Utah Jazz: Reevaluating Four Bold Predictions From January

The Utah Jazz Will Make a Trade – INCORRECT

Early in the trade season, I was pretty confident that Utah would make some sort of move, even if it was something rather insignificant such as swapping a pick or moving a guy like Shelvin Mack who is one of four point guards on the roster. Nevertheless, the deadline came and went today and the Jazz ultimately decided to stand pat.

To be perfectly honest, after Lou Williams was dealt to the Rockets and once reports started surfacing that the Jazz weren’t receiving offers anywhere close to fair for Derrick Favors, I started to get a hunch that such would be exactly the case. So while I’m surprised based on what I thought even a mere three days ago, I’m not that surprised based on the information and assumptions I had last night.

Although the Jazz didn’t engage in any sort of trade, there is still a slight chance that they could be participants during buyout season and there’s speculation that they may be in the running for Deron Williams who they were rumored to be connected to previously and who was waived by the Dallas Mavericks as part of the trade deadline occurrences today.

Nevertheless, it seems unlikely that the Jazz will end up with him as a recent ESPN report has made it clear that he intends to instead sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers once he clears waivers.

This will obviously both disappoint and relieve differing contingents of Jazz fans, but even for those of us (like myself) who were hoping that Williams would come back home to Utah perhaps it’s for the best. Jazz brass touched on the fact that they liked the team’s current chemistry and didn’t want to do anything to throw it off.

And perhaps if Dante Exum can continue to play well as he showed glimpses of before the All-Star break, the Jazz’s decision to not make a trade at the deadline will prove to be the overwhelmingly correct decision.