Jazz relying on internal growth — for now


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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz have been mostly silent through the first week of the NBA’s free agency period, while seemingly every other team in the NBA opened their bank accounts, spending money at a rate never seen over a single summer.

Utah Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey has used the team's money modestly so far, bringing back Joe Ingles for the next two seasons for just over $4 million. Otherwise, it appears Lindsey and the Jazz are comfortable allowing their young team to develop and trusting the coaching staff to bring out top-tier talent in a core made up of mostly young 20-somethings.

It’s not a bad gamble to make. In the past 12 months Jazz fans have seen rapid development from Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors and perhaps most impressively Rudy Gobert, who went from a rarely used bench player to one of the top centers in the league. If Rodney Hood, Dante Exum, Trey Burke and Alec Burks can make similar leaps, the Jazz could be looking at the postseason as soon as next season.

If not, we could be talking about a much bleaker future.

Exum looked great in his sophomore summer league debut, contributing 20 points, while also grabbing five rebounds and five assists in a Jazz blowout victory over the Boston Celtics.

Hood also played well, adding a team-high 23 points, while adding 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals. Both players look more comfortable offensively, as scorers and ball handlers.

However, despite improvements to Exum’s body, he still carries a slight frame as was evident by his injury at the end of the summer league game. He landed softly in the NBA last year backing up Burke before finally taking over as the full-time starter midway through the season, and impressively played a full 82-game schedule. Should the Jazz front office expect the same thing this season?

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And what if the Jazz end up relying on their back-up back court? Is Burke capable of leading a team to the postseason he if he forced to start for extended games? He was replaced by a 19-year rookie halfway through his sophomore season, can he win big gaems against Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Damian Lillard and the other superstar point guards in the West?

What about the talent added to other Western Conference teams? Of the eight teams that qualified for the playoffs in the West this past season, only Portland got significantly worse, losing LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum and Robin Lopez.

Unfortunately, Aldridge and Matthews went to Western Conference playoff teams in San Antonio and Dallas, while Dallas also added star center DeAndre Jordan. Phoenix, which finished one game better than the Jazz last season, likely got better by adding former All-Star Tyson Chandler to its rotation.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, who were playing with out Kevin Durant for most of the season and narrowly missed the most season, are likely to get back into the mix with a fully healthy roster.

Meanwhile, the Jazz stand pat.

The Jazz finished the season on a torrid pace, winning 19 of 29 games, a winning percentage that would have easily left them with in the West’s top eight had they been able to keep it up for an entire season. But how realistic is that?

It’s not just the top teams in the West that have gotten better. The young Sacramento Kings added the mercurial Rajon Rondo to a young and talented team. The Los Angeles Lakers, though likely still too short on talent to make the playoffs, should surely improve their win total by a few games, while the Minnesota Timberwolves added the draft’s top talent in Karl Anthony Towns.

While the Jazz are almost guaranteed to be better from last season, any mixture of injuries, youthfulness and lack of depth could derail their playoff hopes. If the Jazz are once again on the outside looking in of the NBA’s postseason, they could be looking back on this summer as the summer opportunity that got away.


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About the Author: Ben Anderson ------------------------------

Ben Anderson is the co-host of Gunther in the Afternoon with Kyle Gunther on 1320 KFAN from 3-7, Monday through Friday. Read Ben's Utah Jazz blog at 1320kfan.com, and follow him on Twitter @BenKFAN.

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