30 Days 30 Grades: Day 29 Northwest Division Utah Jazz Off-season grade

Welcome to day 29 of my 30 day blog series titled "30 Days 30 Grades".  Today I am going to be talking about the off-season of Northwestern Division Western Conference NBA team Utah Jazz.  Here are the four things I"m going to do in this blog  1)  Give my off-season grade of the Utah Jazz,  2) Give a list of Jazz players added to the rosters whether it be through the draft, trade, free agency or claimed off of waivers , 3) Give a list of Jazz players subtracted from the roster, and finally 4) I will give the reason or reasons why I give the Utah Jazz the off-season report card grade that I give them.



Utah Jazz off-season grade:  B




Utah Jazz Players Added:  Dante Exum, Rodney Hood, Trevor Booker, Dee Best, Jack Cooley, Kevin Murphy, Toure' Murry, Carrick Felix, Steve Novak, Dahntay Jones

Utah Jazz Players Subtracted:  Brandon Rush, Marvin Williams, Diante Garrett, Richard Jefferson, John Lucas III, Erik Murphy, Malcolm Thomas

Why did  I give the Utah Jazz an off-season report card grade of a B?   They have a nice core with Enes Kanter, Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward, Alex Burks and Trey Burke.  I am curious about the unknown man of mystery in 2014 NBA Draft 5th pick combo guard Dante Exum.   Will Exum be staring at the shooting guard with Trey Burke in the backcourt?   I know right now according to ESPN depth chart and here's the link if you need proof http://espn.go.com/nba/team/depth/_/name/utah/utah-jazz  that Trey Burke and Alex Burks will be the starters.  Who knows what may change though?   I was surprised that 6 foot 8 small forward Rodney Hood fell to the Utah Jazz  with the 23rd pick in the 2014 NBA Draft.  Hood averaged for Duke last year 16.1 points per game, 3.9 rebounds per game and 2.1 assists per game.  I think that Duke 6 foot 8 small forward Rodney Hood will be at least a solid role player in the NBA.  I was a bit surprised at the pickup of combo wing player Dahntay Jones. I like him when he was on the Pacers.  Jones has a career 44% field goal percentage, 33% 3 point percentage, a 75% career free throw shooter, who has averaged 5.6 points per game in his career. Not great numbers but I feel that Dahntay is a decent role player.  Trevor Booker is an interesting player. Booker was a solid role player for the Washington Wizards who averged 6.8 points per game, 5.3 rebounds per game, and shot 55% from the field in over 21 minutes per game. Booker is a nice backup to come in at the power forward spot when Favors or Jeremy Evans goes out.  31 year old veteran forward three point specialist was added to the Jazz roster.  I like the pickup of Novak because he could be a stretch 4 if necessary.  Novak is a career 43% three point shooter.  I like that Novak will be a three point bomber off the bench.  Do you think the Jazz made solid moves this off-season?  What do you think about my grade?  Is it too high?  Too low? or just right? Send me your comments and tell me why or why not?  Thank you for reading Pro Basketball Hoops Land. The blog where you can read articles from the perspective of an NBA Fan, send comments and purchase Utah Jazz or any other pro basketball team merchandise.