saying that it was fitting to start his first All-Star game in Utah where he “grew up as a player, as a person, as a man.” Lillard also converted eight threes — including a couple that might as well have been launched from Weber State’s Ogden campus — on the way to 26 All-Star points.

Downtown SLC was completely engulfed in the festivities. Aside from the sanctioned venues, a number of players and media personalities hosted events around town. Spots like the Salt Palace and Gallivan Plaza headquartered immersive expos and art installations, and special bus routes and free trains delivered thousands of visiting VIPs (and their hometown hosts) to different experiences around the city.

Everything went off really well. The usual old-man-shakes-fist-at-cloud complaints about the actual basketball events still kind of apply — the All-Star game itself is kind of ridiculous when evaluated as a basketball competition, and many of the other events are troubled by complex, opaque rules that make it not the best TV viewing experience.

But the part that Utahns, the Jazz, and especially franchise owners Ryan and Ashley Smith had control over came out really nicely. Utah did well with its moment in the spotlight.

A quick dissection of a big-picture topic or burning question relevant to the week in Jazzland.

It might have been lost in the All-Star Weekend shuffle, but the Jazz also made some actual changes to their roster over the weekend.

They released Leandro Bolmaro on Thursday, and some Argentine outlets characterized it as a move the guard asked for so he could find a bigger role elsewhere. Bolmaro had logged just 68 minutes this season with the Jazz, although he did also average 12.1 points in seven appearances with the SLC Stars.

Then on Monday, news broke that the Jazz also reached an agreement to buy out the contract of Russell Westbrook, acquired in a February 8 trade with the Lakers and Wolves. The former MVP had about $13.3 million left unpaid on his contract as of Monday morning, and likely agreed to take a small discount he can recoup later when he signs a rest-of-season deal, reportedly with the Clippers.

Between the Jazz’s 4-for-3 trade earlier this month and the subsequent waivers of Bolmaro and Westbrook, Utah now finds itself with roster spots to fill. They actually have to sign one player almost immediately after the Westbrook buyout was made official on Monday afternoon.

In short, the Jazz currently have:

• A 13th roster spot they must fill immediately.
• A 14th roster spot they have to fill within two weeks of Bolmaro’s waiver — by March 2.
• A 15th roster spot they can choose to fill at any time, or leave vacant.

This could be an opportunity to promote Micah Potter and Johnny Juzang from their two-way contracts, but that would be more feasible if either guy had made himself indispensable to this point in the season. Potter has spent just 14 total minutes on an NBA court this season, and Juzang has yet to appear for the Jazz. Obviously the Jazz have had a close eye on their development and minutes with the Stars, but the fact that they haven’t turned to them for practically any minutes through 60 games hints that they might not be prime candidates for regular roster roles.

The Jazz could also cycle through 10-day contracts, giving multiple players a shot at impressing them 3-5 games at a time and in practice.

But the other clear advantage the Jazz have if they want to use these roster spots to give in-demand prospects a reason to sign with them is that they still have some of their midlevel exception left. They can’t use all $7 million remaining without crossing the tax line, but they could divvy up $3 to 4 million (depending on the exact amount of Westbrook’s buyout) between two or three players who might give the Jazz some option years in exchange for more guaranteed money up front.

The minimum salary exception prorates throughout the season and only allows for 1- or 2-year contracts, so a team using that to bring in a guy at this point in the season could only offer around $290K for the remainder of the season, plus one more year. Then if the player popped on that contract, the team would have matching rights at the end but not full Bird rights.

The Jazz could call that same player and offer a half million, or a couple million, or even more for just 22 games worth of work. But in exchange they’d likely want some options on the back end. The Spurs did something similar with Charles Bassey’s rest-of-season (ROS) contract last week. The Celtics did so with Sam Hauser last season and now have a borderline rotation player because of the low-cost gamble.

What a rookie ROS deal signed today could look like using different exceptions:

A dozen or more deals get signed every year following this same structure, by teams who either have remaining cap space or part of their MLE left. The extra coin now can entice a guy to agree to a structure that gives the team an inside lane on keeping him if he takes off, but also little future risk if he doesn’t.

The Jazz are more likely to execute this strategy for guys they are somewhat interested in moving forward. The goal here would be to take a shot one someone who could be the next Joe Ingles or Royce O’Neale type of pickup — someone who is a bit under the radar but they think might have some NBA rotation potential. Obviously the search for the next Ingles or O’Neale is far more likely to produce a Matt Thomas or Carrick Felix. This is low-risk but also the batting average on these types of 13th/14th/15th man roster maneuvers is pretty low. When a team does hit, though, it can be pretty valuable if they have the option to keep a guy around cheaply (think Lu Dort) as opposed to instantly having to pay someone (think Duncan Robinson). That makes a pretty big difference in the long haul.

We’ll see what they do. Regardless, you can expect multiple roster moves in the near future. And as with everything about the Jazz this season, whatever they do will be with the longer-term payoffs in mind.

32.5%

The Jazz were in the top third of the league for 3-point percentage through January 25, but since then have shot above their season average (36.2%) just once in their last nine games — it just happened to be in Monday’s win at Indiana. Their 32.5% mark over the last nine games is 25th in the NBA over that span, and would rank dead last among full-season figures.

