Utah Jazz: Expectations for 2019 NBA Trade Deadline

As the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline approaches across the NBA, let’s take a look at what we can expect out of the Utah Jazz as players begin to switch teams.

One of the most anticipated and talked about times of the year is quickly approaching across the NBA. We are officially less than a month away from the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline.

With players across the league likely shifting teams as the Feb. 7 deadline looms, what can we expect out of the Utah Jazz as far as movement around the deadline? Let’s take a look at some options.

A season ago, the Jazz were one of the more intriguing teams at the trade deadline, making a few different moves while being viewed as a team that would turn into strong candidates to sell as the transactions began to take place.

Utah saw players such as Rodney Hood leave the team, while also adding what has turned out to be a key piece in Jae Crowder right at the deadline.

This time around at the deadline, it’s likely we’ll see a lot of the opposite from the Jazz compared to what we witnessed a season ago. As we sit less than a month away from the deadline, it could be a very real possibility that Utah remains quiet on the transaction front while it continues to make a second-half push into the Western Conference playoff picture.

One of the reasons we likely won’t see the Jazz make any moves around the deadline is because they are somewhat limited in the moves they can make based on the contractual situations of the players on the current roster.

Overall, Utah holds an overall active salary cap total of $113.4 million, which is about $11.5 million over the NBA salary cap of roughly $101.9 million. In order to make any sort of trade, the Jazz would need to match contracts of any incoming and outgoing players to make a deal work.

Another reason that it’s not likely we see a trade of large or semi-large magnitude taking place in Salt Lake City at the deadline is the salary breakdown and longevity the players on Utah currently hold. Other than Ricky Rubio, Thabo Sefolosha, Ekpe Udoh and Isaiah Cousins, every Jazz player’s contract is guaranteed through the 2019-20 season.

Would Utah make a deal for a player who can help them win both right now and in the future with a lengthy contract with all of those multi-year deals still on the table? I don’t think it’s likely.

If the Jazz did decide to become surprisingly aggressive and make the numbers work to get a deal done at the deadline, one player to watch could be Derrick Favors. Yes, Utah fans, you’ve heard this story before.

Favors, who re-signed with the Jazz in the offseason, is in the first year of a two-year, $37.6 million contract. A team around the league could find that contract short enough to take a chance on Favors, while Utah could be willing to shed his deal for either an expiring contract or someone who can help them win now more than it views Favors can.

Another player that could be interesting is Dante Exum, who is the backup to Rubio in the starting lineup. Exum is a nice bench piece for the Jazz, but is making $9.6 million annually through the 2020-21 season.

The amount of players that Utah could go out and target could be a wide variety if it decides it wants to part ways with players such as Favors and Exum. If another NBA team wanted those players together, let’s say, that would mean they could go out and swap with a team looking to shed a player that is making as much as $26.5 million this season.

In the end, when it comes to expectations for the NBA trade deadline in February, it’s likely that we see the Jazz stand pat and not make any major moves when players start to shift around the league. But as we all know, the NBA is a crazy world, and we shouldn’t be surprised to see anything happen anymore in this league.