Utah Jazz: Finding a potential trade partner for Alec Burks
By Mason McFee
The Utah Jazz have had a fairly uneventful offseason. Here’s one move that would make a ton of sense for both sides involved.
As it stands right now, the Utah Jazz project to have six guards on their roster for the start of the 2018-19 regular season: Ricky Rubio, Grayson Allen, Donovan Mitchell, Raul Neto, Dante Exum and Alec Burks.
This does not account for Naz Mitrou-Long, who is on a two-way contract, nor recent signee Jairus Lyles.
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Added all together, that would mean the Jazz would be carrying eight guards on their roster next season, or put simply, over half of the roster spots the NBA allows a team to carry. Even on a rebuilding team, that number is ludicrous.
The Jazz are not that and are looking to build off their strong season. One move the Jazz haven’t made this offseason is to trade former first-round selection Alec Burks.
That last sentence isn’t a slight to Burks, he’s in the NBA and was a first-round selection for a reason. At the end of the day, the NBA is a business and the Jazz are a small market team.
According to Spotrac, the Jazz (at the time of this writing) are $16,339,995 over the NBA’s salary cap. Fortunately for the Jazz, Mitchell is still on his rookie contract and Allen is just beginning his.
Neto was re-signed for a contract that will play him $2.1 million annually, Rubio is on an expiring contract for nearly $15 million and Exum was given a hefty pay raise that will pay him a shade over $9 million over the next three seasons.
The aforementioned guards account for $31.7 million of Utah’s salaries and that’s before factoring in Burks’ $11.5 million cap hit for next season. Get the picture?
A push for trading Burks may seem a little premature. He’s still only 27, squarely in the age range most NBA players are considered to be in their athletic prime.
Burks was also a key part of helping Utah get their lone win in their series against the Houston Rockets, reminding folks that he’s a gifted player and isn’t just a scorer:
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The problem with Burks has never been his God-given abilities, it’s been being able to stay healthy to use them.
Burks has played in 365 out of a possible 574 regular season contests in his career, making 43 combined starts in those games. In his first three seasons, he averaged 67 games per season. In the past four, he’s averaged 41.
Burks holds career averages of 9.7 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. He’s a career 35.3 percent shooter from beyond the arc and holds a 44.7 field goal percentage. Not great numbers, but certainly not bad.
Why would a team trade for a player who’s been “just OK” in his career? More importantly, who can?
According to Spotrac’s cap tracker for this upcoming season, the only team that could take Burks’ salary on without having to send out any or much in return is the Sacramento Kings. In this hypothetical, that’s where he’s going.
The Kings weren’t selected because they’re the Kangz, or because they’re the only team with the necessary cap space to complete this deal. As Spotrac details, there are only three teams in the NBA right now that are under the salary cap and two of those teams are barely under it.
Teams spending money to retain and improve their core is nothing new, but in Sacramento’s case, it may behoove them to take a flier on Burks.
The Kings were last in the league in scoring this past season, averaging a paltry 98.8 points per game. Their leading scorer was (now) 37-year-old Zach Randolph. He’s a power forward, and to simplify the terminology a bit, a big; of which Sacramento currently has eight(!).
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The Kings already have four shooting guards on the roster next season, but their roles are pretty defined — Buddy Hield comes off the bench, Bogdan Bogdanovic starts, Iman Shumpert (remember him?) is coming recovering from surgery on his torn meniscus and Ben McLemore was puzzlingly re-acquired after the Kings gave up on him.
Simply put, the Kings need scoring and bench minutes are up for grabs. Why not take a flier on a former first round pick?
The Kings have a terrible (recent) history with guards selected in the first round — McLemore, Jimmer Fredette (acquired in a draft night trade), Nik Stauskas — but Burks has never donned a Kings uniform. He’d be getting a fresh start, and the Kings could provide him solid minutes.
He could become a starter, as he was in Utah for a brief stint. For a team that holds one of the longest playoff droughts in all of professional sports, it’s never a bad idea to take a chance on a player that isn’t going to get much of one on his current team.
For Utah, it may be hard to give up on a guy they drafted. Most of Utah’s current core is homegrown. With Rubio potentially receiving a contract extension next offseason and Mitchell’s in the not-too-distant-future, it’s better to consolidate while you can.
They may have to part with a first-round pick in the process, but the Jazz have committed to a lot of young guys already.
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Start dialing now, general manager Dennis Lindsey.