The Utah Jazz do not exactly have a storied history of attracting marquee free agents. Like many small market clubs in the NBA, they’ve mostly had to acquire top shelf talent by drafting well, or making shrewd trades (which, as we’ve noted, is something they’ve done a lot).
Luckily, the Jazz have consistently been led by shrewd front offices with an ability to unearth diamonds in the NBA’s rough. The capacity to do so has allowed them to remain competitive for the majority of the 90s, 00s and 10s without typically drawing the interest of major free agents.
Still, the Utah Jazz have managed to acquire a handful of quality players through free agency throughout its history as well. Ultimately, Salt Lake City may not be a bustling metropolis like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, but there will always be NBA players who are more concerned with winning games than they are with rubbing shoulders with fellow celebrities.
Yes, Utah is known for its vast mountains, sprawling deserts, and range of outdoor activities, including skiing and fishing.
Here are the five biggest free agents the Utah Jazz have managed to reel in throughout its franchise history.
making shrewd trades</a> (which, <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/15/utah-jazz-best-trade-history-blazers/">as we’ve noted</a>, is <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/19/utah-jazz-best-trade-philadelphia-76ers/">something they’ve done a lot</a>).</p>
<p>Luckily, the Jazz have consistently been led by shrewd front offices with an ability to unearth diamonds in the NBA’s rough. The capacity to do so has allowed them to remain competitive for the majority of the 90s, 00s and 10s without typically drawing the interest of major free agents.</p>
<p>Still, the Utah Jazz have managed to acquire a handful of quality players through free agency throughout its history as well. Ultimately, Salt Lake City may not be a bustling metropolis like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago, but there will always be NBA players who are more concerned with winning games than they are with rubbing shoulders with fellow celebrities.</p>
<p>Plus, if you’re <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://thejnotes.com/2018/01/07/utah-jazz-george-hill-missing-mountain-views/">a lover of the great outdoors</a>, an Utah Jazz uniform definitely has its appeal.</p>
<p>Yes, Utah is known for its vast mountains, sprawling deserts, and range of outdoor activities, including skiing and fishing.</p>
<p>Here are the five biggest free agents the Utah Jazz have managed to reel in throughout its franchise history.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 5. Raja Bell </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-85802" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_1098,w_1600/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F139633569.jpeg" alt="Utah Jazz " width="1600" height="1098" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/139633569.jpeg 1600w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/139633569-768x527.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:1600px;">Raja Bell of the Utah Jazz (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Young NBA fans may know Bell primarily for his podcast work at The Ringer. Without question, Bell is an insightful and engaging NBA analyst, but he also had a productive NBA career worth remembering.</p>
<p>It’s obvious that Bell didn’t mind playing for the Utah Jazz, as he actually signed with the franchise on two different occasions, in 2003-04 and to finish out his playing career in 2010-11. In this article, we’ll be covering his first, more fruitful stint as a Jazzman.</p>
<p>His best statistical season in Utah came in 2004-05, when he averaged 12.3 points per game, shooting a highly efficient 40.3% on 2.1 three-point attempts per game. Like so many three-point snipers from his generation, Bell would have made for a great fit in the modern NBA, as he could easily have tripled that volume of three-point attempts in a modern offense.</p>
<p>Bell was also a somewhat confusing NBA player in the sense that advanced metrics did not reflect his reputation on the defensive end. He had a career Defensive Rating of 112, and a career Defensive Box Plus/Minus (DBPM) of -0.4. Neither of those are atrocious marks, but they certainly don’t <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://bleacherreport.com/articles/891989-peskiest-perimeter-defenders-in-the-nba" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bely a player with Bell’s reputation</a>.</p>
<p>Defensive impact is notoriously difficult to capture. Often enough, the stats reflect what we expect of them, but it <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://www.sfchronicle.com/warriors/article/Why-isn-t-Klay-Thompson-an-All-Defensive-lock-13704578.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">simply isn’t always the case</a>. We can safely assume that Bell was the pesky defensive presence his reputation suggests. Couple that impact with his consistent three-point accuracy, and you’ve got one of the best free agent signings in Utah Jazz history.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 4. Bojan Bogdanovic </a>
