SALT LAKE CITY — Derrick Favors didn’t appear to be stressed.

His bald fade haircut was fresh, along with his white Rudy’s Kids Foundation T-shirt.

Less than 24 hours after falling to Houston in the second round of the playoffs, the longest-tenured Jazzman addressed the media at the practice facility on May 9 with a smile on his face.

Even while being bombarded with questions about his pivotal offseason during his exit interview, Favors kept a smile on his face.

“I enjoyed this year,” Favors told the room. “I enjoyed my whole time in Utah. I fell in love with the city, with the organization, with you guys (the media), but my role definitely changed this year.

“It was something I wasn’t expecting at first, but I kind of had to just adjust to it and deal with it and find a way to contribute on the court.”

Now as free agency begins on July 1, the Jazz organization is doing everything in its power to lock down Favors, who is preparing to test unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career.

We’ve got a really good team back and we expect our three internal free agents back, hopefully. We’ve got to go through that process. – Dennis Lindsey

Restricted free agents Dante Exum and Raul Neto are also high on the Jazz’s offseason radar.

Favors has set up a "few" face-to-face free-agent meetings with NBA teams, according to a Deseret News source, but is currently vacationing until the meetings can start.

Favors loves Utah but his goal is to go through the process to see what situation is best for him, and the Jazz can only respect that.

“The exit interviews went really well,” said Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey. “And we have good relationships with all three agencies so I don’t know anything that would get in the way of a deal. But they have to vet their market, we have to vet our market, and then we have to match some notes and see if there’s three marriages, in this case, to be made.”

Building internally seems to be the goal for the Jazz this offseason. After Utah’s historic turnaround — starting the season 19-28 to becoming the No. 5 playoff team in the Western Conference — the pieces seem in place to build a championship contender in the near future.

Center Rudy Gobert was recently named the 2018 Defensive Player of the Year, while Donovan Mitchell and Quin Snyder both finished as runners-up in Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year voting. The Jazz have now added former Duke star Grayson Allen to the mix as its 21st overall pick in the recent draft, but even with that addition, Neto and Exum are valued contributors.

The price, however, will have to be right — for both sides.

“We’ve got a really good team back and we expect our three internal free agents back, hopefully,” Lindsey said. “We’ve got to go through that process.

“If that’s the case, (Grayson Allen’s) going to have to watch and learn and compete and (Quin Snyder’s) gonna have to make decisions on who starts and who’s in the rotation and 82 games is a lot between injury, illness, experimentation with five-man lineups.

“I would imagine that (Grayson) would get in some but who knows,” he added. “There’s a lot of work that has to happen before that.”

As restricted free agents, Utah has the luxury to match any offer sheets that get signed by Exum, Neto and two-way player Georges Niang. That isn’t the case for Favors, though.

Niang will continue to play summer league with the Jazz in hopes of finalizing a spot in Utah this season, according to a source. His team will field calls when free agency opens, but ideally they think Utah is the best fit.

As for the others, the future remains to be seen. Ekpe Udoh, Jonas Jerebko and Thabo Sefolosha are also looking to secure their non-guaranteed contracts.

The chances of Utah landing a marquee star are slim to none but it wouldn’t be a stretch to see the bulk of the 2017-18 lineup back in Salt Lake City to pick up where it left off after the 48-34 regular-season finish.

Stay tuned.