Deadline Aftermath: Jazz Add Two, Defensive Gaps Remain & Next Steps

Nickeil-Alexander Walker, pictured here, and Juancho Hernangomez join the Jazz. (via The Salt Lake Tribune)

The dust of the 2022 trade deadline has settled, and the crowd goes mild. After a Wednesday trade to beat the deadline-day rush, the Jazz made no further moves ahead of Thursday’s 1:00 p.m. deadline.

On Wednesday, the Jazz traded Joe Ingles’ contract (which was much more palatable than trading a healthy Joe Ingles) along with Elijah Hughes, and two second round picks for Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Juancho Hernangomez.

This felt like the precursor to another move. After all, we know from reputable local sources that the Jazz were active in the market. We know they were targeting a defense-oriented wing. The rumor mill cranked out player names associated with Utah.

No additional deal happened. What do we make of this? What does the team look like now? There’s a lot to unpack.

The Ingles deal

Perimeter defense felt like priority number one this trade deadline. Seen purely through that lens, the Ingles deal was a bit of a head scratcher. Nickeil Alexander-Walker (NAW) has not been a good defender, despite possessing physical tools to hopefully become one. He was nowhere on the radar of potential Jazz targets. Hernangomez came in the trade for salary matching purposes, but I’m not sure he factors into Utah’s plans much beyond that — we’ll see.

I’m confident the Jazz kicked the tires on Ingles trades that would’ve brought back a defender. Clearly that deal was not there. The package of Ingles and low-value second round picks wasn’t beating the deals we saw for the few defensive wings that were moved.

So the Jazz had a few options. They could have kept the injured forward, benefitting nothing beyond keeping his free agent “Bird” rights intact, rights that shouldn’t matter if his market going forward is for minimum-salary deals. Or they could’ve paid OKC assets to absorb that salary into their cap sheet. Surprisingly no team made a deal with the Thunder, likely meaning their asking price for assisting with cap-motivated trades was too high.

Then another option opened up and the Jazz saw an opportunity. NAW was available on the cheap, and Utah grabbed a “second draft” opportunity for minimal assets.

No, NAW does not address Utah’s immediate needs. I’m not sure how he plays with Jordan Clarkson. You could describe him as an inefficient gunner that doesn’t defend. But he’s a 23-year-old who was drafted 17th overall. He’s a 6-foot-5, combo guard with jack-of-all-trades potential. He shot a good percentage on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers during his first two years. There’s good reason to hope he could develop well in Utah’s system.

For a team full of players in their 30s, the Jazz could use more playable young guys.

Regarding Ingles, it’s probably safe to assume that Utah retains almost the same chance of re-signing him next season as they did before the trade. If Joe returns on the minimum, this deal will look better in hindsight.

Why was there no additional deal?

It’s easy to understand the disappointment that no additional deal happened. That said, it wasn’t likely the fault of Utah’s front office. In particular, it seems unlikely that the Ingles deal — involving an injured player, the last man on the depth chart, and two low-value seconds — kept them from making a separate trade. 

Based on the trades that did happen, the market was not right for the Jazz to acquire some of the popular targets we’ve been discussing for weeks. Harrison Barnes, Jerami Grant, Eric Gordon, Gary Harris, Marcus Smart, and Kenrich Williams all stayed in place. Josh Richardson was traded with a first round pick for Derrick White. Josh Hart and Robert Covington, hypothetical targets traded earlier this week, ultimately were not rerouted by their new teams. The players that made the most sense for the Jazz may have just not been as available as fans had hoped.

Utah was also working with limited assets. The Jazz would need to trade some salary to make a deal work, It’s unclear what value players like Jordon Clarkson or Rudy Gay had with other teams. beyond that they had three tradable (with conditions) second round picks and they could have traded an additional first in 2026 or later. Trading a pick that far out is a dangerous proposition – there’s a scenario where both Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell are gone by then and Utah really needs those picks to jump start a rebuild.

If you believe the Jazz were active, you can believe they made calls on all the good targets — perhaps they pushed even more assets onto the table than they initially preferred. No deals happened, so we can assume the asking prices were too high. The lack of movement across the league supports this assumption. A two-way wing is the most coveted player archetype — every team needs them, and few let their own go.

In recent years we’ve seen the Jazz overpay to address a point of weakness, only to later pay draft capital to change course in later seasons. Sometimes no deal is the best deal.

Next steps

So what now for the Jazz? They’re down a rotation player in Ingles and while NAW might fill a portion of that role, they still have a perimeter defense weakness. The gap between Utah and rivals in Phoenix and Golden State feels tangible. And yet — there are plenty of reasons to remain optimistic.

The Jazz are expected to sign Danuel House Jr., a player who performed well on 10-day contracts. They may reward Trent Forrest with a standard NBA deal, especially if the NBA returns to the standard practice of barring two-way players from the playoffs, a rule they temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This scenario does fill all 15 roster spots. So Utah will likely see if they can get an impact player in the buyout market before making a decision with Forrest. To move forward, they would have to find a buyout player that’s clearly better than the current deep-bench tier of players like House, Forrest and the surprising Eric Paschall.

Gary Harris is an obvious pie-in-the-sky buyout target, but he’s about as likely as Otto Porter Jr. (last year’s post-deadline buyout by the Orlando Magic) was last year, and we saw what happened then.

So come playoff time, the Jazz will have a clear top-7 rotation locked in, with 25 minutes from Joe Ingles to distribute. You could spread some of those to vets like Mike Conley and Rudy Gay. But the Jazz will need to rely on one of House, Paschall, Forrest, or even Alexander-Walker. It’s a riskier prospect than one of the preferred trade targets mentioned earlier, but you can see Utah surviving with one of those players getting 15–20 minutes in the playoffs. Hopefully.

Perhaps House is the answer. You could argue the Harden-era version of House is as helpful as Josh Richardson; he averaged 10 points, grabbed four rebounds per game, shot 38% from deep and played good defense during a 2-year peak playing alongside the 2018 MVP. But there’s a reason House was available at the minimum to begin with.

Forrest has blossomed in recent weeks. He’s gained the confidence to attack the rim at will and is a solid defender. We’ll see how his lack of shooting translates to a seven-game series with intensive scouting.

Paschall brings energy and is shooting 37% from three. But is he enough of a contributor for a playoff rotation?

No option is a sure thing, but the Jazz do have options, similar to last season’s Clippers, who had a deep end-of-bench that ultimately closed the door on Utah’s season.

Despite variability for the 8th rotation spot and beyond, the Jazz remain a really good team. Erase the month-that-shall-not-be-named, and we’re talking about a historically good regular season team. They were on pace for the best offense of all-time. We’ve yet to see Quin Snyder helm a healthy playoff team. You can rightfully point out Utah’s weaknesses and place the Warriors and Suns on a different tier… but the Jazz still have a decent shot in a seven-game series against any team in my book.

In summary:

1. The Joe Ingles deal is fine, with the possibility to end up pretty good

2. I wish the Jazz had added another defender, but it’s clear a good deal was not there

3. The Jazz are still a very good team, and will contend for a championship

Let’s go Jazz!