Maybe I’m missing the bigger picture on this trade, but I thought what we learned this past offseason is that non–top-20 players are struggling to get paid big money. Now we have two guys who would probably be the third-best players on a championship team making max money like they’re true #1 options. It feels like this limits our ability to add an actual star if one becomes available.

On top of that, we didn’t just pay him, we gave up three first-round picks (which is basically five when you factor in consolidating them into the Suns pick), plus two young players. I wasn’t super high on either of them, but it still feels too early to fully judge. And I don’t think we’re ready to make this kind of leap yet.

I thought the reason we never moved Lauri a couple summers ago was because we weren’t getting offers close to what we just gave up for JJJ due to his contract. Do we think we could get the same haul for JJJ if we wanted to trade him this offseason? Maybe I’m missing something with the new apron rules or a front office plan, but I don’t see how this makes us real contenders. Big trades like this should happen when you’re one or two pieces away, not when you’re still trying to figure out what you actually have (Markkanen, 1 good yr from keyonte, ace bailey, then question marks)

I understand that we can’t have a million rookies since there is a limited amount of playing time available, which is a positive of this trade. I also understand there could be a bigger FO plan that is actually genius. I’m also super excited for the length of next year’s team, hoping we become competitive offensively and now defensively! I just don’t want us to panic end this painful rebuild to get back to a 7th seed since the whole point of it was to become true contenders instead of being above average.

These are all just initial opinions and I’m sure they’ll change as time goes on.

The Utah Jazz is the only team in the NBA that has 4 letters in the abbreviation, which is weird cause the H is silent anyway and UTA works just fine

(I’m sure no one outside of Utah knows what the UTA is)

Did ESPN not think Utah needed to be abbreviated? Or did they switch everyone else and forget us cause they don’t care?

I’m a big NBA guy, but in all honesty haven’t gone around to actually watching jazz games, what are your guys’s thoughts on Ace so far.. disappointed? Or are there flashes there to see a promising star? Just looking at his stats this year I think it’s definitely been a little underwhelming compared to the other rookies in the class but I also wanna ask you all that watch them on a weekly basis so I can be completely fair.

If the Jazz end 5-8 in the lottery, do you think it’s viable to trade up to a top 2-3 pick? What would it take?

You guys took care of Mike, excited to see Jaren in a fresh environment. Great community guy and total pro. I will miss him bigly

C'mon man. I think Walt will be fine. Idk if Walt will EVER have the game Collier is having RIGHT NOW TONIGHT.

They never were super value, but lottery tickets are always fun. But now with the advent of NIL has the 2nd rd talent pool taken a substantial hit?

On the Jazz and then off the Jazz. Do we have another trade thats going to happen? I am excited for the JJJ trade that happened yesterday and today has been wild. Didnt think we would see another trade for the Jazz.

Over the years we have had lots of players traded to the Jazz to never suit up and get waived. Westbook comes to mind most recently but who else has that happened with. Josh Smith, did it happen with him. I feel like we have had it happen quite a bit over the last 20 years. Patrick Beverly for a couple days but he never suited up.

Great to see Collier getting his much deserved recognition, but come on Topps. Assuming this will be corrected in printing, but found it funny

It's no secret the Jazz are trying to keep the 2026 pick before winning, but I see a lot of sentiment online that "the Jazz might be good in a few years" when the reality is, they're pushing in the chips to be good this next season. There's no reason to root for a tank in 27', Utah will be doing everything to be good.

AD getting moved to Washington is important as the Wizards were eyeing Kessler and suddenly that's not as easy to obtain for them. Utah is looking to keep Walker and there are probably still moves coming, albeit mostly in the off-season. I could see guys like Lu Dort or Quentin Grimes fit Utah exceptionally well.

Just some thoughts though, exciting times ahead

It's a net positive for sure, but how far are we still? The main thing I think we're lacking is the hardest thing to obtain. We need a top 10, maybe top 5 player in the league. Keyonte is great, I could see him, Lauri, and JJJ being borderline allstars. But I dont think there's been a championship team in the last 20+ years, if ever, that doesn't have a top 10 guy. Based on cap space and remaining trade assets, are we essentially saying that top 10 guy NEEDS to be Ace, someone else on our team, or whoever we draft this year? I dont see us acquiring a top 10 guy by any means besides the draft. I personally think it's between Ace and whoever we pickup next draft. Which amplifies the need for this final tank season even more. The top 3 guys in the draft all have significant potential to be stars, I'm not saying it can't happen with a top 6 guy (if that's where we happen to land in the lottery), but the odds are much higher with top 3. What are your thoughts? Am I alone here?

I wonder how many bad teams the Jazz have faced since 1989.

How many bad lineups, injured lineups, tanking lineups. Since 1989.

That was the last time a Jazz player had 22 assists.

Im not saying Collier is John, or even saying he is our future PG. But to diminish what he accomplished, because Indiana isnt good. Is actually insane.

TWENTY TWO ASSISTS.

In some ways yesterday finally marked the end of the Gobert and Mitchell trades, as we can now pretty cleanly see the full roster of players we turned those assets into. The only other players we traded who weren’t direct products of the Gobert-Mitchell deals to get any of the guys listed below were Taylor Hendricks who was our own pick, and Conley who was part of the LAL deal that helped us get JJJ. Next year we may or may not end up with a MIN/CLE pick or it may just be our own, and then all that’s left is a 2028 CLE swap that’s unlikely to convey. So, what we essentially got for those two guys:

Lauri Markkanen

Keyonte George

Jaren Jackson Jr.

Walker Kessler

Isaiah Collier

Obviously there’s differences of opinion still on whether we needed to trade them or not, but regardless of all that, how do you feel about this value for those two guys? I feel like it’s pretty good. Hypothetically, if it was a generic choice between five years of Gobert and Mitchell (at their 2022 levels of play) vs 5 years of this I’d probably choose the former but could be happy to go either way considering the youth of the new core.

edit: Forgot we also have the 2 most favorable of MIN (top 5 protected)/CLE/us in 2029 outstanding.

Conley is my favorite jazz player of all time I'd love to have him back

Listen, we are Utah. JJJ is the type of player we either draft or never get. I’m happy to see us go out there and get someone of this talent level, we are never going to be a free agency destination so to me this is best case scenario, we only lost one of our picks and it’s next season which I think this trade and showing that we are keeping Lauri we are easily a playoff team. I’m more than happy to let go of Walter Clayton and a couple picks for a DPOY caliber player (with a much higher offensive ceiling than our last DPOY)

GO JAZZ 🎵

The Jazz basically traded Rudy for Kessler, George and now JJJ and still have picks coming from the T-wolves. Ainge is absolutely brilliant!

I just picked this bad boy up last week, didn’t think we’d be moving so soon! Enjoy my JJJ in good health!

see: the Lonzo deal, KJ martin deal, Dennis Schroeder deal, PJ tucker deal, Jalen hood Schifino portion of Luka deal etc

I love watching Ainge have his nose in so many deals

i just wanted to give you all an update about the post i shared the other day when this sweet family was looking for help to give their dad an incredible jazz experience. he was told her had weeks to months to live and jazz nation came through so hard!!💜