No Major Moves For First-Place Jazz on Deadline Day

The Jazz’s core remained intact through the NBA’s Thursday trade deadline. (Mitchell Bernstein via espn.com)

The most important thing to realize about Utah’s quiet trade deadline is that they’re the team everybody is trying to catch.

It’s easy to feel left out as Denver, Portland, Dallas and the Clippers all made deals in hopes of improving their title odds. It’s natural to want to keep up with the Joneses. But Jazz fans: YOU are the Joneses. Your team is the one everybody is scrambling to keep in their sights.

That doesn’t mean you don’t listen, and the Jazz went into deadline day intent on doing their due dilligence. Ultimately the bar for a trade was always going to be high. The Jazz are 32-11, best in the league with a 3-game cushion. More than that, they have a locker room full of guys who like one another and who are happy with their respective roles. That’s pretty rare when you get that in the NBA. The Jazz were always going to be cognizant of that balance. Even some of the imaginary trades that would have represented an on-paper improvement in one way or another could have upset the harmony that has put Utah on a 61-win pace¹, with their easiest stretch of schedule still in front of them.

The Jazz didn’t say out of the fray altogether; they added guard Matt Thomas in a small deal from from the Raptors. Thomas is a lights-out shooter, but hasn’t played much for Toronto. The Jazz used a second-round pick to bring the 6-foot-4 marksman into the system, and they’ll have until his August salary guarantee date to decide if he’s someone they can develop into a rotation player.

Beyond that, there just wasn’t an obvious route to assembling a trade package that could net the Jazz a difference-maker without disrupting what’s made this season one of the best in franchise history. They have no interest in trading All-Stars Donovan Mitchell or Rudy Gobert (and in the latter’s case they legally can’t). Mike Conley Jr. wouldn’t return full value as an expiring rental, and he’s been a vital engine behind the Jazz’s success anyway.

In certain corners of the social media community, some were eager to dispatch a slumping Bojan Bogdanovic via trade. But Bogdanovic’s market value was bound to be limited by the reality that, at 32 years old, he wouldn’t fit into the plans of rebuilding teams. Orland, Sacramento, Houston and similar sellers in the marketplace were primarily interested in young talent and draft assets than they would be in a win-now veteran — especially one whose overarching narrative right now points to a down year.

In terms of value realization, the Jazz’s best move with Bogdanovic was always going to be waiting for him to return to form. They got a taste of that on trade deadline eve, when Bogey dropped 18 points on just eight shots and played solid defense in a lopsided win over the shorthanded Nets. It was the kind of night that hinted at Bogey’s ideal role on the current Jazz roster: he didn’t dominated the ball, but was ready to pounce as a spot-up shooter and occasional second-side creator, and he held his own with good position defense.

With Conley healthy and the Joe Ingles pick-and-roll working as an anchor of second-unit offense, the Jazz probably won’t need Bogdanovic to be the 20-ppg, 25% usage guy was last season. That’s fine. Wednesday night is what the fully optimized version of Bogey looks like in that context: a guy who hits shots, makes better reads when he does have to put it on the deck, and plays enough defense to avoid being targeted as a weak link. Even that version of Bogdanovic is more important to the Jazz than what they realistically could have turned him into on the trade market.

They had/have few other value pieces. Jordan Clarkson’s value is at an all-time high, and he’s young enough (28) to still appeal to teams at different points in the competitive cycle. He’s averaging a career best 17 points, and a month-long funk aside, the overarching narrative on him is a positive one. His name probably could have gotten the Jazz into some conversations that Bogey couldn’t, given those factors. But the Jazz were likely reluctant to part with a fan favorite and Sixth Man of the Year frontrunner, unless something blew them away. That Clarkson might have been their best legitimate trade piece is a good indication of why nothing major happened.

Royce O’Neale has some value, but sending him out in a trade would have cost the Jazz some of the very skills they are ostensibly hoping to add: a physical wing defender and a good rebounder at his position. Ingles’ value is always tricky because he means so much to the Jazz culturally. Georges Niang has some fans out there, but he doesn’t have enough value to headline a significant deal. Ditto for Derrick Favors, who the Jazz just brought back to Utah. Their non-rotation guys were never going to move the needle on a significant upgrade.

