Picks: 5. 23, 35,
Needs: They have some nice young pieces — Gordon Hayward (a restricted free agent), Trey Burke, Alec Burks, Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter — and the Jazz gave them all more than 26 minutes a game last season. We saw that start to pay off later in the season (the team was 21-30 after Trey Burke’s return) and Quin Snyder was brought in as coach to speed the development along. After that, while all the players mentioned above are good the Jazz need that one elite talent to bring it all together. They need better defenders and shooters as well.
Trade possibilities: The Jazz wanted to get their star by moving up to the No. 1 pick in this draft, offering various combination sod No. 5 and 23 picks, Favors, Burks, and Jarrett Jack to the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers could change their mind, but were lukewarm on the idea. If the trade did happen would have been interesting is whether the Jazz would have taken Andrew Wiggins — the star with the upside — or Mormon Jabari Parker (who the Utah fan base had hoped would fall to them).
Predictions: Jazz fans wanted to get Parker but that is a long shot at best. If Embiid falls all the way to No. 5 the Jazz could take that risk. After that they likely would take Dante Exum, but again it’s not likely he falls that far Noah Vonleh could be another big to develop, or they could grab Julius Randle in that five slot. Down at No. 23 look for them to roll the dice on a project guy with upside — James Young, P.J. Hairston, Kyle Anderson are all possibilities there.