Andy Larsen: Here’s what the Utah Jazz did and didn’t accomplish in the NBA Draft

You’re probably not as tall as Cody Williams.

The new Utah Jazzman, the No. 10 pick in this year’s draft, stands 6-foot-8. If by chance you, the person reading this column, are as tall as Williams, I’d bet your wingspan can’t match his 7-foot-1 measurement.

But, according to the latest U.S. statistics, it’s relatively likely that you weigh more than Williams does: The teenager weighs just 178 pounds.

I tell you this not to make you evaluate your size, but because, full stop, Williams is one of the skinniest players we’ve ever seen in the NBA Draft. And Williams’ weight is a microcosm of the Jazz’s draft and even their overall position as a franchise. Right now, the Jazz are simply in development mode: They have some tools, yes, but they definitely need to bulk up the rest of their roster to compete with the rest of the NBA.

Let’s dig into what happened — and what didn’t happen — on Day 1 of the NBA Draft.

Two promising projects

To be sure, both Williams and No. 29 pick Isaiah Collier are players the Jazz have had eyeballs on for a very long time. Williams, rated the fifth-best player of the 2023 high school class, led his team to Arizona’s 6A state title. Collier was even more highly regarded: He was the No. 1 prospect of his high school class, winning MVP at countless big prospect events.

In their freshman years in college, though, both struggled to live up to the hype.

Williams simply didn’t contribute as much as expected at Colorado. His stats tell the story of a hesitant player. His poor rebounding rates, dismal block and steal numbers, and a declining number of shots (was he protecting his 3-point percentage for the draft?) frustrated Colorado fans who were expecting immediate greatness. He was especially passive in the Pac-12 Conference tournament.

Collier, meanwhile, looked like a mistake machine at USC. The turnovers were unforgivably rampant. The outside shot was exceptionally streaky. The defense was lackadaisical on and off the ball. The new collegiate level looked like too much, to say nothing of the difficulties the NBA would bring.

What you think about Williams and Collier depends hugely on how much stock you give these struggles. Williams, a former point guard before a growth spurt, may have simply been deferring to his more experienced teammates. He dealt with a wrist injury in the middle of the year, an ankle injury at the end of it, and even a facial injury that forced him to wear a mask for part of the season. Of course he didn’t play his best, with mobility and confidence snapped.

I tend to fall on this side with Williams, thanks to his flashes of skills that are so valuable at the NBA level: the terrific touch from inside, the dribbling ability, passing inside and on the perimeter, and defensive footwork and length. It’s why I hoped the Jazz drafted him at No. 10.

Likewise, Collier also had two injuries last year that could have sapped his production, a knee injury early in the year and a broken hand in January. He could have shut it all down and likely been drafted higher, but came back, showing grit. USC was a bit of a circus last year, with Bronny James and Boogie Ellis also fighting for time at the position, and the team’s bigs weren’t great.

I’m less optimistic here, largely because the margins are thinner for point guards and for those who make loud mistakes. Staying in an NBA rotation is easier for a switchy 6-8 player who contributes little than a 6-4 point guard who misses shots, passes and defensive assignments. But if Collier’s potential hits, he might be more likely to be a high-scoring All-Star, and I think he’s a reasonable gamble late in the first round in a bad draft.

Regardless, I anticipate both players will spend significant time this season in the G League — given their collegiate performance, neither is really ready to contribute in the NBA on Day 1 in my view. Also, no NBA team has been more aggressive about putting first-round picks in the G League than Utah.

Trades not made

The hours leading up to the NBA Draft are typically frequent trade periods, but we’ve seen only two trades that involved current NBA players. The first saw the New York Knicks buy Mikal Bridges for five first-round picks (four of which were unprotected), a pick swap, and Bojan Bogdanovic. The second saw the Blazers buy Deni Avdija from the Wizards for two first-round picks, two second-round picks, and Malcolm Brogdon.

Both Bridges and Avdija are players that the Jazz have been interested in, even before their most recent spurts of improvement. But in the end, that’s just such a high price for both players — truth be told, I think both buying teams overpaid by about two draft picks each.

That the trades happened anyway reveals a truth about the NBA trade market right now: It’s a seller’s market, not a buyer’s one. That’s especially true with players who are two-way contributors, the kinds of players Danny Ainge and then Brad Stevens built the championship Celtics around. As much fun as it would be for the Jazz to go “big-game hunting,” even the mid-tier game is taking a prohibitive amount of shotgun shells right now.

Maybe that changes as the NBA’s calendar year rolls over and the Jazz can become a team taking on big contracts into their cap space, just as they did last year with the John Collins transaction. But it’s at least just as likely that the buyers continue to bid up the price on the young, contributing talents around the league that would make sense for the future of the Utah Jazz.

Mostly unrelatedly, the Jazz also passed on any deals on Day 1 of the draft this year. General Manager Justin Zanik said that once the draft fell the way it did — especially with some surprising picks at No. 5 and in the early 20s — that the team knew there was no need to in order for them to get players they liked.

Based on Zanik’s post-draft news conference, it seemed they thought more about the possibility of trading away No. 29 to any of the “number of calls” they received once players started falling at the end of the first round. But the front office’s modeling, Zanik said, indicated that the team was likely to get more value by simply taking the best remaining player on their list at No. 29, which turned out to be Collier. The approach makes sense.

Another snippet of Zanik’s interview stood out — when he called his team next year a “young, developmental squad.” There’s no doubt that they are that as it stands, but maintaining that status for 2024-25 wasn’t necessarily a given based on what Ainge said when the season ended.

Right now, the Jazz plan to have a whopping seven players on their NBA roster play in summer league. Third-year center Walker Kessler is going to give it a go again, the Jazz say — a move that could give him confidence and a chance to try new things in low-stakes games. All three second-year players (Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks, and Brice Sensabaugh) are slated to play. And finally, the Jazz anticipate Williams, Collier, and whoever they draft at No. 32 will take part as well. Newly promoted assistant coach Sean Sheldon will coach the team.

All in all, I do think Wednesday’s first round of the 2024 NBA Draft was a very good night for the team’s front office. It’s also one that looks most likely not to change their outlook for the 2024-25 season, but perhaps it will for the years that come after.