Kevin Pelton's take - Jazz got an A-

[The Midnight]

Very underrated part of this trade is getting rid of Novaks expiring contract. We got paid a second round pick to take his contract. We just unloaded him freeing up cap space next year to sign free agents. This free agency period will be valuable since the cap increase means players signed this free agency have a higher chance of being bargains later. He should be counted as net value for the Jazz by unloading him. I think the Jazz played him more the last couple day before the trade deadline and wanted him to shoot a lot to get a contending team to see value in him.

That point has intrigued me throughout this trade deadline period. If he was playing so well in these last 2 games:


1) Why didn't he get more minutes in the 1st half of the season if we were really serious about winning games?


2) If we're really serious about winning the rest of our games, why not keep him around and see how the team does with him playing big minutes minus Kanter?


All this points toward us aiming for another decent draft pick at the end of the season.