61

Utah’s 61 rebounds in Memphis were their season high, and also tied for the fourth most rebounds by a losing team this NBA season. Their 46 defensive boards were the second-most in a loss as well. The two steals and 24 turnovers — both second worst in the Jazz’s season — really negated their good work on the glass.

14

Former Lakers Damian Jones and Juan Toscano-Anderson eached scored seven in their Jazz debuts, and on combined 66.7% shooting. JTA added 10 boards, Jones swatted a pair of Grizzly shots, and the two contributed to a nice second-half run that made things close in Tennessee.

35

Talen Horton-Tucker is making the most of his additional ball handling duties: in his last five games, he has racked up assist totals of 6, 8, 7, 7 and 7. What makes this 35-assist stretch even odder is the fact that he also blocked six shots over that 5-game stretch. The only players in franchise history to do that are John Stockton and Andrei Kirilenko.

50%

Even with more minutes, Ochai Agbaji’s corner 3-point shooting is holding up: he’s now 22-for-44, making exactly half of his corner treys.

Projecting the Jazz’s place in the bigger picture

The first SC7 after the All-Star break is typically when I start running the Western Conference playoff race graphics that we follow all spring. This year, I wasn’t quite sure what to do, with the Jazz straddling the playoff landscape and the lottery race at the same time. Here’s what I came up with, but let me know what else you’d like to see as part of this graphic as the season rolls along.

Every team within 3 games of the Jazz at the All-Star break.

At some point we may shift our focus to *either* the group of teams on the left or to the race on the right… but for now, both sets of competitors are worth watching.

Recognizing the best (or most memorable) performances from each Jazz outing

Folks have been asking for an updated tally, so let’s first recognize top performers from last Monday and Wednesday, and then take a glance:

Jazz 123, Pacers 117: Jordan Clarkson. This was actually a pretty tough one. What sealed it for me was that the Jazz fell behind by 7 midway through the third and then ripped off an extended 39-20 surge that started with 12 straight Clarkson points: three outside shots and then three foul shots when he drew contact behind the arc. In all, his 22-point second half (29 overall) was glitzy enough when it mattered were enough to offset turnover woes and a slow start, and he was more efficient than Markkanen. But the Finnisher (29 & 11) was mighty impressive too, including with the big three as Indiana got close late and then the four free throws to seal it. Kelly Olynyk’s 18-and-10 really mattered too, but it’s hard to go there on a night when two guys had 29 apiece.

Strong in Defeat:

• Jazz 111, Grizzlies 117: Kelly Olynyk. His 28-14-6 and team-best +15 made this fairly easy — easily his best all-around game as a Jazzman. Ochai Agbaji had 17 in his second career start, but most of the heroes of the Jazz’s near-comeback were bench dudes. Horton-Tucker’s had 15-7-7 and we talked above about the spark the Jazz got from new arrivals Toscano-Anderson and Jones in their debuts.

29 game balls and counting.

Looking ahead to the next seven nights of Jazz action

The Jazz come out of the break to a weird little schedule quirk, with their next five games all coming against two teams.

Thursday 2/23, Jazz vs. Thunder: Kind of hard to believe the Jazz made it this far into the season without seeing division rival OKC a single time. It’s especially interesting because the two are right in the same range standings-wise, which means the four games they’ll play over the next six weeks really matter to the play-in race and/or lottery odds. The Thunder have just 4 of their 25 remaining games against teams with the top 10 records at the moment, and all at home. That could also really matter. They’re 10-6 over the last month, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging over 30. The word out of Bricktown is that the young Thunder might be ready to start the climb back towards relevance.

Saturday 2/25, Jazz vs. Spurs: The Jazz have seen the Spurs just one time so far: in a December game Utah led for precisely 31 seconds. The Spurs are 3-23 since that win, and that was even mostly before they traded their top wins above replacement guy in Jakob Poeltl. In other words, the Spurs might not be, uh, super focused on wins and losses at the moment. Second leading scorer Devin Vassell hasn’t played since January 2, but Keldon Johnson is averaging 24 a game (rounded) over his last 14. Devonte’ Graham has the green light but isn’t shooting well yet as a Spur. These guys haven’t won a road game since… December 19!! And that was in Houston.

Random stuff from the Jazz community

So much fun stuff to choose from this week:

• One of my favorite parts of All-Star Weekend was watching awesome people from the Jazz online community get to experience it in awesome ways. Longtime Twitter friend David was awarded tickets in Smith’s online giveaway, and then upgraded to courtside recliners. Which is super awesome because David gives his own season tickets away all the time to deserving fans. And speaking of deserving, my old pal who runs the Jazz Nation social media accounts was gifted a pair of Markkanen’s own personal ticket allotment. There were so many awesome stories like that.
• The Jazz being five players away from having put 300 players on the court during the Utah era is kind of fun.
• But let’s keep it simple:

an all-star 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘩 🇫🇮#NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/pdrNTSvFje

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) February 20, 2023

Here we go down the home stretch!