Why The Utah Jazz Do The Deal

First of all, let’s be clear. If the Utah Jazz do this trade, they’ve either already moved Donovan Mitchell, or they plan to.

After all, this deal does nothing for them in 2022-23.

It’s become difficult to discuss Russell Westbrook without being critical. We’ll try to start by being positive: he’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer. With that said, it would be hard to claim he impacts winning by 2022.

In fact, he demonstrably does not. Still, if the Jazz are launching a rebuild, that’s not an issue for them. In that event, this deal frees up future cap space for them by swapping two veterans on longer-term contracts for one on an expiring deal.

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Coupled with a first-round pick, that’s a trade that ought to work for an organization that finds itself rebuilding.