After Dante Exum suffered his torn ACL in international play this summer, there was widespread speculation that the Utah Jazz would pursue a trade to replace the young point guard for what figures to be a crucial season in their development. With Utah on the cusp of making a playoff run after an exceptionally strong back half of the season last year, a roster upgrade could go a long way towards shoring up their team post-injury.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports, however, that the Jazz plan to give it a go with Trey Burke, Raulzinho Neto, and Bryce Cotton as the point guard rotation, and give them a chance to earn the right to weather the storm. From the Tribune:
But the Tribune has learned the Jazz fully plan to go into training camp and the preseason with Burke, Neto and Cotton as their floor leaders. If things don't work out, the front office could take another course of action once the regular season begins in November. Or if someone makes a trade offer the Jazz would be fools to turn down, but that's a remote possibility. For now, Utah's content to go with its trio of playmakers and let them…..play.
Source: Utah Jazz content to let point guards battle after Exum injury | The Salt Lake Tribune.
So they're keeping their options open, but going to give it a whirl. Makes sense. No reason to give up assets you might need in favor of a quick fix that likely won't be that great anyway. It's easy to forget that Burke was an absolutely sensational player in college and a dynamic scorer. He's got a good work ethic, he just has to overcome physical limitations and the game's advanced speed. He may not be able to, but Burke deserves a shot at the starting spot.
There's also a very good chance there's a roster cut at some point in training camp that can help them, or that a player will become expendable if another player makes a considerable improvement.
Of course, there's always the possibility that this entire thing is a feint to help control trade talks. No better way to boost your leverage than by publicly broadcasting "What's that? A trade? No thank you, we're fine here. You can peddle your wares elsewhere, thank you very much. What's that? Well, I suppose as long as you're on the phone..."
We'll see how this shakes out, but if the team's roster is as unbalanced as this data suggests, Utah's going to have to find a new option pretty quickly. From Hardwood Paroxysm:
So yeah... the "need a move" moment might come sooner rather than later.
