Did the Utah Jazz sign more free agent acquisitions than any other team? I don't know.
But, you take this handsome bunch -- Mike Conley, who arrived in a blockbuster trade, and the four free agents who hopped aboard -- and you have one of the biggest roster overhauls in the league.
At least three of the new Jazzmen are coming off the best years of their careers. One owns what was once the biggest contract in NBA history. One was once hailed as possibly becoming the number-one pick in the draft. One is one of the best defenders and rebounders in the league. One has twice scored more than 40 points in a game.
The fifth one? One of the best sharpshooters in the league. This last season, he was a lights-out 49.7 percent from the field, and 42.5 from long range.
Three were top-five draft picks, one was a 13th pick. Such a disappointment -- the fifth was all the way down at a 31st pick.
Guys who are capable of opening it up and scorching opponents. Now, they fire their shots for the Jazz.
Let's start with Mike Conley. Not a free agent, he arrived in a blockbuster trade. Mike Conley, you know him: In 2016, he signed what at the time was the most lucrative NBA contract in NBA history, $153 million for a five-year deal. The Jazz have inherited that contract.
Mike Conley, perhaps the most-decorated long-term player in the NBA never to have been named an all-star. Meet "the Conductor," as they call him. Meet "MAC-11." (His full name is Michael Alex Conley and he wore jersey No. 11 with the Memphis Grizzlies, thus "MAC-11.")
Meet the one they've called "Mr. Clutch." Not every year has he been great in the clutch, but he has been a clutch player enough years that he has earned the nickname. Game-tying and game-winning shots about. He's been known to jump up and play his best in big games. There was a 35-point outburst in the playoffs in 2017 in an overtime win against San Antonio, and there was the time in 2015 when he was returning from a broken face, wearing a mask, and he scored 21 points to lead the Grizz to a playoff victory against the Golden State Warriors. They called him "the Masked Assassin" for that.
Meet the good guy. In all his years in the NBA, he's only been whistled for a technical once -- and the NBA office overturned that one. Nobody currently comes close to his streak of games played without a tech.
He's a two-time winner of the Sportsmanship Award. He's been voted the best teammate in the league. He's deep into Christianity. "Jesus means the world. Jesus means everything," he has said. He's one of the league's most notable players in community service.
Like some of the other new Jazz acquisitions, Conley is coming off perhaps his best season. His career points per game average is only 14.9, but he came in at 21.1 this past season. There was that 40-point splash -- 19 coming in the fourth quarter -- in a 120-111 win against Portland. Earlier, in November, he scored 37 points and had 10 assists in a 131-125 double overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets.
One week this past season, in March, he was named the conference player of the week. Also this past season, he became the Grizzlies all-time leading scorer, though that came in large part due to his long tenure -- until the Jazz picked him up, his entire career had been in Memphis.
He didn't come cheap. The Jazz gave up their first-round pick this year, a future first-round pick, Kyle Korver, Grayson Allen, and Jae Crowder. Korver ranks as one of the NBA's best three-point shooters. Allen is the only Jazz rookie other than Donovan Mitchell to ever score 40 points in a game. Crowder was a key player and lead contributor this past season.
And, the others in this crowd of new Jazz players?
Start with Emmanuel Mudiay might be the least of them, What a resume. He forwent college to play in China. He once was touted as the possible first-pick of the 2015 draft. He ended up going seventh to the Denver Nuggets. He scored a career high 30 points that year in a 116-98 win against the Phoenix Suns. Then. later in the season, he went off for 30 again as the Nuggets defeated the Boston Celtics 123-107.
This past season, playing for the New York Knicks, he had a career-best 32 points in a 126-124 win against the Boston Celtics. Then, three days later, he scored 32 points in a 128-110 loss to the Phoenix Suns. Mudiay, a 39.3-percent shooter for his career, shot 44.6 percent this year. His career points-per game average is 11.8, while he was 14.8 this past season.
But, he's not without his weak points. He made only 53 percent of his shots when within three feet of the basket last year, one of the poorest averages in the NBA. He scored only 0.89 points per play in transition plays last year, one of the worst figures in the league. His assist-to-turnover ratio was sub par.
In him the Jazz have a refugee. During the Second Congo War, his family applied for asylum and came to the United States.
After Mudiay, look at Ed Davis. He ranks as one of the best back-up centers in the league. This past season, his coach in Brooklyn called him the glue that kept the team together. Teammate D'Angelo Russell hailed him as "a rebounding sensation," and, indeed, he might be one of the best rebounders in the league. This past season, he averaged 8.6 rebounds per game in only 17.9 minutes of play per game. He carries one of the better put-back stats in the league.
And, he's a defensive monster. He ranked second to Rudy Gobert this past season in ESPN's Real Plus-Minus defensive stats.
He's an NCAA champion, having played for the NCAA-winning North Carolina Tar Heels. He was the 13th pick of the 2010 draft.
The Jazz also picked up Jeff Green, the 5th pick in the 2007 draft. His coach at Georgetown, John Thompson, once called Green the smartest player whoever played for him. The Big East player of the year in 2007, he was drafted by the Boston Celtics, who traded him to the Seattle Supersonics/Oklahoma Thunder, where he made the All-Rookie first team. During that first season, in April, 2008, he broke open for 35 points against Denver. In 2010, he amassed 37 points in one of his games.
In Green, we have a heart patient. He missed all of the 2011-2012 season due to a heart aneurysm. Kevin Durrant, his former OKC teammate, dedicated his season to Green.
In his first season back, he scored 43 points for the Celtics, who had acquired him back, in a game in March of 2013. In March, 2014, he had a 39-point outing.
A career 44.1 percent shooter, he seared the nets at 47.5 percent this last season. Only seven other guard-line players shot that well.
Finally, there's Bojan Bogdanovic, one of the top free agents this year. The 31st pick of the 2011 draft, he had perhaps his best year this past season. A 46.3 percent shooter, he shot a sizzling 49.7 percent this last year. His career 13.3 points per game average compares to 20.0 this year. Big jump.
High points in his career include a 44-point effort in 2016 while with the Brooklyn Nets. While with the Washington Wizards in 2017, he set a franchise record by going 16-16 in free throws during one game.
This season, he scored 31 points in a game on Feb. 2 and 29 in a game on Feb. 7, leading to his being named conference player of the week. But, his season best was yet to come. On Feb. 28, he went for 37 points in a 122-115 win against Minnesota and on March 24 he scored 35 points in a 124-88 win against the Denver Nuggets.
If he produces for the Jazz the way he did for the Pacers, he will be a huge contribution to a successful season.
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