They were also asset-light, with restrictions on trading first round picks because of an outstanding debt to Memphis. That pick will most likely transfer over in 2022, but it could technically convey anytime between this summer and 2024, which means the earliest the Jazz could trade a future first without adding unique protection language is 2026. They’re also getting light on available seconds, though those aren’t hard to manufacture these days.

Bottom line: they just didn’t have a lot of ways to compete with the packages that ultimately landed some of the bigger names that moved on Thursday.

Let’s take a look at where some of those asking prices landed and whether the Jazz had any hope of matching:

• Aaron Gordon: Orlando’s final haul included a proven 3-and-D guy (Gary Harris), a first-round rookie with a team-friendly scale deal (RJ Hampton) and another first. Value-wise, I’m not sure how Utah matches that. Swapping in Clarkson in place of Harris is probably close value-wise; O’Neale is a longer shot, plus Utah would still be roughly $6M short of the needed salary. (Bogey and Ingles would be of little interest to Orlando, who just traded away all the veterans.) But even if they were willing to send out Clarkson/O’Neale, they don’t have any young prospects in Hampton’s tier, and their pick situation is complicated. So no, they couldn’t beat Denver’s offer here.
• Victor Oladipo: Houston got two rotation players on virtual expiring contracts (Kelly Olynyk and Avery Bradley) plus swap rights in next year’s draft. Utah would have had to offer Bogdanovic plus a small salary, but the rebuilding Rockets probably wouldn’t want to take on future salary commitments attached to a 32-year-old when they could instead get expiring guys. Utah could have gone younger by offering Clarkson and O’Neale together. But that’s a lot of rotation value to surrender for a player who had already signaled his desire to abscond to a market like Miami or New York this summer as a free agent. Even if a Clarkson/O’Neale package would compete with Miami’s pair of expiring vets, giving up two important pieces for a 29-game rental is probably the wrong move.
• Evan Fournier: The Magic got two seconds from Boston, who didn’t need to send back salary because they had a large TPE² left from when Gordon Hayward departed. The Jazz didn’t have that luxury, so they would have had to send $14M or so to Orlando: likely Bogdanovic or at least one of Ingles/Clarkson with some smaller salaries. Even if Orlando would have been OK with taking salary back (not a given) or interested in a 30-something like Bogey or Ingles (probably not), is Fournier a clear upgrade over any of Bogey/Ingles/Clarkson? 
• JJ Redick: New Orleans got James Johnson, Wes Iwundu and a second. Wouldn’t have been hard to compete with that package from a value standpoint, but the issue here is matching salary without disrupting the core. Does JJ add enough that it’s worth giving up Ingles? Or Clarkson? Or O’Neale plus a small salary? And even if you think the answer is yes in a vacuum, is it worth it for an expiring rental when all of the aforementioned three are committed to the Jazz longer term?
• Nemanja Bjelica: Sacramento moved off of the sharpshooting big man for basically nothing: a couple of low-paid guys who weren’t playing in Miami. The problem for Utah here is that they don’t have any salaries in the Moe Harkless range to make this deal and allow Sacramento to trim salary. Instead, they would have had to trade at least three (and more likely four) of their 9th-through-14th men.
• Norm Powell: Toronto got rising 3-and-D stud Gary Trent Jr., along with Rodney Hood, who’s partially guaranteed next year. Again, the issue here for the Jazz is matching salary in that range. Jazz would have to send north of $7M to get Norm, which means trading one of the eight main guys. All for a guy who will play 29 games and then opt into free agency this summer.
• (Point guards Cory Joseph and Delon Wright (traded for each other last night) don’t make sense positionally for the Jazz. Ditto for Nikola Vucevic, George Hill, Rajon Rondo/Lou Williams, Daniel Theis and Brad Wanamaker. There were also a handful of deep bench players traded for minor assets, but that wasn’t really Utah’s play at this point.)

Now the attention turns to the buyout market, where Utah will see if any useful players become available after getting out of their contracts. Otto Porter, included in the Vucevic deal for salary reasons, isn’t likely to stick in Orlando, and at least one plugged-in Jazz pundit believes Utah could be a factor if Porter is indeed bought out.

