The Jazz View 2020 As “Draft Of Equality”

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – In part two of our interview with Utah Jazz Vice President of Player Personnel Walt Perrin,  the Jazz Notes podcast looks to dive into how NBA franchises use shorthand to diagnose individual drafts, and how the organization views the upcoming 2020 draft.

Scheduled for June 25, the NBA may be forced to push the draft back later into the summer or potentially early fall should league play resume during the summer months in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

In part one of the two-part series with Perrin, the Jazz scout said the team is preparing to proceed with the draft as scheduled.

When asked if the Jazz compare current and past drafts to find trends in the annual summer event, Perrin said that danger lies in comparing the build-up in one draft to the fall out of another.

“We may compare drafts to drafts,” Perrin said, “But when you do that, it’s got to be at the same stage of the draft. People can not say if it’s been a good, bad, or indifferent draft until three or four years down the road.”

Reporting with @DraftExpress: As information gathering on draft-eligible prospects remains limited in a pandemic, many NBA teams are united in hopes of encouraging the league office to push the date of the June 25 draft until no sooner than August 1. Story soon on ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 10, 2020

“We look at each draft as an individual draft. This is what we have to look at, this is what we have to evaluate. We can’t evaluate them versus other drafts.”

One common practice teams will use as they prepare for the draft is separating players into separate tiers or “buckets” to identify draft ranges through the first and second rounds, a process the Jazz have already begun according to Perrin.

“We’ve started the process and we will be tweaking it as we go forward,” Perrin said, “In the past, we’ve had the workouts and the interviews to help us tweak the buckets … this year we may not have workouts, we don’t know for sure yet.”

Beyond tiers, the Jazz are looking at 2020 as a “draft of equality,” especially where they may be draft.

“I would say from the 15 pick to the 30 pick,” Perrin said, “You could probably have 40 guys that you’re looking at, maybe more … and it’s who you like in that particular range that is going to dictate whether or not you take them. There could be players taken in the late teens and early 20’s that other teams may have on their draft board at 35 and 40.”

Despite reports that teams are asking the NBA to push it back, the @UtahJazz are preparing for the #NBADraft as if it will take place on June 25th, as scheduled. https://t.co/vnReDZRQR4

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) April 10, 2020

While how teams approach the draft changes every summer as every franchise hopes to find a leg up in finding a diamond in the rough that can propel their franchise forward, has the value of the draft itself changed for the Jazz as a franchise?

“I think the draft is always important because we are a small market team,” Perrin said of the Jazz, “It’s important that we get the draft correct, not to say we don’t get free-agency correct. But I think it’s very important we get the Jazz draft correct because it gives us growth, it gives us controlled contracts, it gives us the ability to develop these players into stars with our developmental staff.”

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