SALT LAKE CITY — The Jazz held practice on Monday, two days before their first regular season game against the Denver Nuggets. Ricky Rubio, Royce O'Neale and head coach Quin Snyder spoke to the media. Here's what's happening.

Extension deadline passes

The NBA's rookie contract extension deadline passed on Monday at 4 p.m. Mountain time with no extension for either Rodney Hood or Dante Exum.

That's not particularly a surprise. The Jazz keep more free agent cap space next summer if these two are not given extensions, and since they'll be restricted free agents anyway, the Jazz will be able to keep them long term if they so choose.

A deal with Exum was never particularly close. Exum's camp wants to bet on his potential, while the Jazz want to see consistent on-court production before giving him an eight-figure annual salary.

Hood, though, was closer. The Jazz like Hood, but want to see whether he's capable of staying healthy, being a solid defender and scoring efficiently in a more featured role this season. He, too, was likely asking for somewhere above $15 million per year.

There's not a ton of flexibility for the Jazz: They have $67 million tied up in six players next year. But they should be able to open up enough cap space for a max salary offer for most players if they find a worthy taker.

O'Neale makes the roster; Bolomboy waived

As we reported earlier Monday morning, the Jazz used their last cut to waive Joel Bolomboy. More information on Bolomboy can be found in our article on the cut.

So why O'Neale? Snyder led it off with probably the most important factor: "Positionally, he's a fit for our group right now."

Bolomboy had at least four or five players ahead of him who could play power forward or center. O'Neale, on the other hand, probably has an easier route to playing time.

In that way, realistically, this decision was made during the summer, when the Jazz drafted 19-year-old Tony Bradley and signed Jonas Jerebko and Ekpe Udoh. Bolomboy was just coming off a really ugly summer league performance when those players were signed. To his credit, Bolomboy's preseason showed his development and his seriousness about making an NBA roster even after leaving the Jazz.

But besides just the positional flexibility, O'Neale gives the Jazz other characteristics they like.

"His competitiveness, his feel for the game, his ability to shoot, pass and dribble," were factors, Snyder said. "And then defensively he's got good instincts, that coupled with the toughness, makes him a good wing defender."

O'Neale was excited to join the team, obviously.

"It feels great. All of the hard work and extra effort I put in is finally paying off," he said. "Now I just have to work harder each day."

There's work left for O'Neale. Both he and Snyder agree that he has to work on the consistency of his 3-point shooting — Snyder referred to it as "repping out" the shot. O'Neale also needs to work on his ability to score for himself in the pick and roll, especially in the mid-range with a pull-up or floater.

Winning the division

The Jazz won the Northwest division last season, over Oklahoma City, Denver, Minnesota and Portland. But now, after losing Hayward, some prognosticators have the Jazz at the bottom of the division.

Snyder isn't really one who typically pays attention to these kinds of predictions. But it was interesting to hear him correct a reporter who said that Denver and Minnesota are "fighting for playoff spots" with the Jazz.

"They're actually ahead of us, based on everyone I've heard, everything I've looked at. Where someone is ranked, I try to stay away from it, but if we're going to say it, we should look at the fact that Minnesota is picked fourth in the West, depending on who you talk to, and Denver is picked ahead of us," he said. "If we can gain a little bit of competitiveness from that, we'll take it. It's not something we'll mention a lot, but it's something the players are aware of."

Divisions are effectively worthless: it doesn't impact playoff seedings at all, other than being the seventh tiebreaker. It does change the schedule somewhat, as each team has to play their division "rivals" four times every season. I'd be in favor of a schedule balancing effort, especially between conferences.

Stars jerseys

The Salt Lake City Stars announced their new Nike uniforms on Monday. Here's what they look like:

The fronts of each jersey are pretty much the same, though the new blue and yellow sides of the jersey and shorts are a new Nike addition. The Stars will show off their jerseys for the first time at the Lifetime Activities Center at Salt Lake Community College on Nov. 8.

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