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Hey, Dante Exum, who are you, man?

Are you all grown up now? Are you all healed up? Are you ready to lead the Jazz at the point? Are you prepared to justify Dennis Lindsey picking you fifth overall in the 2014 draft? Is it time? Is it your time? Can you do it? Will you do it? Are you busting your tail in the offseason to that end? Is your arc of progression once again congruent with the Jazz's now advanced timeline? Will it catch up?

I don't know, Dante.

Who does know?

Do you?

It may not be fair to ask so soon, given that you're only 21 and lost a year to the knee injury. But what's fair about the Jazz's situation in the NBA, where great teams add great players through free agency, and you've got to find a way to attempt, at least, to keep up. And, then, free agency threatens to rob your own team of one of its best players, a player developed and supported right here? The answer is … nothing is fair about nothing.

That's why you've got to hit that throttle, Dante, be what you can be, in a hurry.

While you're young. While we're young.

Can you?

You know as well as anybody, the biggest question facing the Jazz, other than the retention of Gordon Hayward, is this: Who's going to play point guard next season?

There are a lot of layers here, with your own status among them.

The first is related to that primary objective: What point-guard option is most attractive to your boy, Hayward?

Does he believe you have it in you to become a floor leader who can help take the Jazz — and him — to the next level? Not two years from now. No … now.

Hayward might as well be a member of management. He may not be willing to tip his hand regarding his specific plans, but he definitely has a preferred script. Are you a part of it? What kind of confidence or lack thereof have you conjured out of Hayward?

The second is measuring up George Hill, determining his ability to contribute in the seasons ahead. Was 2016-17 an aberration, what with him missing 33 games? Or was it a warning for the injury trouble that is bound to come with a 31-year-old veteran whose toe is damaged and who may be unable to consistently go game in and game out?

Over Hill's career, he's played 74 or more games in six of his nine seasons. In the other three, he played 50, 43 and 49.

Hill will be expensive, Dante, with so many teams having money to throw his way in free agency. That means the Jazz will probably have to overspend for him, regardless of whether he's compromised or not. So, what are the Jazz supposed to do if, say, Hayward wants Hill, even if he's likely to miss games? Do they blow the bank to help reel him back in?

Or do they let him go and sign some fancy-passing dude out of Serbia who can run the team but not play much defense? Or do they go for pie in the sky and sign some other prime point guard available for open bidding on the market?

Or do they count on … you?

No longer can they mess around, Dante, waiting and waiting. Of all the end-of-season interviews between Lindsey and Quin Snyder and the players, the one with you had to be the most interesting, the most urgent, the most critical. They must have laid it out all straight. Get on it. Be whatever it is you're going to be.

Sooner, not later.

You've already said publicly you're capable of leading the team.

Should we, should the Jazz, call BS on that?

It didn't always — ever? — look like Snyder was convinced of your trustworthiness the way he used you this past season. You were in, you were out, you were all about. Your leash was the shortest of all the point guards. Make a mistake, and you were done, sometimes for games at a time. That's true. But you got to understand, the Jazz, especially if they keep Hayward, are far past the days of patience and tolerance and nannying young players. They need results, not any kind of Romper Room, particularly at such an important position.

As we last saw them, the Jazz were one of the best teams in the West. They need a point guard who will blow straight past inspiring Hayward's confidence. They need a point guard they can rely on to lead them to new heights, to be better than they were last season.

Are you that guy?

Can you smooth your game, eliminating and exorcising the boneheadedness and the hesitancy and the timidity out of it?

Or should the Jazz package you with some other assets to bring in the real deal?

They have to be bold, Dante. They have to hate the notion of having a rickety guard out front, forging ahead with little more than a vague promise of a better tomorrow. The franchise made famous by John Stockton must fill that hole either with a pricey-and-heathy Hill or with someone of equal talent.

Now.

Second to landing what was once theirs, Hayward, it is the key to a successful offseason.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.