The Utah Jazz Won The NBA Trade Deadline

I don’t think it’s particularly close, either. After many years of collecting draft capital and young talent, it seems like Danny and Co. are ready to make the necessary steps toward being competitive in the Western Conference. In the four trades that we pulled off this year we were able to get a big fish AND securing future draft assets for basically nothing.

Let’s not bury the lead: Jaren Jackson Jr. has landed in Utah. In a huge trade JJJ, Jock Landale, John Konchar, and Vince Williams Jr. are now rocking the purple mountain jerseys, and in exchange we sent out Kyle Anderson, Georges Niang, Taylor Hendricks, Walter Clayton Jr., and 3 first round picks. Thank you to the guys for all the memories in Utah, but I think that this was a great move for us.

The picks, in my view, aren’t anything special. It’s a 2027 Cavs pick that has a lot of protections on it, a 2027 Lakers pick that probably won’t be any lower than 20th, and a 2031 Suns pick. Three FRP could be viewed as a high price tag but we still have 8 over the next 7 years so we were basically playing with house money. 

Adding Jaren to this group is really going to prove beneficial next year. His defensive presence was an obvious selling point, and with Walker Kessler being his frontcourt mate, we’re talking about one of (if not THE) best defensive frontcourt in the league. Then you add offensive firepower like Keyonte George and Lauri Markkanen, playmaking ability from Isaiah Collier and Vince Williams, and solid roleplay from Brice Sensabaugh and Kyle Filipowski? Talk about a SQUAD.

I’m not going to predict or say anything outlandish like the Jazz will be a top 4 seed next year, but I think that we’ll be very comfortably in the Play-In. Jaren Jackson Jr. isn’t the 1A superstar that you’ll need to be a serious contender, but he adds a much needed defensive grit to the team. With his addition I think that it’s clear the front office is done toiling at the bottom of the standings and are ready to take the league by storm. Then on top of ALL of that, we’re probably going to add a top 3 talent in this year’s draft. It seems to me like the league is Utah’s in a few years time.