The Utah Jazz introduced new members center Ed Davis and forward Jeff Green on Friday to assembled media, with the veterans citing their new team's ripe position to contend for a title as the key reason to come aboard.
“At this stage of my career, I wanted to play on … a team that has a chance to contend for a title at the end of the year,” the 30-year-old Davis told the media, according to The Salt Lake Tribune's Eric Walden.
“With the personnel that they were building,” Green responded, “the opportunity to win was most important.”
It's been a furious revamp of the Jazz roster over the offseason, first capped off with the blockbuster trade to acquire the 12-year point guard vet Mike Conley from the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Jazz followed up dealing for Conley with signing Davis, Green, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Emmanuel Mudiay in free agency. The team won 50 games during the 2018-19 regular season, but a first-round exit in the playoffs left a bitter taste in the mouths of the front office and head coach Quin Snyder.
Utah signed the 6-foot-10 center Davis, who played for the Brooklyn Nets last season, to a two-year deal worth $10 million. In his nine-year career, Davis has averaged 6.5 points and 6.8 rebounds in 20.2 minutes per game and 640 total appearances, mostly in a bench role. He was a backend lottery pick in the 2010 draft and after spending time with the Toronto Raptors and Grizzlies saw three seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers before heading out east.
The Jazz inked Green, a 32-year-old tweener forward, to a one-year deal at $2.5 million. Green averaged 12.3 points per game shooting 47.5% from the floor for the Washington Wizards this past season.
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