Darryn Peterson arrives in Utah, Walker Kessler free agency, and more | Jazz Notes

Welcome to the Jazz Notes Podcast. I'm Ben Anderson. I'm Chandler Holtz. We are recording this on June 29th. I know I said January last time. It was like 2 in the morning in New York, and I'd just been at the draft all day. So I apologize for that, but yes, June 29th. The draft is now behind us. Again, I can't believe it. I remember the season ending and being like, all right, now we wait for the lottery, and then we wait for the draft, and now that's all done. And Darren Peterson is a member of the Utah Jazz. He will make his debut coming up on Saturday in the Salt Lake City Summer League. We'll talk about that. Some other quick news and notes as far as the Jazz getting ready for a free agency. I wrote a big article today on kind of the latest with Walker Kessler, the Lakers, rumors. I would go and read that if I were a Jazz fan. KSLSports.com just kind of has the latest that I've heard. learned, et cetera, et cetera. But we will, of course, talk about that here on the podcast as well. Find us on social media, Ben's Hoops and Seaholt Sports. Chandler did a fun thing over the weekend sitting down with your former high school basketball coach. Friend. Friend. Just a friend. Okay. He's a coach now. He is a coach now, though. And you guys broke down. What, 90 minutes of Darren Peterson footage from college? So if you missed that, go check it out. That should be on Chandler's Twitter still, at Seaholt Sports. And you're going to try and do more stuff like that.

Yes, I think we'll do the exact same thing either during or after Vegas Summer League, talking about Darren Peterson's first looks with the Jazz. So very

cool. Otherwise, let's get to the quick news and notes of the day because free agency technically opens at 6 o'clock tomorrow or 7 o'clock our time tomorrow, whatever it is. Tomorrow evening, some of the free agency stuff begins.

Yes. So coming out today from Tony Jones at The Athletic reported a handful of moves from the Utah Jazz, all of which were, yes, they're news, but also because of the NBA calendar, what today marks were expected. So first of all, the Utah Jazz offered the qualifying offer to Walker Kessler. Basically, Walker has the chance if he doesn't like whatever full contract he gets from the Jazz can accept that. And then he returns on a cheaper contract for one year and then he can become an unrestricted free agent next year. Seven million dollars. Yes. A

little bit over seven million, but. Not significant. If he's worried about getting every penny right now in free agency, I'm not sure signing a $7 million qualifying offer makes a whole lot of sense. But that is on the table for him. That's his one piece of leverage he really has in this situation.

And then also reported that the Jazz did not tender qualifying offers to EJ Harkless or Oscar Sheboy. We know that the Jazz like Harkless, and even Tony said this, could be a return there, TBD. And then declined team options on both Besenbang and Hayden Gray. I think Hayden Gray just played like – he was there for the very end of the season. The

last game against the Lakers.

Yes, and then Bezembang was there for the last couple of weeks of the season. They will both be with the Jazz