5) The DeShawn Stevenson-Gordan Giricek Swap, February 19 2004
Utah sends DeShawn Stevenson and a second round draft pick to the Orlando Magic for Gordan Giricek.
While Stevenson eventually became one of the better defensive two-guards in the league for a time, he never quite fit with the Jazz and occasionally clashed with head coach Jerry Sloan. To his credit, he did his best to become more than just an athlete in Utah and improved his field goal percentage to just under 45 percent in his last year with the team.
Still, despite the strides he made as both a person and a player, the team needed an upgrade and made the deal with Orlando.
In Giricek, it seemed that the franchise had finally found their first legitimate starting shooting guard since Jeff Hornacek’s retirement–at first. In four-plus seasons with the Jazz, he averaged just under nine points per game and shot over 37 percent from three-point range, making him infinitely better-suited for the Jazz offense than Stevenson.
Unfortunately, his defensive effort was a mixed bag in the best of times and non-existent at worst. He also struggled occasionally to shoot the ball on a level consistent with his ability. The low-point of the Giricek experiment came when he and Sloan clashed on the Jazz bench during the game, resulting in a dismissal to the locker room and a plane ticket back to Salt Lake City.
From that point on, Giricek played the part of a recurring tenant in Sloan’s doghouse.
On the plus-side, the team was eventually able to turn Giricek into Kyle Korver through a trade with Philadelphia in 2007.
Next: No. 4: Peace-Out, Enes Kanter