The Jazz are considering a run at trading for Jeff Teague, multiple league sources told Andy Larsen of KSL.com, who cautions that no formal contact has taken place between Utah and the Hawks. The Jazz are open to a deal if the right opportunity arises but aren’t actively seeking a trade, tweets Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune, who adds that they’re enamored with the injured Dante Exum and remain 100% committed to him (Twitter link). Nonetheless, Utah has been “poking around” the market for a point guard, several league sources told Zach Lowe of ESPN.com for a report last week.
Atlanta has reportedly been talking with other teams about Teague, including apparent preliminary discussions with the Knicks, and the Celtics have reportedly contacted the Hawks to gauge the availability of Teague and Al Horford. The Hawks also reportedly solicited offers for Dennis Schröder but have focused more prominently on Teague of late, in spite of Lowe’s report that the team has “major trust issues” with the 22-year-old Schröder.
Larsen suggests that an acquisition of Teague wouldn’t run counter to the team’s commitment to Exum, since Exum is out for this season, and because next season is the last on Teague’s contract, which pays him $8MM a year. Exum’s rookie scale deal runs through 2017/18.
The KSL scribe speculates that the Hawks would want wing players in return for Teague, whose trade candidacy I examined last week. The Jazz have been going with three wing players in lieu of a point guard for significant stretches this season, with Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood and Alec Burks the most prominent among them. Joe Ingles and Chris Johnson have also been part of the rotation.