How Mo Bamba's Contract Gives Utah Jazz Extended Flexibility

All signs currently point towards Bamba reaching those benchmarks for his contract. The Jazz have 15 players locked onto their current roster and can use Bamba's size and defensive presence in their frontcourt in a reserve spot, or maybe even as a rotational piece in case of injury.

However, without the guarantees on his deal, it's not exactly a surefire bet that the Jazz don't decide to shift around their roster before then, or add another player to the roster that could compete with Bamba for that final spot on their 15-man group.

Let's say the Jazz sign another player to a veteran minimum deal, or even decide to make a trade involving someone else on the roster that brings in an extra body, then releasing Bamba could become a necessary move to make space for that addition.

Bottom Line

Again, there's nothing that says the Jazz don't just hold onto their current group and roll into opening night with this roster as is. At this point, that appears to be the most likely possibility, considering there's been no recent rumblings of Utah wanting to make any significant changes from what they have now.

But we know how much this Jazz front office loves their flexibility. That was one of the main takeaways from their deal to ship off Kessler at the start of July, which provided them with a huge layer of flexibility in both future draft capital and in terms of their finances for the next several years.

This situation is flexibility on a bit of a smaller scale. However, it does at least keep the Jazz in play to make one final touch to their roster with either a signing or a trade that they feel necessary.