Mobile Menu
HEADLINES

Jazz Rumors

Jazz/Thunder Trade Notes: Draft Pick, Cash, Deck

January 5th, 2022 at 9:51am CST by Luke Adams

The 2028 second-round pick the Thunder acquired from the Jazz in Tuesday’s Miye Oni trade was technically already owed to Oklahoma City conditionally, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter).

When the Jazz sent Derrick Favors to the Thunder in an offseason deal, Utah included a top-10 protected 2024 first-round pick. If that pick falls in its protected range, the Jazz would instead owe the Thunder their top-10 protected first-round pick pick in 2025. If it still hasn’t changed hands by that point, it would become a top-eight protected 2026 first-rounder.

The conditions of the Favors trade called for the Thunder to get Utah’s 2028 second-round pick if that first-rounder fell in its protected range all three years. Now, Oklahoma City will receive the pick unconditionally. If the Jazz’s 2024 first-rounder isn’t conveyed after 2026, the Thunder will instead receive $890K in cash, according to Marks.

Here’s more on the Jazz/Thunder swap:

  • The Thunder sent $1MM in cash to Utah as part of the trade, according to Marks. So not only did the Jazz avoid having Oni’s dead money increase their year-end tax bill — they also received more than enough cash to cover the prorated salary they’d already paid him this season.
  • The Thunder, who had to waive Gabriel Deck to make room on their roster for Oni, will carry a cap hit of $1,690,507 in dead money for Deck. His $3,676,852 salary wasn’t guaranteed, but Oklahoma City paid him a portion of that figure prorated across 80 days.
  • Sarah Todd of The Deseret News considers how trading away Oni and creating another opening on the roster could affect the Jazz’s plans on the trade market in the coming weeks.
Retweet 2 Share 0 Send via email0

Northwest Notes: Whiteside, Finch, Edwards, Bol

January 4th, 2022 at 8:03pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

With Jazz reserve center Hassan Whiteside unavailable while recovering from a concussion, Utah struggled to find much success in its small-ball lineups when All-Star center Rudy Gobert went to the bench, writes Eric Walden of the Salt Lake City Tribune. Walden notes that lineups with 6’8″ reserve forward Rudy Gay playing the five were minus-19 across 19:52 of action.

“It’s different without having a traditional big in Hassan or Rudy [Gobert] back there, because we base our defense solely on forcing everybody to our big,” All-Star point guard Mike Conley said. “Everybody’s kind of activated into more of a help-the-helper situation, as opposed to trying to make it a two-on-two situation with the big and the guard like we’re accustomed to doing.” Gay signed a two-year, $12.1MM contract with the team this summer.

There’s more out of the Northwest Division:

  • Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch has earned rave reviews for the way he handled Minnesota’s rotations as the team was impacted by several coronavirus-related absences, writes Chris Hine of the Star Tribune. Win or lose, the Wolves have always been prepared and kept contests close. “His [after-timeout plays], his mindset, how he conducts practice, very detailed man,” point guard Patrick Beverley said. “His professionalism, I preach to these guys every day that they’re fortunate to have a coach like that, for sure.”
  • After Finch had a quick hook for Timberwolves wing Anthony Edwards due to what the head coach perceived as lackluster defense in the first quarter of an eventual 122-104 Minnesota victory over the Clippers, Edwards responded with renewed effort, writes Chris Hine of the Star Tribune. Finch inserted Jaylen Nowell in Edwards’s stead early in the first quarter. “I wasn’t a big fan of his approach defensively to start the game, which is why I went that direction early,” Finch said. “He responded to that and was a lot more dialed in.” Edwards conceded that Finch had a point: “I get mad, but he right. At the end of the day I can’t do nothing but take the constructive criticism and come back and show him that I can do it.”
  • 7’2″ Nuggets power forward Bol Bol showed promise in scoring a career-best 11 points across 20 minutes against the Rockets in a 124-111 win this weekend. He has support in high places as a prospect with upside, per Mike Singer of The Denver Post. One big name in his corner is Denver head coach Michael Malone, who sent Bol a congratulatory text after his big night.
Retweet 2 Share 0 Send via email0

COVID-19 Updates: Noel, Hornets, Pacers, Ingles, Reed, Bucks, Metu

January 4th, 2022 at 6:46pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Knicks center Nerlens Noel has cleared the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols, per New York’s PR team (Twitter link). Noel entered the protocols in late December.

