Salt Lake Tribune

The best Twitter day of the year is officially over. And it was on National Social Media Day, no less. To add a extra pinch of fun, the madness isn’t yet over either.

Noted NBA Twitter superstar Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) nicely summed up the feeling around the state of Utah and across the nation by the end of the first day of NBA free agency.

Most NBA experts didn’t see it coming either but by the end of the night on Sunday, many of the top basketball minds in the country considered the Utah Jazz to be immediate contenders for the Western Conference title in the 2019–20 season after signing free agents Bojan Bogdandovic and Ed Davis.

What’s happening in Utah and on social media is probably the most excitement that those two players have ever generated, but it’s completely warranted. Bogdandovic and Davis join a loaded Jazz roster that not only includes Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert but also newly-acquired veteran point guard Mike Conley.

The Jazz made some bold and crafty moves and now the roster is much more rounded and prepared to perform at a high level next season. At the end of the season, Jazz VP of basketball ops Dennis Lindsey stated that getting a “sniper” would be a priority in the offseason. Bogdandovic, a 6-foot-8 forward, shot the lights out last season in Indiana at rate of 42.5 percent from beyond the arc last season. By the way, the league average for 3-point percentage is around 35 percent, so Bogdandovic is well above average.

The other highly praised signing, Davis, should bolster Utah’s strength in the paint and add some dependability to the floor when Gobert is out. He’s an elite loose-ball-getter with an average of 8.6 rebounds in just 17.9 minutes per game last season with Brooklyn. He demands the ball very little, with a career average of less than five shots per game, but has the competency to make them when he can at a made field goal percentage of 61.6 percent in 2018–19.

Bogdandovic can shoot, Davis can bang and the Jazz are now considered to be contenders in a Western Conference that got completely shaken up by the departure of Kevin Durant to the Nets and the movement of over a third of the league’s players.

The window is open for Utah to make a Finals appearance. If you thought the expectations and excitement for the Jazz were high heading into last season, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

It didn’t come without a cost, however. With the signings, the Jazz quietly parted with their longest tenured member of the squad, Derrick Favors. After 576 games with Utah, Favors will likely be headed to New Orleans for next season.

In May, I wrote for KSLSports.com that Favors deserves to be remembered by Jazz fans for his large body of work and immense sacrifices that he made for the franchise. As I wrote, he probably won’t have his №15 jersey raised to the rafters at Vivint Smart Home Arena, but he deserves a thunderous round of applause when he returns with the Pelicans for the first time at some point next season.

Between Favors’ return and the chance to see Zion Williamson when New Orleans comes to town, it should be one of the most in-demand tickets for Jazz home games next season.

This is going to be Utah’s best chance in years to make a substantial run towards the team’s first NBA championship. That includes years past and possibly even, the future. In sports, the key to winning is to win while the payroll is relatively cheap. Once players hit free agency and are eligible for big deals, assembling a deep and powerful roster becomes exponentially more difficult.

The best example of that concept are the 2013 Seattle Seahawks, who won Super Bowl 48 with Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman and Bobby Wagner on extremely cheap rookie deals.

The Golden State Warriors are also a good example of how the championship window can narrow and close as players progress through their careers and command more and more dough for their services.

Donovan Mitchell is still on his rookie deal and next summer, the Jazz may have to sign Gobert to a supermax contract that could exceed $250 million, making him by far the most expensive Jazzman ever. For now, with the franchise’s two stars being relatively cheap, the ability to build depth is/was present and now the team is loaded.

It’s time to go for it as best as Utah can. Toronto went for it in a one-year experiment by trading for Kawhi Leonard last summer and celebrated a championship earlier this month. The Jazz have built a contender in a different way this summer, but the idea is the same. This is their year.

There are still some more Woj bombs on the way. Leonard, in his trademark stoic fashion, has yet to announce where he will sign, although some reports say he’s leaning towards staying in Toronto. However, if he flips the switch and moves to Los Angeles to sign with either the Lakers or Clippers, it kick off another wave of frenzy on Twitter. Perez will probably change his profile name and picture to something timely and funny, Woj and Shams Charania will duke it out for the rights to break the news first, and all manner of memes will be unleashed. It’ll be another great night on social media.

For now, however, the hype belonged to Utah, even on a night when the Nets signed both Kyrie Irving and Durant. It’s well deserved.