In the second move of the evening, the Jazz replaced the outgoing Derrick Favors with veteran forward Ed Davis, for two years and $10 million, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Davis has made a career of bouncing around the league as an underpaid rebounding, hustle player who can play both front court positions, usually as a bench player. Tony Jones had reported the Jazz would be looking to add a power forward to the roster that could potentially start, and move the aging Joe Ingles to the bench, allowing the newly signed Bojan Bogdanovic to the small forward position. Davis could start for the Jazz, but may be retain his more natural role of coming off the bench.
Over the past three seasons, the Jazz have preferred to start a two big starting line up with Favors and Rudy Gobert, while brining Jae Crowder or Joe Johnson off the bench. If the Jazz prefer to keep that rotation intact, Davis could start, be the Jazz first substitution to the bench, then subbing back in for Gobert.
Last year Davis averaged a staggering 8.6 rebounds in just 17.9 minutes. For reference, Favors snagged 7.4 rebounds in 23.2 minutes alongside Gobert.
Davis provides a similar, albeit lower level of production at a great discount compared to Favors $16.9 million deal.
