2026 NBA Trade Discussion Thread

[Tremendous Upside]

Jazz have 5 guys that they should definitely look to trade at the deadline. All vets.

Nurkic, Svi, Love, Anderson and Niang.

Why the hell should we deal Nurkic?

Keyonte just said in an interview that Nurk's been essential in enabling him to make his offensive leap. The screening and passing have been elite. This stuff matters.

I'm more sure than ever that tankers simply do not like basketball. I'm not sure what they do like, but it probably has something to do with a feeling of superiority and a desire to control what is essentially a chaotic environment.

 

[Peter_Mentor]

Why the hell should we deal Nurkic?

Keyonte just said in an interview that Nurk's been essential in enabling him to make his offensive leap. The screening and passing have been elite. This stuff matters.

I'm more sure than ever that tankers simply do not like basketball. I'm not sure what they do like, but it probably has something to do with a feeling of superiority and a desire to control what is essentially a chaotic environment.

Key, Lauri, and Ace all benefit a ton from playing with an elite screening big like Nurkic. That’s the main reason I’m skeptical of Taylor playing any minutes as a small ball center.

 

[HermanG]

Key, Lauri, and Ace all benefit a ton from playing with an elite screening big like Nurkic. That’s the main reason I’m skeptical of Taylor playing any minutes as a small ball center.

Its also one area where optimal development clashes with tanking. You cant learn DHO, PNR and other screen plays proper if you are runnkng those plays with someone who is trash at it.

 

[HermanG]

Why the hell should we deal Nurkic?

Keyonte just said in an interview that Nurk's been essential in enabling him to make his offensive leap. The screening and passing have been elite. This stuff matters.

I'm more sure than ever that tankers simply do not like basketball. I'm not sure what they do like, but it probably has something to do with a feeling of superiority and a desire to control what is essentially a chaotic environment.

The tankers are just super focused on win/loss min-maxing and few of them are pushing hard that development has strong correlation with quantity of minutes, while not even addressing quality.

I personally believe low quality PT can even be net negative for development, albeit usually its still better than no PT. Reinforcing bad habits, undermining confidence, learning to do things the wrong way... all those things occur more frequentöy with bad teams and increase "developmental debt" instead of reducing it.

 

[Tremendous Upside]

I personally believe low quality PT can even be net negative for development, albeit usually its still better than no PT. Reinforcing bad habits, undermining confidence, learning to do things the wrong way... all those things occur more frequentöy with bad teams and increase "developmental debt" instead of reducing it.

Trading away Nurk and playing a totally outmatched Flip at 5 would do exactly that.

 

[KqWIN]

@Elizah Huge ^^^^^

Not just one guy

 

[KqWIN]

I don’t think trading Nurk is a huge tanking move. Flip isn’t a great C, but neither is Nurk. We’ve actually done just fine with Flip at 5 this season, and maybe more importantly Flip has actually been terrible as a 4. He’s still a bad defender, but he’s also a very bad offensive player. At the 5 he at least produces good offense. This is a trend that has been true this year and last.

FWIW:

 

[Elizah Huge]

I don’t think trading Nurk is a huge tanking move. Flip isn’t a great C, but neither is Nurk. We’ve actually done just fine with Flip at 5 this season, and maybe more importantly Flip has actually been terrible as a 4. He’s still a bad defender, but he’s also a very bad offensive player. At the 5 he at least produces good offense. This is a trend that has been true this year and last.

FWIW:

View attachment 19879

Nurkic leads the entire league in screen assists

 

[Elizah Huge]

I don’t think trading Nurk is a huge tanking move. Flip isn’t a great C, but neither is Nurk. We’ve actually done just fine with Flip at 5 this season, and maybe more importantly Flip has actually been terrible as a 4. He’s still a bad defender, but he’s also a very bad offensive player. At the 5 he at least produces good offense. This is a trend that has been true this year and last.

FWIW:

View attachment 19879

This is also very interesting because people have partially attributed Nurkic for Keyonte’s breakout.

 

[Coach Ellis]

This is also very interesting because people have partially attributed Nurkic for Keyonte’s breakout.

Which is great, but doesn’t help them keep the pick. Look, I’m not opposed to keeping him the rest of this season or even next year as an affordable backup. . . if there's no deal to be made. IF he has value and can net a positive asset. . . the Jazz would be stupid to pass that up. Granted. . . whatever they get has to be better than whatever they gave up.

 

[Elizah Huge]

Which is great, but doesn’t help them keep the pick. Look, I’m not opposed to keeping him the rest of this season or even next year as an affordable backup. . . if there's no deal to be made. IF he has value and can net a positive asset. . . the Jazz would be stupid to pass that up. Granted. . . whatever they get has to be better than whatever they gave up.

