Utah Jazz: Ranking Two Decades Worth of Trade Deadline Deals
By Ryan Aston
4) Jazz Trade Enes Kanter in a Three-Team Deal, February 19 2015
As part of a three-team trade involving the Jazz, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Detroit Pistons, Utah acquires Grant Jerrett, Kendrick Perkins, the rights to Tibor Pleiss, a conditional first round draft pick in 2017, as well as a second round draft pick in 2017.
OKC receives Enes Kanter and Steve Novak from the Jazz, as well as D.J. Augustin, Kyle Singler and a second round draft pick in 2019 from the Pistons. Detroit acquires Reggie Jackson in the deal.
Depending on how you look at the Kanter trade, it’s either a franchise-defining moment or an admission that the team completely missed the ball on a top-three pick and a ho-hum return on a deal for the former player in question that bolstered the depth of a divisional rival.
We, as Jazz fans, may not love Kanter at this point, but the fact of the matter is that no less than two teams were willing to give him a max contract last offseason. With that being the case, the Jazz essentially got an insta-waiver in Perkins, a non-NBA player in Jerrett, a project in Pleiss and a draft pick that probably won’t be very good for a “max player”.
Now, having said that, the Rudy Gobert Renaissance that the trade made possible has changed the course of the Jazz franchise for the next decade. After dealing Kanter, the team finished with a 19-10 record and defended at a near-historic level. Now they find themselves on the precipice of a playoff return.
If the whole point of a trade is make your team better, this one hit the nail on the head. Even if it was addition by subtraction.
Next: No. 3: A New Direction