Why a Joe Johnson trade makes sense for the Utah Jazz
With the trade market heating up, reports suggest Utah Jazz wing Joe Johnson is trying to find his way out of Salt Lake City. Here’s why that move makes sense for the Jazz.
With the calendar month turning over to February, that means we are just one week away from the 2018 NBA Trade Deadline on Feb. 8.
One team that is believed to be very active around the trade deadline is the Utah Jazz.
Names such as Derrick Favors, Rodney Hood and even the possibility of Ricky Rubio have been brought up in trade rumors around the league over the past few weeks, but now there is another name joining the mix: Jazz veteran wing Joe Johnson.
The New York Times‘ Marc Stein reported early Thursday morning that Johnson has quietly been asking for a trade or a buyout behind the scenes in Utah.
Veteran scorer Joe Johnson is angling behind the scenes for a trade out of Utah, according to league sources. Will be interesting to see if he becomes a buyout candidate for contenders should no deal materialize before the Feb. 8 trade buzzer
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 1, 2018
With the Jazz continuing to hang around the bottom half of the Western Conference standings, currently 22-28 overall while on the outside looking in at the playoff picture, a Johnson trade makes sense for Utah.
Entering February and the home stretch of the NBA year, Johnson is averaging 7.3 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game in a key second unit role for the Jazz, where he averages 22 minutes off the bench. He is also shooting 42.2 percent from the field, while struggling from beyond the arc, tallying a 24.5 shooting percentage from 3.
The 36-year-old Johnson, who is in his second year in Utah, missed a large amount of games early in the regular season due to a wrist injury on his shooting hand, having appeared in a total of 29 games thus far.
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The reasons this trade makes sense for the Jazz are 1) Johnson clearly doesn’t want to be there anymore, and 2) They continue to have a logjam at the wing position.
The veteran wing could provide a nice spark and veteran playoff experience coming off the bench on a contending team for the rest of the season and into postseason play. Contending teams could likely acquire him — or if he gets bought out, sign him — for a low price.
The more likely scenario is that Johnson and the Jazz agree to a buyout sometime near or at the trade deadline. The biggest reason for that is Johnson’s salary.
Although it’s not a high salary, as he is making around $10.5 million in the final year of his deal, teams who are trying to make a push toward the end of the season and in the playoffs likely don’t have the cap space or don’t want to give up a certain player to make that kind of deal work.
If Johnson is bought out, he could then sign with a team for the veteran minimum.
That just seems more likely to happen, but a trade is certainly not of out of the question. If the Jazz are solely focused on picking up assets, they could quite possibly pick up a second round pick, a future draft pick or even a young player in return.
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With trade rumors and possibilities completely surrounding Utah as we near the Feb. 8 trade deadline, trading or buying out Joe Johnson makes sense for the Jazz, a team that is clearly focused on shifting its attention to the future.