I think we should trade him and think he would affect us more than people seem to think.

 

[KqWIN]

This is also very interesting because people have partially attributed Nurkic for Keyonte’s breakout.

I don't think it's super important to "showcase" prospects as best as possible for the most development, but if you are going to go down that road I think it's worth looking at how Key actually performs with different players. I tend to agree with Hardy's opinion on this. Key is not good because of XYZ, he's just good on his own.

As far as the tanking side of this, I don't really think trading Nurk helps tank that much versus Flip at 5. It kind of depends on how much Hardy sits Nurk/vets and who exactly would be replacing those minutes. But I do think we are spending too many roster spots on vets. I'd like to get a revolving door of prospects and see what sticks. If we don't go into the summer without adding at least 1-2 guys on multi-year, non-guaranteed contracts I'd consider that a failure.

 

[KqWIN]

Funny enough, the two guys who Key has big drop offs in individual (offensive) performance are with Nurk and Svi. Probably has more to do with playing vs starters than those guys tanking his play, but on the other hand it's hard to say Key needs those guys.

 

[fishonjazz]

Key is just good. I predicted he was going to be awesome this year, not because he was going to be playing with nurk and svi (lol) but because he is extremely talented and skilled and confident and had some nba experience under his belt.
Lol at thinking if we lose nurkic then key will suddenly suck or something.

 

[Tremendous Upside]

This is also very interesting because people have partially attributed Nurkic for Keyonte’s breakout.

Not "people", literally Keyonte himself:

“He’s played with high-caliber guards and he’s got them open, he’s made their life a lot easier,” George said. “Nurk just makes the game so easy for me ... he makes the guy that’s guarding me disappear, honestly.“

Here's Hardy:

“Nurk helps us create an advantage in a way that no one else does,” Hardy said. “His screening, his ability to get his teammates open — and I think he’s done a better job of rolling and making himself available, but more than that, his teammates have rewarded him ... But his physicality in general, his screening, rebounding, is unique in our league. Like, he’s in a category almost all by himself, in terms of the way that he can help you create advantage."

Jusuf Nurkić raves about support and opportunity with Utah Jazz

On the court he’s finding ways to guide young players, and help Keyonte George succeed.

www.deseret.com

 

[Tremendous Upside]

Lol at thinking if we lose nurkic then key will suddenly suck or something.

Nice strawman. Nobody has said anything like that.

Still, Nurk has obviously been much more effective than predicted, and that's why the tankers want him gone. They don't want "development", they want us to lose. And playing Flip at 5 would be a straight tanking move.

 

[KqWIN]

Jazz net rating by Center

Minutes / Net Rating

Nurkic: 736 / -7.21
Love: 671 / -11.97
Flip: 297 / +1.96
Kessler: 154 / +4.12
Tshibewe: 15 / -9.68

The biggest tank move is keeping Flip minutes at the 4. He's played 1318 minutes with another big in his career thus far. 16% usage and 56% TS. Without another big he has played 928 minutes with 22% usage and 60% TS. You may not believe in him as a 5, but he's absolutely not a 4.

 

[Tremendous Upside]

Funny enough, the two guys who Key has big drop offs in individual (offensive) performance are with Nurk and Svi.

I don't see a "drop off" in the numbers. I see him playing great with Nurk (mostly against starters, as you yourself said), and then absolutely killing the opposing scrubs no matter who he plays with. That's also what the eye test says.

 

[KqWIN]

Just to follow up on my suspicion about Key with and without Nurk against starters. You can be the judge.

Key's against 4 or 5 starters only:

With Nurk:
Minutes: 323
Usage: 61.24%
TS%: 54.21%
AST/100: 10.03
TOV/100: 5.52
Net Rating: -13.88

Without Nurk:
Minutes: 152
Usage: 28.30%
TS%: 61.24%
AST/100: 10.63
TOV/100: 4.38
Net Rating: 14.41

 

[KqWIN]

I don't think Flip at 5 is that much better or worse than Love or Nurk at 5. All 3 guys are like back end rotation level with some strengths and also some very obvious weaknesses. But there is a big difference between Flip at 5 and Flip at 4. Flip at 4 is a terrible player on both ends.

So if your motivation is to tank, it's more important that you get a bad 5 to play minutes and keep Flip playing some minutes at the 4. Simply replacing Nurk or Love with Flip at 5 would probably make you win more because you're getting a similar caliber of C and no longer a terrible 4. If your motivation is to maximize wins this season, I'd argue that the best way to do that would be to play Flip at 5 exclusively or not at all.