The Utah Jazz were full participants in this latest NBA trade deadline, making five deals. The first one earned headlines, as the Jazz cashed in expiring salary and draft capital in a win-now (or at least win-soon) move that has Jazz fans excited for the future once again. The remaining four transactions were relatively minor, focused on clearing a roster spot, adding second round draft capital, and picking up some cash in the process.
The headliner, in which the Jazz sent four players and three first round draft picks for Jaren Jackson Jr. and a posse of former Memphis Grizzlies, has received plenty of press, including this piece by SCH's Zarin Ficklin. The others have barely been written about beyond a team-generated press release, but I’ll explore each of the transactions a little more to see how they were made, even though in the end, they’ll each likely go down as barely a footnote in the team’s history.
A few notes on the Jazz-Grizzlies deal
There have been a few reports about how the players in the deal were acquired, so let's clarify a few things.
- Jaren Jackson Jr. was acquired by aggregating the salaries of all four outgoing Jazz players, totaling $27.538 million, and adding the $8.527 Enhanced Trade Exception to reach Jackson’s $35,000,000 salary.
- John Konchar’s salary was taken into the John Collins Traded Player Exception (TPE), leaving $12.215 million for future trades.
- Vince Williams Jr. was taken into the PJ Tucker TPE, leaving $1.262 million. That’s not a very useful amount left for future use, and the exception has now expired anyway.
- Finally, Jock Landale’s contract is a true minimum deal, so the Jazz took him in via the Minimum Salary Exception; no other exception was required. Any team can acquire players using the MSE unless it would cause them to exceed their hard cap.
With the big, sexy, exciting trade out of the way, let’s move on to the little stuff!
Jazz get cash for the draft rights to Balsa Koprivica
Utah acquired these draft rights in the 2024 Russell Westbrook salary dump with the Clippers, and at the time, I wondered why. Koprivica, the 57th pick in the 2021 draft, already looked like a guy who would never see an NBA court, so adding him to the cash and second round pick swap the Jazz got from the Clippers for eating Westbrook’s contract seemed unnecessary. Perhaps Utah just wanted draft rights to enable lopsided deals, as draft rights, $110,000 cash, or a top-55 protected draft pick are the minimum required to participate in a trade.
That same desire to have a low-value asset on hand is presumably why the Thunder called the Jazz looking to buy these rights. The Thunder own several players’ draft rights, but those players are all considered too old to be used as minimum value in a trade. Perhaps OKC had a deal lined up to use these rights immediately (if so, the deal fell through) or perhaps they just wanted to have one on hand so they didn’t have to go searching the next time they needed one.
Whatever OKC motivations, they sent the Jazz $750,000 for the Koprivica rights, which adds to the windfall from the July 2024 Russell Westbrook trade. After agreeing to a salary reduction in a buyout agreement, Utah paid Westbrook $2.3 million, but received $4.3 million from the Clippers in the trade, allowing Utah to net $2 million for their trouble. That yiled now becomes $2.75 million now with this subsequent sale.
There’s an interesting wrinkle here as well, because the Jazz will soon owe the Thunder $890,000, assuming Utah is successful in retaining the top-8 protected pick by season’s end. [Note: the backup plan for that pick was originally a 2028 second-round pick, but the Jazz subsequently traded that pick to the Thunder in a Miye Oni salary dump. Since the backup plan was no longer viable, the teams agreed that if the pick wasn't conveyed by 2026, $890K would settle the debt.] It’s entirely possible that the Thunder could send Utah $750K, only for Utah to send the Thunder back $890K in a few months, but it’s hard to say how that figured into their motivation for chasing Koprivica’s rights.
Jazz take cash for Jock Landale to clear a roster spot
Landale came in the Utah-Memphis deal that brought Jaren Jackson Jr. to town, but he didn’t remain on the roster for long.
Just 24 hours later, the Atlanta Hawks offered $3 million in cash for the Aussie center, and he was rerouted. Amusingly, he loaded up his truck and made the six-hour drive to Atlanta, arriving in plenty of time to lead his new team in a victory over the team that had most recently traded him: the Utah Jazz. Landale’s 26 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 blocks certainly justified his $3 million acquisition cost for one game at least.
