Utah Jazz Trade Among Most Lopsided of NBA Offseason

The Utah Jazz made a couple of trades across this offseason that would effectively ship out a couple of the roster's tenured veteran pieces to help allow this young core to have a bit of an expanded opportunity for the season ahead.

But for one of those deals the Jazz made this summer, it's also come with a bit of blowback– that being Utah's trade to send Collin Sexton and a future second-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Jusuf Nurkic.

On paper, it's a bit of a head-scratching move that had the Jazz sending out the better player and a future pick in exchange for Nurkic, who can still be a backup-level center in the league. But, for the package that Utah forfeited, it's a bit of a questionable decision.

And for some, the Jazz's Sexton trade might just be one of the more lopsided deals of the summer.

Bleacher Report's Dan Favale recently ranked five of the NBA offseason's most lopsided deals, where the Sexton deal didn't quite land atop the list, but still fell in place at number four.

"Conventional wisdom suggests that if you're getting the better player, on the better contract, you should be the one sending out draft equity," Favale wrote. "Congratulations to the Hornets for middle-fingering conventional wisdom."

"Charlotte's roster is now fairly guard-heavy and lacking proven centers. It doesn't matter. A career 38.6 percent shooter from distance, Sexton improves both the spacing and secondary ball-handling around LaMelo Ball. He's also $400,000 cheaper than Nurkić and more likely to net positive value if the Hornets move him in another deal. Utah clearly wanted to open up perimeter minutes for its youngins. This trade doesn't make sense even by that logic. Including the pick, at the very least, was overkill."

The Jazz made it clear this offseason that the 2025-26 campaign would look a lot different in terms of how this young core and development would be prioritized. That was done through shipping out Sexton and John Collins, while also buying out Jordan Clarkson to free up those minutes across the rotation.

But those moves didn't come with much of a noteworthy return. And in the case of the Sexton deal, it may have ended up with Utah ultimately losing value in the transaction by giving away the better player and a draft pick for Nurkic. The Jazz did end up recouping that second-round draft capital through the Boston Celtics in the RJ Luis deal, but it still doesn't shift much on the Sexton front.