The NBA world is buzzing with the news that Giannis Antetokounmpo might be available for trade. You can bet that the Utah Jazz will call and ask about it. The problem is, they likely don’t have the assets to make it happen, nor enough players to make it worth it if they did. And it’s their own fault for their indecision during the rebuild post Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.
For two seasons after the monumental trades, Utah spent far too long before trading its remaining vets and ended up with a record far beyond what anyone expected. When Utah finally traded Mike Conley, a trade that was apparently available early in the season, the Jazz had already won too many games and were unable to improve their position to draft an elite talent. They ended up with Taylor Hendricks, but Hendricks’s play has not been very fruitful so far. It doesn’t mean Hendricks won’t improve, but right now his value won’t be enough to move the needle for a Giannis trade.
The following season, Utah did much of the same. Utah appeared to be trying to test the waters at a potential play-in birth, but pulled the plug at the trade deadline. The Jazz were jumped by two teams in that lottery, and their reward was the 10th pick and Cody Williams. Williams has even less value than Hendricks at this point, and both are making trips to the G-League.
What’s funny is that each of those offseasons, the Jazz talked about looking for potential moves when they became available. That lack of going all-in on dropping to the bottom of the standings cost them not only the great prospects they could have had, but also any chance they could have had at a trade for someone like Giannis. What’s more frustrating is that the Jazz ACTUALLY tanked last season and ended up with an actual blue-chip prospect in Ace Bailey with one of their own picks.
Now, it’s nice to see that Keyonte George, picked with the Wolves’ pick, is turning into a potentially special player. And the Jazz obviously still have Walker Kessler and Lauri Markkanen. But it’s frustrating to look back at those first two seasons and to have nothing to show for it from their own pick. You’d think the Jazz would learn from their mistakes, but they are already repeating them. All in the name of …. culture?
Ryan Smith has mentioned that he wants to create a window for the Jazz to compete, but he shut that window when he didn’t do things correctly. It would be nice if he learned from the most recent history, but it’s not looking very likely. Utah will be coming out of their tanking window soon, and as they’ve done before, come out of it with much less than they could have. And we’ll all be asking later on, “For what?”