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sharpshooting forward Bojan Bogdanovic</a>. He’s given Quin Snyder’s offense a needed shot-in-the-arm since arriving in Salt Lake City (and no, we’re not talking about a COVID-19 vaccine).</p>
<p>In his first season in Utah, Bogey averaged an impressive 20.2 points per game while shooting a sterling 41.4% from deep on 7.3 attempts per game. That kind of spacing in the front court is invaluable in context of the modern NBA, particularly for a team that has an absolute need to surround Rudy Gobert with spacing.</p>
<p>The Utah Jazz have done exactly that, and it’s paid dividends. Last season, the team finished the season with the fourth best offensive rating in the NBA at 116.5. Meanwhile, the Stifle Tower’s presence largely afforded them the league’s third best defensive rating at 107.5. Overall, that gave them the league’s best net rating at 9.0, and it wasn’t particularly close; the runner-up Los Angeles Clippers finished second in that category at 6.1.</p>
<p>Bogdanovic and his elite floor-spacing was a huge component of the formula that led to the Jazz’s immense regular season success. He can hardly be blamed for the team’s second round playoff collapse either, as he averaged 18.1 points per game while shooting an even-more-impressive 46.1% from deep on 6.9 attempts per game in last season’s playoffs.</p>
<p>Bogdanovic is a pure scoring specialist. His defense ranges from slightly weak to barely acceptable, and he’s not much of a playmaker or rebounder. The Utah Jazz will absolutely live with those shortcomings in a player who can play either forward spot and get his team 17 to 20 points on hyper-efficient three-point shooting on a nightly basis.</p>
<p>He’s a perfect fit for this roster, and if the Jazz can make-good on their championship aspirations over the course of his tenure with the squad, he may end up looking better than the fourth-best free agency signing in franchise history.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 3. Rickey Green </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-61114" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_3030,w_2819/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F08%2F79859843-utah-jazz-v-chicago-bulls.jpg.jpg" alt="Utah Jazz" width="2819" height="3030" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/08/79859843-utah-jazz-v-chicago-bulls.jpg.jpg 2819w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/08/79859843-utah-jazz-v-chicago-bulls.jpg-768x825.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 2819px) 100vw, 2819px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:2819px;">Rickey Green of the Utah Jazz (Photo by Ronald C. Modra/Sports Imagery/Getty Images)</p>
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<p>In the last slide, we touched on a current member of the Utah Jazz. Here, we’re taking it way back to 1980-81, when the Jazz signed the man they called Fastest Of Them All in Rickey Green.</p>
<p>Green didn’t project as an All-Star caliber player when the Jazz acquired him through free agency that year. He was the 16th overall pick in the 1977 NBA Draft. He spent a single season with the Golden State Warriors before moving on to the Detroit Pistons, where he also only stuck for a year.</p>
<p>He was statistically underwhelming at both of those stops, and that trend actually carried over into Salt Lake City for a season. In Green’s first season with the Utah Jazz he produced a solid, but underwhelming 9.0 points, 5.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game.</p>
<p>It’s hard to say what happened to Green over the 1980 offseason. If the Utah Jazz could mine history and figure out what it was, they’d bottle it, store it and give it to every player on their roster.</p>
<p>In 1981-82, Green improved those numbers to 14.8 points, 7.8 assists and a healthy 2.3 steals per game. By 1983-84, Green was an All-Star with averages of 13.2 points, 9.2 assists and 2.7 steals. He also posted an impressive career-high 3.5 Value Over Replacement Player (VORP) that season.</p>
<p>Whenever a franchise can garner all-star production from an unexpected source, it’s cause for celebration. With Green manning the point, the Utah Jazz went 45-37 and advanced to the second round of the NBA playoffs. It was the best season in franchise history at that time.</p>
<p>That’s pretty good for a team featuring a guy who’d projected as a career backup running the point.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 2. Mehmet Okur </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-85805" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_1066,w_1600/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F86303162.jpeg" alt="Utah Jazz" width="1600" height="1066" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/86303162.jpeg 1600w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/86303162-768x512.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:1600px;">Mehmet Okur of the Utah Jazz (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Similarly to Green, Okur was not a big-name player when the Utah Jazz acquired him through free agency in 2004-05. In fact, the Turkish stretch-5 was selected 38th overall in the 2001 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons, making him one of the better second-round selections in NBA history.</p><div class="widget fs_ads"> <div class="fs_ad_widget-ad" style="margin:0 auto; width: 300px;"> <div class="fs-ll-ad" data-ad-type="minutemedia_slideshow_inline_300x250__desktop__tablet" data-vendor="minutemedia">
