NBA.com Reveals Two Massive Jazz Offseason Trade Candidates

The Utah Jazz took an interesting approach to this year’s trade deadline.

Rather than deciding to sell off a majority of their veteran players and other assets in order to land more picks and young players for this rebuild, the Jazz decided to stay put, remain with their roster outside of a few minor moves around the edges, and keep their main pieces onboard for the rest of this season and into the summer.

A rather unorthodox move from a fluent trader executive like Danny Ainge at the helm. However, that doesn’t count out this team from making a few interesting moves involving a couple of their top contributors this offseason if the right situation arises.

NBA.com’s John Schuhmann outlined one main aspect to watch during the Jazz’s offseason in his latest batch of power rankings, he detailed the potential for either Lauri Markkanen or John Collins to get moved.

“So the Jazz really need to strike gold with their pick (which will be no lower than sixth) this year. They don’t have any real free agents, but John Collins has a $27-million player option and Lauri Markkanen will become trade-eligible for the first time since he signed his new contract last summer,” Schuhmann wrote. ”It will be difficult for the Jazz to take another step backward next season, but don’t put it past them.”

After a season of which Markkanen trade rumors were silenced due to his newly-signed extension, as well as limited talks surrounding Collins thanks to his resurgence of a season, neither of the Jazz forwards found their way into any deep trade discussions this season.

Though, this offseason could present a major shift in mindset by the Jazz front office. If Utah is able to find an ample package in return for either Collins or Markkanen, it’s hard to believe Ainge and Co. wouldn’t entertain those calls.

Collins’ trade value has likely seen a jump from where it was six months to a year ago, while Markkanen’s has likely turned the opposite direction. Regardless, the Jazz would likely be foolish to not at least look into the possibility of trading both if the price is right.

Of course, the Jazz will have to keep good players on the roster at some point in their rebuild process in order to climb their way to the top, but this group is still a considerable bit away from reaching that level of contention. Utah is now on the verge of logging their second-straight season of a league-worst defensive rating, are now primed to have a bottom-ten offensive rating, and are cemented to have under 20 wins for the first time in a season in franchise history.

Clearly, this team needs to upgrades all around, but maybe that needs to result in a couple of steps backward before those steps forward come.