The 6’11” big man has only appeared in 17 contests, starting 10, for New York so far this season. The 27-year-old out of Kentucky is averaging 3.5 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 1.5 BPG and 1.1 SPG across 23.1 MPG. Knee injuries kept Noel absent for much of the start of the 2021/22 season. He signed a lucrative three-year, $32MM contract with the Knicks during the offseason.

Here are a few more protocol-related updates:

Retweet 2 Share 0 Send via email0

Jazz Trade Miye Oni, Second-Round Pick To Thunder

January 4th, 2022 at 4:51pm CST by Luke Adams

4:51pm: In a press release, the Thunder have confirmed their trade to acquire Oni and the Jazz’s 2028 second-round pick, in addition to the release of Deck. Utah acquired cash in return, according to the announcement.

3:03pm: The Jazz are finalizing an agreement with the Thunder on a trade that will send swingman Miye Oni to Oklahoma City, according to Shams Charania and Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Thunder will also receive Utah’s 2028 second-round pick in the deal, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Oni doesn’t have a fully guaranteed salary for the 2021/22 season, so he can be waived by Friday without his entire $1,782,621 cap hit applying to team salary. Presumably, the Jazz planned to part ways with Oni before Friday’s salary guarantee deadline and will trade him instead of cutting him so that his cap hit won’t apply to team salary at all for cap or tax purposes.

If Utah had released him, Oni would’ve counted against the cap for a prorated portion of his minimum salary — that amount (about $820K as of Monday) would’ve further increased the team’s end-of-season tax penalty. According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), the Jazz’s projected tax bill would’ve been about $2.4MM higher if Oni had been waived rather than traded.

Instead, the Thunder will be the ones releasing Oni, according to Wojnarowski. They’re well below the salary floor despite technically operating over the cap, so adding a little dead money to their cap is well worth it to acquire a future second-round pick.

With no players headed from Oklahoma City to Utah in the swap, the Jazz will open up a second spot on their 15-man roster, which they’ll have to fill within the next two weeks.

The Thunder will have to waive someone in order to make room on the roster for Oni, even though they don’t plan to keep him. Gabriel Deck, who has a partially guaranteed salary, will be the odd man out in OKC, according to Wojnarowski (via Twitter). Once they officially release Deck and then acquire and waive Oni, the Thunder will have an opening on their 15-man roster too.

Since Oni is in the final season of a three-year contract, he can’t be acquired using the minimum salary exception, so the Thunder will have to use a traded player exception to absorb his salary. They have two sizeable TPEs expiring next month that would work.

The Jazz will create a small traded player exception worth a prorated portion of Oni’s salary in the deal.

Retweet 1 Share 0 Send via email0

Joel Embiid, Donovan Mitchell Named Players Of The Month

January 4th, 2022 at 2:16pm CST by Luke Adams

Sixers big man Joel Embiid has been named December’s Player of the Month for the Eastern Conference, while Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell has earned the honor for the Western Conference, the NBA announced today (via Twitter).

It was a healthy month for Embiid, who appeared in all but one of Philadelphia’s 14 games in December and led the team to an 8-5 record in those contests — the 76ers were blown out by 35 points in the only game he missed. The star center averaged 29.2 PPG, 11.2 RPG, 3.9 APG, 1.5 SPG, and 1.3 BPG on .496/.391/.845 shooting in 34.5 minutes per game for the month.

Mitchell, meanwhile, appeared in 12 of Utah’s 14 December games, putting up 30.2 PPG, 5.0 APG, 3.2 RPG, and 1.2 SPG with a shooting line of .502/.377/.870 in 34.2 minutes per night. The Jazz had a 12-2 month, including 10-2 in games with Mitchell available.