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<p>Possibly, Okur was ahead of his time. The concept of a stretch-5 was relatively foreign to NBA scouts in 2001. Shaq was likely the best player in the NBA, and the driving assumption was that 7-footers should be beating up opponents on the low block on a nightly basis. Perhaps that explains why a player as talented as Okur couldn’t surpass 22.3 minutes per game as a Detroit Piston.</p>
<p>Well, the Utah Jazz certainly saw some value in the Money Man.</p>
<p>His first season in Salt Lake City was already an unmitigated success. He averaged 12.9 points per game and 7.5 rebounds. However, it wasn’t until his second season in Utah, 2005-06, that Okur really blossomed. He averaged 18.0 points, 9.1 rebounds and shot 34.2% on 2.9 three-point attempts per game for the Utah Jazz that season.</p>
<p>That may not be an elite three-point percentage in general, but at the center position, it’s a figure that would hold up in the modern NBA. Okur wasn’t exactly a 2005 version of <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/24/utah-jazz-3-towns-trades-team-involved/">Karl-Anthony Towns</a>, but for comparison’s sake, Brook Lopez just shot 33.8% on 4.0 attempts per game for the Milwaukee Bucks over the 2020-21 season. His spacing is seen as invaluable to the Bucks’ championship-winning attack, and for good reason.</p>
<p>Indeed, Okur was ahead of his time. He was a consistent three-level scorer for the Utah Jazz, as he shot 61% on shots within 0-3 feet of the basket in 2005-06, and 47.8% from midrange shots in the 10-16 foot range.</p>
<p>Given his aforementioned floor-spacing, that’s an impressive, modernized shot profile that any coach would be happy with in 2020-21. It’s enough to qualify Okur as the second-best free agency signing in Utah Jazz history.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 1. Carlos Boozer </a>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-85808" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2129,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F98853507.jpeg" alt="Utah Jazz" width="3200" height="2129" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/98853507.jpeg 3200w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/98853507-768x511.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"><div class="fs-center-img">
<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:3200px;">Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Clocking in as the best free agency signing in Utah Jazz history is Mehmet Okur teammate Carlos Boozer. This era of Jazz basketball was defined by poaching elite second-round draft selections after the completion of their rookie contracts, and turning them into stars. It’s a bold, difficult-to-replicate organizational strategy, but it certainly worked in the mid 00s.</p>
<p>Unlike his Turkish teammate, Boozer was a throwback, low-block menace in Salt Lake City (although he was equipped with a reliable midrange jump shot). He averaged 17.8 points and 9.0 rebounds in his first season with the team in 2004-05, and never looked back.</p>
<p>His best individual season as a Jazzman would come in 2006-07, when he posted averages of 20.9 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. His advanced stats were even more impressive, with a 24.1 Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and 4.3 VORP. For context, those figures would have ranked 17th and 6th in the 2020-21 NBA season.</p>
<p>Boozer was an All-Star for the Utah Jazz that season, as well as the following one. Furthermore, his individual accomplishments translated into team success. In particular, 2006-07 was one of the finest seasons in Utah Jazz history, as the team finished with a 51-31 record and advanced to the Western Conference Finals.</p>
<div class="fs-shortcode" data-type="StoryLink" data-theme="dark" data-text="Predicting stats for every Jazz starter in 2020-21" data-url="https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/26/utah-jazz-predicting-stats-every-starter/" data-call-to-action="Next"> <div class="story-link-next"> <a class="story-link-next-btn" style="background: #00265D" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="story-link-next-shortcode" href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/27/utah-jazz-best-signings-history/"https://thejnotes.com/2021/09/26/utah-jazz-predicting-stats-every-starter/"> <span class="call_to_action">Next:</span> Predicting stats for every Jazz starter in 2020-21 </a> </div>
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<p>It’s safe to assume that Salt Lake City will never be a premier destination for top NBA free agents. It is not exactly a celebrity hotspot or fashion hub. However, even without one of the league’s most glamorous markets, it also feels safe to assume that the Utah Jazz will continue to be successful; especially if they can make more under-the-radar free agent signings like these five.</p><!—pageview_candidate—>">