Running Trade Reactions: Jazz Analysis on Deadline Deals

Deals are flying! Teams have been active ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline, and it can be hard to figure out what each deal means, and how it could impact the landscape relating to the Jazz. Don’t worry, we got you.

The natural reaction of a fan base to any trade is, “Hey wait, why couldn’t my team have gotten that player/pick/asset?” Which is a fair response, but there also could be downstream impacts in terms of Utah’s likelihood of carrying out other business, or insights as to what a trade says about the market rate for different transaction types. We’ll analyze all those things as the trade updates pour in this week.

This post will be updated with each new deal, including a bit of overall analysis and what each transaction could mean to the Jazz. Since we covered the Jazz’s own weekend deals, we’ll start with the trades from Sunday forward, through the trade deadline.

---

Last updated 2/5 at 9:49 p.m.

3-team deal sends Fox to Spurs

• Spurs receive De’Aaron Fox, Jordan McLaughlin
• Kings receive Zach LaVine, three 1sts (one will surely convert to 2nds) and three 2nds
• Bulls receive Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter and one 1st

Jazz angle: The Kings did well here, and this could help inform the trade value of the borderline All-Star tier when the Jazz eventually go into “buyer” mode. The Fox tier is an interesting one for the Jazz to monitor. Whenever they draft their stud and start looking to put together their new core, it’s far less likely to a someone in the MVP candidate tier than someone with a couple of All-Star selections or All-Defense nods who they think could still take a mini-leap. The Kings got LaVine — a good player, but overpaid relative to his impact on winning — and really two 1sts.

Fox himself could have been an interesting Jazz target at some point, but it makes more sense to get complementary stars once you know what it is you’re trying to complement — in other words, once the Jazz have an idea what they’re bringing back in the draft. If he were a top-10 player, then yeah, you throw everything at an offer and figure out the rest later, because that’s the type of player who can dictate what you’re building towards. But for a top-30 guy, you probably want to know what you’re pairing him with. And Fox, a 2026 free agent, wanted to land in San Antonio anyway.

This is also interesting since the Kings were a team rumored to have interest in John Collins before their priorities evolved relative to Fox. They could theoretically still go get a big to reinforce their rotation, but we’ll see if Collins is still a consideration for the Kings.

 

Hornets and Thunder swap far-out seconds

• Hornets receive 2029 2nd (Phx)
• Thunder receive 2030 2nd (Den)

Jazz angle: Yawn. If there’s anything to be said here about Jazz impacts, it’s that second rounders move around a lot, so don’t get too obsessed over whether Utah has picks in the “right” years. They were a bit light on seconds until their recent trades, but now that they have several to play with, they could certainly reallocate them around.

 

Mavs add to wing rotation

• Mavs receive Caleb Martin
• Sixers receive Quentin Grimes, 2025 2nd (Phi’s own)

Jazz angle: This is honestly a pretty good second: slated to be 37th currently, but Philadelphia does look like it’s trying to pick up some momentum, so this could wind up a mid second-rounder. The Jazz probably don’t have player quite like Martin in terms of meeting the Mavs’ positional needs, so it’s unlikely they could have made a version of this deal.  Dallas is also currently light on ball handlers (behind Kyrie Irving), so we’ll see if they have other ambitions ahead of Thursday.

Another Jazz-related thought: it’s kind of ironic that Grimes has become kind of a throw-away salary after all of the debate about whether he would be on or off the table in a hypothetical Knicks trade package for Donovan Mitchell back in 2022. He is having a career year from three, though.

 

Bucks attempt to reload with Kuzma

• Bucks receive Kyle Kuzma, Patrick Baldwin Jr. and a 2nd
• Wizards receive Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson and a 1st round pick swap in 2028

Jazz angle: There were some Jordan Clarkson-focused Bucks rumors, and actually this deal might make something like that more attainable on paper; now that the Bucks are below the second apron, they could hypothetically aggregate salary in a trade, which creates more avenues to complete a deal in that salary range.

Kuzma is two years older than Collins, and pretty inefficient by NBA standards. So while the former Utah Ute will always appeal to some fans in Salt Lake City, it’s unlikely Kuzma was a real consideration for the rebuilding Jazz.

 

Celtics offload Springer | Pelicans dump Theis

These are two different deals, but similar enough that we’re going to look at them together:

• Rockets receive Jaden Springer, 2030 2nd, heavily protected 2nd
• Celtics receive heavily protected 2nd

…and…

• Thunder receive Daniel Theis, 2031 2nd
• Cash

Jazz angle: Both of these trades are just about financial flexibility. Springer has only played 141 minutes this year, but his $4M salary was going to cost the Celtics several multiple of that in tax. The Rockets’ reward for absorbing that small salary was that they netted a 2nd. In a separate deal, the Pelicans got under the tax line by incentivizing the Thunder to take Theis, also for a second.

These trades are pretty similar in value to the Jazz absorbing Jalen Hood-Schifino over the weekend, a favor for which Utah was rewarded with two incremental seconds. That would suggest that the Jazz got pretty good value.

 

Sacramento adds a big

• Kings receive Jonas Valanciunas
• Wizards receive Sidy Cissoko, 2028 Den 2nd (prot.), 2029 Sac 2nd

Jazz angle: This one does appear to make a Collins-Kings marriage less likely, as Sacramento got a much cheaper (but also more offensively limited) big man in Valanciunas. On the other hand, they still have a little bit of room to operate under the tax and remain really light on ball handlers.

Also, this move keeps Valanciunas away from the Warriors, who were rumored to have interest, and the Lakers who still badly need a big man. Collins isn’t exactly the same type of center as JV, so I’m not necessarily saying that he answers either team’s need, but this trade could send ripple effects out in terms of other teams needing to regroup after My Name is Jonas came off the board. The Suns also had reported interest in JV, primarily as a way to move off of Jusuf Nurkic. How desperate might they be now to find a way out of Nurk’s contract?

 

Analysis to follow: Butler to Dubs, Jazz involved!

• Warriors receive Jimmy Butler
• Heat receive Andrew Wiggins, PJ Tucker, Kyle Anderson, protected 1st
• Pistons receive Lindy Waters III, Josh Richardson
• Jazz receive Dennis Schroder, 2031 2nd

 

Analysis to follow: Bucks add a big, ex Ute to MSG

• Bucks receive Jericho Sims, draft rights to Mathias Lessort
• Knicks receive Delon Wright, draft rights to Huge Besson, cash

Analysis to follow: Ingram goes north

• Raptors receive Brandon Ingram
• Pelicans receive Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk, ’26 Indiana 1st, 2nd

More to come…?