How Jazz coach Will Hardy handles trade deadline season

SALT LAKE CITY — The talks between Jazz executives Danny Ainge and Justin Zanik, and head coach Will Hardy are more frequent these days.

That's the nature of the calendar; it's early February — trade deadline season.

"The conversations are more now than they were a month ago, just naturally," Hardy said. "I wouldn't say that it's because there are a thousand things we're thinking about doing, it's just you're starting to get more of a scope on what can be real and what isn't."

What's real? The Jazz are expected to be in a lot of talks ahead of Thursday's trade deadline. They have several draft assets, players on expiring deals, and veterans who are reportedly drawing interest from contending teams. They have the draft picks to be buyers, or they could collect even more assets by dealing veterans.

There are a lot of options, including doing nothing at all. That's where that pesky uncertainty comes from — a feeling that has an impact on and off the court.

"I think one thing we tried our best not to do is hide from the fact that this is a business and there are times of year that are stressful," Hardy said.

This is one of those times. Hardy thinks it would be short-sighted to just imagine the deadline isn't approaching or that players' livelihoods aren't being discussed throughout the league like they are nothing more than names on a spreadsheet.

"That doesn't mean that every day we have to have some big conversation about what's going on," he said. "But I do want our team and our players to always know that I recognize that they are human beings."

And every player will have a different challenge when it comes to the business side of basketball.

Some have families they will either have to leave for a few months or quickly uproot. Some are on contract years, playing to stay in the league; a different team may mean less opportunity. On the flip side, some may welcome a new home and a new chance somewhere else.

Regardless, it's difficult to turn off the anxiety, the fear, or even the hope that a deadline can bring. Utah's three-game skid has been marred with some mental errors — it's not hard to draw a line between the added deadline stress and those mistakes.

That's why Hardy believes in an open line of communication, especially during this time of the season.

"It does impact them, like, they're not robots and they can't just always separate everything from what goes on in between the lines," Hardy said. "So I try to do my best to provide an open line of communication for them, and let them know that it's a two-way street and they can always come to me with anyone that they're concerned about."

As far as the communication between Hardy and the front office, he said things have to be pretty far along before he's grouped into the discussion.

"They keep me informed on potential things with our team," Hardy said. "I think most things have to reach a certain level before they bring me in. If they told me about every phone call that was incoming or outgoing, that would be really distracting for me."

Well, even more distracting that is.

"There's a lot of uncertainty around the league at this time of year; it's not just in our building, it's everywhere," Hardy said. "And so these are moments where you're reminded of the human elements that go into all this."

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