The Jazz would have to create a roster spot in order to sign Porter or anybody else, and at this point that means eating guaranteed salary. The Jazz have waived players with guaranteed money before, most notably when they acquired both Ingles and later O’Neale at the expense of players thought to be safe by virtue of their guarantees. A bigger hangup might be the heartburn over moving on from developmental projects like Juwan Morgan, Elijah Hughes or the recently acquired Thomas — unless the player that becomes available is a clear upgrade. They would probably make room for someone like Porter. They likely wouldn’t for someone like Jabari Parker or Jalen Lecque, both waived on Thursday to accommodate other roster moves.

(Also remember that the Jazz signed Ersan Ilyasova earlier this month, so that might be their in-season veteran addition.)

Only players waived by their former teams by April 9 are eligible to be on the playoff rosters of a subsequent team.

We’ll end with my 100-words-or-less reactions to what each of Utah’s WC playoff competitors did (or didn’t do) on deadline day.

#2 Suns. Phoenix stood pat, with All-Star Devin Booker telling media on Wednesday, “I think we’re good over here.” And the Suns are good: they own the #8 offense and #5 defense. They already added Torrey Craig, and they are finally healthy after some missed time from Dario Saric and some of their rotation guards. 

#3 Clippers. The Williams-for-Rondo swap probably doesn’t change their reality, but Rondo will provide something they have needed: another ball mover capable of organizing the offense. He’s not good defensively anymore, but neither was Lou, who had wilted in various playoff moments. Their best lineups still feature Patrick Beverley at point — groups with Bev, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are +14.5 this season.

#4 Lakers. LA’s stubbornness in keeping Talen Horton-Tucker out of a Kyle Lowry package will look pretty curious if the Lakers fall short this season with their two superstars ailing. Lowry would have fortified their odds of repeating as champs immensely. Sure, he’s also a rental and they view THT as a potential long-term piece, but LeBron James is 36. The title window is NOW. On the other hand, their stinginess there might signal their confidence around getting a difference-maker in the buyout market. Either way, the Lakers stood pat… for now. 

#5 Nuggets. Time will render the ultimate verdict here, but for now they look like preliminary winners. They added athleticism with Gordon (and McGee), but they gave up one of their best on-ball defenders, as well as a promising rookie. They’re bigger and have more ways to deal with Kawhi/LeBron types, but Gordon is not without his flaws. It will be interested to see what this next phase of his career looks like on his first really good team. How will the pieces fit together, and who will guard Mitchell in a playoff series with Harris gone? We’ll see.

#6 Blazers. Powell is really good: he averages nearly 20 points, and he’s a capable defender too. Mostly, he has turned himself into a knockdown shooter, and when you add a 44% shooter to your ecosystem, everybody’s job gets a little easier. Hood wasn’t giving them much so this basically amounts to Trent vs. Powell, and Powell is the better player as of right now. He’s a better shooter, scorer, and his strength makes him more positiionally versatile on defense. This was a good pickup for a team that just got CJ McCollum back and could be close to reincorporating Jusuf Nurkic.

#7 Mavs. James Johnson hasn’t given the Mavs what they hoped for, and Iwundu never solidified a rotation role. So giving those two guys (and a second) for Redick and Nicolo Melli is actually a good haul. The Mavs are already a bit guard-heavy, but Redick will certainly find his way on the court down the stretch and into the postseason as a bona fide bucket-getter with defense-bending gravity. At 36, don’t expect too much more than the 8.7 points he was producing in 18.6 minutes in NOLA. But the Mavs are coming on (8-3) and this makes them better.

#8 Spurs. The Spurs had a quiet day, other than formally moving on from LaMarcus Aldridge, a move we’ve known was coming for weeks. The patience here in laudable — they’re not looking to skip steps. But the reality is, they have a tough road to hoe, with 14 of their remaining 31 games against top-10 teams. It’s absolutely the right thing not to panic into a win-now mode, even if it might cost them a playoff spot this season. (The Grizz and Warriors are right on their heels and both have easier schedules.)