With tomorrow being the first time teams can trade players signed last offseason, it marks the unofficial beginning of the trade deadline.
It’s hard to say what the Jazz goals are this season. It’s been hard to say what they’ve been for most of this rebuild. This is a list of players most likely to be traded, and this list will be based on the assumption that the Jazz front office actually has a plan and intends to follow through with it. The smart plan is to keep their top-8 protected pick and give
themselves a shot at a generational pick in this draft.
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk
Svi Mykhailiuk is averaging the third-most minutes on this team and is shooting 47% from the field and 37% from three. It’s a productive season for a veteran player who won’t be on this team long-term. Utah could likely find a suitor for his $3.6M contract easily. Even trading into another team’s trade exception works. But what the Jazz can’t do is continue prioritizing minutes for Mykhailiuk over their youth and the goal of keeping their draft pick.
Kevin Love
Kevin Love becomes trade-eligible on December 15, and Utah has to find a way to make a move happen. Taylor Hendricks should be getting the minutes that Kevin Love is using, and Will Hardy refuses to play him. Love has been solid for the Jazz this season, shooting 43.8% from the field and 35.8% from three. He still has his patented shooting and rebounding, which makes him a nice player for a team looking for depth and experience. Love is also just 37, making $4.1M on an expiring deal, making him very tradable.
Kyle Anderson
Another player who somehow keeps getting minutes under Will Hardy instead of Utah’s youth. Anderson has looked like a solid rotation player in his time with the Jazz and should garner some interest for a team wanting to make an easy move for depth. Anderson is making $9.2M this season and next and could potentially garner the Jazz something interesting. Is there a dissapointing young player out there that Utah could bring on? Either way, Utah HAS to clear these minutes to get Taylor Hendrickson and Cody Williams on the floor. There is no world where the Jazz should be worried about playing Kyle Anderson. You would think the Jazz might be interested in proving they massively wasted two years and would want to develop Hendricks and Williams, but that hasn’t been the case so far.
Jusuf Nurkic
The easiest way for Utah to manufacture losses the remainder of the season would be to trade Nurkic. Nurkic has a very appealing $19M expiring contract that could save some teams a lot of money. A quick glance at the contract market shows some intriguing players to consider. Could Jonathan Kuminga be a target for the Jazz that could clear money for the Warriors and give them some depth at center? It’s an opportunity to bring on a young player who could potentially revive his career with Utah. There may be something else out there that’s worth doing, but Utah has to figure out a way to keep this pick, and removing their center depth will ensure they don’t get more of these ridiculous wins that are ruining the season.