Embiid beat out fellow nominees Giannis Antetokounmpo, DeMar DeRozan, Kevin Durant, Darius Garland, Kyle Lowry, and Fred VanVleet in the East. The other Western nominees were Stephen Curry, LeBron James, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Twitter link).

The NBA also announced the Rookies of the Month for December today, with Magic forward Franz Wagner and Thunder guard Josh Giddey earning the honors in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference, respectively.

Wagner’s Magic went just 3-11 in December, but he solidified his position as a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate, averaging 19.5 PPG, 5.1 RPG, and 3.1 APG on .476/.404/.889 shooting in 34.0 MPG. Giddey, who won his second straight Rookie of the Month award, missed five games, including the Thunder’s 73-point loss to Memphis. In the 10 games he played, Oklahoma City went 6-4 and he averaged 11.8 PPG, 7.1 RPG, and 6.7 APG.

Retweet 1 Share 0 Send via email0

Northwest Notes: Faried, Jazz, Monroe, Reed

December 29th, 2021 at 11:53am CST by Luke Adams

Kenneth Faried is joining the Grand Rapids Gold for the coming NBA G League season, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Although Grand Rapids is the Nuggets‘ affiliate, Faried will remain an NBA free agent and will have the ability to join any team. If he doesn’t receive any NBA offers in the coming days, we should expect to see the 32-year-old in action for the Gold when the G League regular season begins on January 5.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

  • In the latest episode of the HoopsHype podcast, Michael Scotto and The Athletic’s Tony Jones spoke about potential trade options for the Jazz, Danny Ainge‘s role with the franchise, and more. Jones expects Utah to be “really aggressive” in exploring the trade market for potential upgrades, reiterating that the team is definitely looking for one more perimeter player who can defend at a high level.
  • Veteran guard Patrick Beverley is a big fan of what Greg Monroe brings to the Timberwolves and said on Tuesday that he’d like to see the team retain Monroe for the entire season, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Monroe has averaged 9.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 5.0 APG, and 2.0 SPG in two games since joining Minnesota on a 10-day deal.
  • Davon Reed‘s second 10-day contract expired overnight, so he’s technically no longer on the Nuggets‘ roster, but the team is considering how to keep him in the mix, as we relayed on Tuesday. With no players currently in the health and safety protocols, Denver’s options for keeping Reed would be to waive someone on the standard 17-man roster or to apply for a non-COVID hardship exception based on the team’s four injured players.
Retweet 1 Share 0 Send via email0

Donovan Mitchell To Miss Two-Game Road Trip

December 26th, 2021 at 8:54pm CST by JD Shaw

Three Timberwolves players took advantage of their expanded roles in the team’s game against the Jazz on Thursday, Chris Hine of the Star Tribune writes. Malik Beasley, Jaden McDaniels and Jake Layman all gave a solid effort, but the team still lost 128-116 without Karl-Anthony Towns or Anthony Edwards available.

Beasley finished with 33 points on 13-of-25 shooting, while McDaniels (16 points and nine rebounds) and Layman (13 points and seven rebounds) provided respectable contributions. Minnesota struggled to contain Utah’s star players, however, also letting the Jazz shoot 16-of-39 (41%) from deep.

Retweet 3 Share 0 Send via email0

Northwest Notes: Ainge, Jazz, Hyland, Nowell, Wolves

December 16th, 2021 at 5:03pm CST by Luke Adams

Jazz owner Ryan Smith pitched Danny Ainge on the idea of taking on a role with the franchise during a recent trip to the Bahamas for Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge golf tournament, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon. The two men had discussions during the trip about the concept of Ainge coming aboard, then worked out a deal when they returned to Utah, resulting in the Jazz hiring Ainge as their CEO and alternate governor.

“I’ve never been ready to talk about this before, but Ryan and I had a chance to spend a lot of time together,” Ainge said, explaining that he took the last six months to spend time with family and decompress. “We hashed it out, and we were both excited about this opportunity. I think it was the timing more than anything.”

Ainge will oversee Utah’s basketball operations and will work closely with general manager Justin Zanik, who will continue to run the day-to-day operations. As Eric Walden and Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune write, the team is enthusiastic about the idea of a “collaborative” approach to the front office and isn’t all that interested in establishing a linear hierarchy in which one person ultimately makes all the decisions.

