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SALT LAKE CITY — Dennis Lindsey sat on one of the soft leather chairs that lined the courts of the Utah Jazz practice facility on Wednesday morning.
With the trade deadline just a day away, Utah's executive vice president of basketball operations watched as the Jazz finished up shootaround. He looked, well, rather calm. Though the same couldn't be said following the 98-95 loss to the Nuggets on Wednesday.
But that doesn't mean a move is imminent. In fact, the Jazz players have noticed the noise has been much less this season.
“Definitely less speculation than last year,” Rudy Gobert said.
Or pretty much any year since Gobert has become a key piece in Utah.
Under Lindsey, the Jazz have been an active participant during the deadline. They moved Enes Kanter in 2015 and brought in Jae Crowder in 2018. They flirted with a Mike Conley-Ricky Rubio deal last season, and there was always chatter surrounding Derrick Favors. And of course, Lindsey, Justin Zanik and the rest of the Jazz front office will be making and taking calls all through Thursday morning.
But this year, with only a small amount of assets to their name, there hasn’t been much talk centered around the Jazz. Heck, ESPN’s Zach Lowe wrote a 3,000-plus word trade deadline primer without a mention of a potential Utah move.
And throw in the fact that Utah already swung a big in-season transaction, moving Dante Exum for Jordan Clarkson, and it makes sense that there haven’t been a lot of rumors about the Jazz.
That doesn’t mean nothing will happen. But what can?
Due to the protections of the future first-round pick that was sent to Memphis in the Conley deal this past summer, the only first-rounder the Jazz could outright trade is a 2026 one. Utah can, however, trade an earlier one with the specifications that it is the first one available after the pick going to Memphis gets conveyed (more than likely the 2024 pick).
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The Jazz have some second-round picks they could use to make deals. They own Golden State’s second-pick pick in 2021, their own in 2022 and 2023, and have the ability to swap picks with Cleveland in 2024.
As far as players go, Ed Davis, who has not been a good fit with the Jazz but has a history of being a high-level reserve big, might be of interest to some teams. While Emmanuel Mudiay has revitalized his career this season and is no longer in the rotation with Conley back healthy, the Jazz will likely want to hang onto him in case he's needed due to injuries again.
So it’s been a different deadline experience for the Jazz players this season — there won’t be any Twitter jokes about still being able to get into the facility like Rubio deadpanned last season — but they are also aware that something always could still happen.
“You never know,” Gobert said. “Sometimes it comes out of nowhere. It's part of how the NBA works. A lot of teams are trying to get better, or a lot of teams are trying to get better for maybe the next five years. They want draft picks, some teams want pieces to win today.”
The Jazz could use another piece to help win today. And with the team now in the middle of a five-game losing streak, it feels a little more pressing than before.
A bigger wing defender could help against five-out offenses (something the Jazz have struggled with over their recent five-game losing streak) and while Tony Bradley has improved this season, is he ready for potential matchups against the Lakers, Clippers or, if it comes to it, the Bucks?
When it comes to finding a player to help, it seems more likely for the Jazz to find them in the buyout market. But deadline deals have been done before by the Jazz — and they'll be searching again.
“I don't have a Twitter account, I'm not checking that — maybe I should get one,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder joked about deadline news. “But you get my point, for me, I think and for our team, I like us to stay focused on the things that we can actually control.”
It has been a bit easier to do that this year.
