Utah Jazz: Grading their 2019 NBA Trade Deadline

With the 2019 NBA Trade Deadline officially come and gone, let’s grade the Utah Jazz’s activity, or lack thereof, while players were swapped around the NBA.

The 2019 NBA Trade Deadline is officially in the rearview mirror, and what turned out to be a busy deadline around the NBA ended with the Utah Jazz not making any moves of their own.

In the weeks leading up to the deadline, the Jazz were a part of plenty of trade rumors around the league, including reportedly being interested in players such as Jabari Parker and Otto Porter Jr. — who ended up actually being traded for each other — as well as players such as Mike Conley and even Kyle Lowry.

But as the players started getting sent all across the landscape of the league, Utah decided it would not make a move as the clock hit zero.

The fact that the Jazz decided to not make a move at the deadline isn’t all that surprising and isn’t necessarily a bad thing by any means.

It would’ve been interesting to see them go out and add a player such as Conley or Lowry to add to the squad as they prepare to continue to make a second-half push to the postseason, but Utah not making a trade allows it to stick to its original vision and plan for the rest of this season before heading into an offseason with more flexibility.

The rumor that most people had their eye on as the deadline approached was involving Conley and a potential trade with the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies were fairly active at the deadline, including sending All-Star post Marc Gasol to the Toronto Raptors in perhaps the biggest trade of the day. 

A few hours prior to the deadline, there were multiple reports that suggested Memphis decided it didn’t want to ship off Conley and would instead hold onto him until at least the offseason.

Conley obviously would’ve been a nice addition in Utah, but one that would’ve been costly. Conley is due approximately $66 million over the next two seasons and that kind of contract could have limited the Jazz’s ability to continue to build around their hypothetical Big 3 of Conley, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.

Even though that contract is somewhat daunting, it could’ve also helped Utah take the next step as a top-tier team in the Western Conference.

Ultimately, the Jazz didn’t make the move, and now they have some extra flexibility entering the offseason.

Ricky Rubio, who was the center of talks and would’ve been sent to Memphis in a Conley deal, will come off the books following the 2018-19 season. Outside of that, Thabo Sefolosha and Ekpe Udoh‘s contracts will also expire this summer.

As the roster currently stands, without those three contracts for the 2019-20 season, the Jazz are estimated to head into the offseason with a payroll of just over $92 million. That will allow them to evaluate the free agent market and possibly add another nice complementary or starting piece for the upcoming year.

It was ultimately a quiet deadline in Salt Lake City, which isn’t a bad thing considering Utah is still sitting in a nice spot in the Western Conference standings and is on pace to once again return to the postseason.

Now, it’s officially time for them to regroup and focus on making a successful playoff run.

Grade: B