“If you’re in the league, everyone knows to call Justin right now. I think that’s pretty clear,” Smith said. “(But) I think when it comes to decision-making, we’re the kind of culture where it doesn’t really work that way. … When it comes to that, you want to be right a lot more than you’re wrong, because some decisions aren’t clear. Bringing Danny on board helps increase our chances of getting that right.”

Sources close to Ainge told Tony Jones and Jared Weiss of The Athletic that the veteran executive always wanted a Jerry West-type role that would give him the flexibility to play plenty of golf and spend time with his grandchildren. He’ll work with the Jazz every day, but won’t be putting in the 16- and 18-hour days that he became accustomed to in Boston.

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

  • Dan Clayton of Salt City Hoops, writing for The Salt Lake Tribune, provides a trade primer for the Jazz, examining the team’s needs, expendable assets, and possible targets.
  • Nuggets guard Bones Hyland was held out of Wednesday’s game for a violation of team rules, but will be available on Friday in Atlanta, according to reports from Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports and Mike Singer of The Denver Post (Twitter links).
  • Timberwolves guard Jaylen Nowell has been out of the rotation for most of the season, but has appeared in the last there games and logged a season-high 15 minutes last Friday. Nowell is hoping that he can carve out a more regular role, as Chris Hine of The Star Tribune writes. The stakes are particularly high for the 22-year-old, whose 2021/22 salary still isn’t fully guaranteed.
  • Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic takes an in-depth look at the chemistry that’s developing between the Timberwolves‘ two young franchise cornerstones, Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns. “If me and KAT just lock in here with each other, I feel like we will win so many more games,” Edwards said of his star teammate. “… He dominates, man. He can shoot, he can drive, he can pass, he can do everything. So playing with him makes my game a lot easier.”
Retweet 2 Share 0 Send via email0

Jazz Hire Danny Ainge As Alternate Governor, CEO

December 15th, 2021 at 1:29pm CST by Luke Adams

1:29pm: The Jazz have officially announced Ainge’s hiring, issuing a press release to confirm the news.

“Rarely do you get an opportunity to come into a franchise that is this close to being a special team,” Ainge told Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link). “It’s a very unique opportunity.”

12:48pm: The Jazz are hiring Danny Ainge to be the franchise’s alternate governor and CEO, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). The former Celtics executive will oversee Utah’s basketball operations, with Justin Zanik remaining in the general manager role, per Wojnarowski.

Since Ainge stepped down from his position in Boston earlier this year, Utah has been repeatedly cited as a potential landing spot for him. Ainge played his college ball at BYU and is close with team owner and governor Ryan Smith. Additionally, the Jazz have undergone some front office changes in 2021, having reassigned executive VP of basketball operations Dennis Lindsey to an advisory role, which opened the door to bring in someone new like Ainge.

At the time of Lindsey’s demotion, reports indicated that Zanik had essentially been running the day-to-day operations of the front office since 2019. It seems likely he’ll continue to do so, since Ainge recently suggested he’d prefer to join a new team as a “helper,” rather than as someone who works “18-hour days.”

Ainge’s title indicates he’ll be above Zanik in the front office hierarchy, but Wojnarowski says (via Twitter) the two executives will “work closely.”

Ainge previously served as the president of basketball operations in Boston from 2003-21. The Celtics made the postseason in all but three of his 18 seasons running the front office, taking home a championship in 2008. Ainge’s trades for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen helped lead the Celtics to that title.

The 2013 blockbuster deal that sent an aging Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Nets for a boatload of draft picks is considered one of the biggest NBA heists of the century, putting Boston in position to land Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in subsequent drafts. However, while the C’s made three Eastern Finals appearances during Ainge’s last few years in Boston, that team could never quite get over the hump, with major additions like Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving not panning out as hoped.

In Utah, Ainge will inherit a roster that appears on the verge of title contention, with Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jordan Clarkson, Royce O’Neale, and Rudy Gay all locked up for multiple seasons.

Retweet 2 Share 0 Send via email0
Load More Posts