Patrick Kinahan: Big-game hunting in store for Jazz this week?


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Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Multiple NBA teams, including the Mavericks, engaged in major trades recently.
  • The Utah Jazz played a minor role in facilitating the Doncic-Davis trade.
  • Jazz management may pursue significant trades before the upcoming deadline.

SALT LAKE CITY — Multiple NBA teams have gone big-game hunting in recent days, acquiring long-time stars hoping to improve the respective franchise's chances at winning a championship.

The headliner, which shocked the basketball world, saw the Dallas Mavericks trade five-time All-Star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. For the Mavs, exchanging their 25-year-old Slovenian superstar for the 31-year-old with an extensive injury history is a massive risk that could negatively impact the franchise for years.

The Sacramento Kings also gambled in sending All-Star De'Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs as part of a three-team deal. With the trade deadline approaching Thursday, more blockbuster trades remain a possibility.

Veteran NBA observers and team executives quickly labeled the Doncic trade among the biggest in league history. In his seventh year, he already has made first-team all-NBA five times.

History will show the Jazz were a footnote in the deal, being the third team to facilitate the trade between the Mavs and Lakers. The Jazz got Jalen Hood-Schifino from Los Angeles, along with two second-round picks in June's draft.

The Lakers drafted Hood-Schifino, who played one college season at Indiana, with the 17th pick in 2023. He has appeared in 23 games for the Lakers over the two seasons, spending most of the time in the G League.

Hours earlier, the team also traded Patty Mills and Drew Eubanks to the Los Angeles Clippers for P.J. Tucker, Mo Bamba, a future second-round pick and cash. Neither will play for the Jazz — Bamba was waived, and Tucker's salary could be used as part of another trade.

Meanwhile, the big-game hunting that Danny Ainge spoke of after last season has yet to materialize. Surely, the team's CEO of basketball operations has something in store before the trade deadline passes.

Jazz fans can only hope so.

Since Ainge officially joined forces with majority owner Ryan Smith in December 2021, the Jazz have been in massive rebuilding mode. Buried in last place in the Western Conference, the team will miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season.

"I think that our objective is to find a player or two, and we're ready to roll," Ainge said during the season-ending press conference last April. "We're ready to go big-game hunting, and that hasn't happened in the last two years."

As much as the management team may have tried, the only acquisitions involved bench players with little ability to impact winning. The Jazz also have shuffled around future draft picks with multiple teams.

With the trade deadline looming, maybe this is time to make significant moves to improve the team immediately. But more than halfway through the season, the trick is not to ruin the chances at drafting in the top three in June.

"We're hearing the Utah Jazz aren't done," Associated Press NBA writer Tim Reynolds posted on social media.

Unless there's a no-brainer move to make, the big-game hunting can wait until the summer. For now, the best route is to pile up the losses.

Cooper Flagg, the 18-year-old forward at Duke, is the top prize atop the draft. Even if the odds are miniscule to land the first pick, the risk is worth taking to land a potential franchise player.

In addition to Flagg, depending on individual evaluations, the Jazz could still get a player with the ability to blossom into an All-Star after a few years of seasoning. With this in mind, even though it could extend the painful rebuilding phase, trading more experienced talent this week might be the best path to aid future success.

If no takers are available to unload any of the veterans, then continue to spot rest them the rest of the way. There's no point in allowing them to overshadow the younger players drafted in the last two years.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Patrick is a radio host for 97.5/1280 The Zone and the Zone Sports Network. He, along with David James, are on the air Monday-Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

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