Utah Jazz: 3 reasons to make a trade approaching deadline

1. Utah has enough future flexibility for a deal

The third reason Utah should go out and look at making a move before the Feb. 7 deadline is the fact that it has enough flexibility to go out and take a chance by making an acquisition this season.

For the most part, the roster is filled with players that are either on expiring contracts this season or following the 2019-20 campaign, which offers a ton of options for the organization moving forward if a trade does or doesn’t work out the way it pictured.

Following this year, Ricky Rubio, Thabo Sefolosha, Ekpe Udoh and Isaiah Cousins‘ contracts are set to come off of the books. Looking ahead to next season, players such as Derrick Favors, Kyle Korver, Jae Crowder, Raul Neto and Royce O’Neale are set to enter the final year of their contracts.

The Jazz also have their core players, which includes Rudy Gobert, Joe Ingles and Donovan Mitchell (still on his rookie contract), locked up through 2020-21.

Not only do those contracts offer overall flexibility if a trade does happen to occur at the deadline this year or even during the offseason, but the fact that the Jazz also have attractive, expiring contracts coming up in 2019-20 could be something other teams around the NBA are drawn to.

Sometimes, when a good thing is going well, it’s best to not mess with it. With Utah having played well as of late and emerging as one of the hottest teams in the NBA lately, maybe it ends up taking a more measured, patient approach at the deadline.

However, if the Utah Jazz are looking to make a jump now and take advantage of their stellar play while we advance in the second half of the schedule, there are a handful of reasons why it makes sense for them to make a trade.