Buy, Sell, or Hold: Judging Each Jazz Player's Roster Spot for 2023-24

Evaluating which Utah Jazz players should return for next season, along with those who should be on their way out.

Each offseason is the ideal time for each NBA franchise to take a step back to analyze their current roster to see how the team can improve going into the next season. In the case of this past season for the Utah Jazz, we saw many players show out, overachieve, and prove their value. However, with the pending cap flexibility and draft assets the team holds, it’s impossible for last year’s group to entirely shift over into the next.

Utah still has a little over a month until the draft is officially underway, which gives us time to look at the roster as a whole to see who has staying power. Some of these players may have even been among the best of the entire team last year, but contractual and future considerations remain a big factor.

We’ll simplify this analysis by categorizing each player into three groups in terms of how the Jazz should approach their roster spots for next season:

• Buy: Invest into these players. Some could potentially be lasting pieces on the roster.
• Sell: Should cut ties with, whether it be through trade, cut, or just letting them walk in free agency.
• Hold: A wait and see situation. It’s only May, we have a whole offseason ahead of us to decide a verdict on some of these guys.

Keeping these three categories in mind, let’s search through the Jazz roster to see what the outcome of this offseason should be for each player.

Collin Sexton: Hold

Not only did Sexton have a productive season for Utah, he was very efficient in the process. While he averaged the lowest point total in his career in 2022-23, he ended up having the best true shooting percentage of his career by far (61.6%). This offensive output may have secured Collin a spot on the team next season, but he does have the current largest contract on the roster. If Danny Ainge were to get aggressive to trade for a high-value player, Sexton could inevitably be a casualty to make the money work.

Damian Jones: Buy

Jones enters this offseason with a player option after being dealt midseason. One thing he did well in his short 19 games with Utah is shoot the basketball well, averaging insane 71/71/77 splits. As a budget big option for next season, there’s not much the Jazz could find better on the open market than Jones. He provides some intriguing upside if he can build on the end of last season.

Jordan Clarkson: Sell

Clarkson is among one of the most productive guards available in this year’s free agency class. Enticing for the Jazz to re-sign, but he doesn’t exactly align with Utah’s timeline. He’ll be 31 entering next season with his best days likely behind him. Signing Jordan to a long-term, expensive deal just isn’t logical considering the state of the team. 

Juan Toscano-Anderson: Sell

A late season addition to the roster, we can likely see Toscano-Anderson on his way out of Utah. He just turned 30 years old and shot the worst shooting splits of his career since getting traded to the Jazz in February. With young talent entering the roster in June, Toscano-Anderson enters free agency likely on a new team next season.

Kelly Olynyk: Sell

Yes, Olynyk was one of the better players for the Jazz down the stretch, but his situation basically comes down to cap specifics. 2023-24 is the last year he’s inked to his current deal, but he only has $3M of that guaranteed. This either comes down to Olynyk getting cut to save $9M, or another team having the ability to deal for Kelly, considering only a quarter of his total $12M would be counted against the cap in a trade. A cheap, productive player like Olynyk may be an intriguing asset for many teams this summer.

Kris Dunn: Buy

Dunn played only 22 games for the Jazz in 2023, but made a statement in that short time. Averaging 13.2, 4.5, and 5.6 after being signed after the All-Star break, Dunn made a potentially career-saving effort to extend enough interest to be rostered into next season. Utah can now get a full season of Dunn to see if this small sample size wasn’t just a fluke.

Lauri Markkanen: Buy

After his first All-Star appearance and Most Improved Player win this past season, Markkanen will look to build on a stellar debut season in year two for Utah. Unless a trade offer involving Markkanen is presented that’s just too insane to pass up, we should see him returning in a Jazz jersey come this October.

Luka Samanic: Hold

Samanic was a late-season addition to the roster, only playing a total of 7 games. His salary is non-guaranteed for next season, so he’ll have to earn his spot on the roster with potentially three new rookies joining the team.

Ochai AgbajI: Buy

Once we saw some increased opportunity come Agbaji’s way after the All-Star break, we saw flashes of what he could soon become. Now with a full rookie season under his belt, we can expect him to have an incoming full season of increased minutes and shots for an improved year two.

Rudy Gay: Sell

Respect to Rudy and his 16 years of NBA service, but his journey can be continued elsewhere. He’ll be 37-years-old next season. There’s not much of a purpose for this ancient artifact of a player to have a spot on this young, building Jazz roster. If Gay would like to keep pursuing his NBA career, send him somewhere like Miami where they seem to love giving out charity contracts to their end-of-bench vets.

Simone Fontecchio: Hold

Fonteccio had a respectable rookie season for Utah, however the problem occurs when you consider he’s a 27-year-old rookie. Looking at it big picture, there’s typically not much room for growth as a player in old rookies such as Simone. As a depth piece in the short-term, he can work, but I wouldn’t make any extensive reservations on his roster spot.

Talen Horton-Tucker: Hold

With one of the more interesting outlooks of the entire roster pool, it’s unseen how much Horton-Tucker may actually be worth on the open market. With an $11M player option on the table, it remains to be seen how the Jazz will have to approach his situation yet. 

Udoka Azubuike: Sell

The former first-round pick’s fourth-year option was declined back during this past October. It would be pretty surprising to see Azubuike handed a second contract to reup with Jazz for next season.

Vernon Carey Jr.: Hold

Just like Luka Samanic, Carey has a non-guaranteed contract on the books for next season. He’ll likely be another player we see attempting to compete for a spot on the team at the beginning of next season depending on this summer’s additions.

Walker Kessler: Buy

What was initially seen as a minor piece of the Rudy Gobert trade soon developed into a Rookie of the Year finalist for this past season. The 7’0 product from Auburn had a stellar first season in Utah filling the defensive anchor role in the middle. Early impressions indicate long-term success for the big man in Utah.

---

Follow Inside The Jazz on Facebook and Twitter.

Subscribe on YouTube for breaking Jazz news videos and live-stream podcasts!