One little bit of trivia regarding Landale’s abbreviated “stint” with the Jazz: because he was on the roster for two days between trades, Utah is responsible for his pay for those days, even though the cap hit fully transfers to Atlanta. Total cost: $28,293.
Jazz get two seconds for taking on Lonzo Ball
The remaining deals look much more like the deals Utah made at last year’s deadline, when they rented cap space to acquire future draft capital. In 2025, the Jazz amassed five new second round draft picks in three separate deals, while this year’s haul was slightly smaller.
Lonzo Ball's comeback bid wasn’t going to plan after signing with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Many fans on social media projected this salary dump, in which Ball's $10 million was taken into the remaining $12.215 million of the John Collins Traded Player Exception. Cleveland’s cost of shedding the contract was two of the team’s own second-round picks: in 2028 and 2032. The Jazz had to send something in the deal, which they did by sending $110,000, the minimum required amount of cash, to the Cavs.
After the team acquired five second-round picks last year, I examined the deals in a cost per pick exercise, so it seems fair to do the same thing now.
In addition to sending $110,000, the Jazz assumed the remaining portion of Ball’s salary, which is $3,793,103. That works out to an average of $1.95 million per pick in this trade, which is higher than any individual pick acquired last year. That said, the NBA trade market is such a small, closed system, that it’s hard to compare year to year. I’m sure the Jazz would have loved to squeeze the Cavs for a third selection (or more) given the millions of luxury tax savings, but Cleveland had exactly two picks available to trade, and Utah got them both.
Jazz absorb Chris Boucher for a second-rounder and cash
The Jazz's final deal before Thursday’s deadline was with the Boston Celtics, and was very similar to the deal the two teams made last August to bring Georges Niang to the 801. The Jazz acquired Chris Boucher, a single second round pick, and cash in exchange for two-way player John Tonje, the second time this year Utah has sent a two-way contract to Beantown.
Because Boucher was on a minimum contract, the Jazz were not required to use a Traded Player Exception or Midlevel Exception to absorb his salary, making that part of the deal easy.
The fun part of this trade is the cost for the additional second round pick, a 2027 Denver asset the Celtics owned. The remaining portion of Boucher’s salary calculates to exactly $871,000, which is how much cash Boston provided in the deal. That’s no coincidence. Utah must have told Boston, “We’ll take your player and your pick, but you’re paying the rest of his salary.” As far as cash value, the Jazz literally got this pick for free. That brings the average cost of the three picks down to just over $1.3 million each.
Where does that leave the Jazz/
As of Saturday night, Utah has one regular roster spot open, which they aren’t required to fill. While they could play out the regular season with only 14 players under contract, I expect they will fill the roster at some point. A signing might occur any day now, if the Jazz agree with a player in some demand, but barring that, I expect they may wait until after the All-Star Break. At that point, depending on the player, I expect them to sign a ten-day contract for an extended tryout. If things go well after ten days (and perhaps a second ten-day deal), the Jazz might try to sign a team friendly three or four year deal using the remaining portion of the Nontaxpayer Mid-level Exception.
The value of the NTMLE sits at $4.884 million, and the Bi-annual Exception (BAE) at $984,000. Either could be used to sign a player to a rest of year contract, but because the NTMLE allows up to a four year contract and the BAE only two years, the NTMLE would allow the team to sign a player to a team friendly deal, as they’ve done numerous times over the last few years.
The Jazz have a balance of $2.215 million left of the Collins Traded Player Exception, which was used to acquire Niang, Konchar and Ball. We’re done with trades for the year, and this can’t be used to sign a player. Utah could use it to make a waiver claim if the salary was in a very specific range, but I think they’re more likely to carry it into the offseason, when it may not be used due to its limited value.
Utah also may have a Disabled Player Exception from Walker Kessler, but it’s probably unlikely to be used, given all the options listed above. A DPE can only be used to sign a contract for the rest of the current year.
Finally, it’s not that important in the near term, but the Jazz have almost reached the limit of cash they can receive in trades for the league year. Teams are allowed $7.964 million in and out (two separate limits). Utah has received $7.121 million incoming, which leaves only $843,000 for any deal made from the end of the regular season through June 30. The club has only sent out $110,000, so there’s plenty of opportunity to include cash in trades during draft season.
