Utah Jazz: Available players that could be pursued in a trade

Tyreke Evans

Tyreke Evans has had quite the interesting career full of ups and downs. However, although he’s currently a member of a disappointing Memphis Grizzlies team, this season has certainly been one of his ups as he has played fantastic in 2017-18. He’s currently averaging 19.7 points per game on 47.1 percent shooting from the field and 41.6 percent from deep. He’s also filling the stat sheet with right around five assists and five rebounds per game.

In other words, Evans could prove to be a dynamic piece for the Utah Jazz who could definitely use his scoring and playmaking ability. Particularly if Utah moved Donovan Mitchell over to the starting point guard spot and allowed Evans to play alongside him in the backcourt, they could become a pretty dynamic duo.

However, there are quite a few risks involved with Evans. First of all, although he’s certainly outplaying his $3.3 million dollar contract for this season, his history could leave one to believe that he might revert to his previous inconsistent ways. Not only that, but there’s no guarantee that he would stay in Utah beyond this season once his contract expires and, even if he was willing to, he might play himself out of a reasonable price range for the Jazz.

Not only that, but Wojnarowski reported that the Grizzlies, who are clearly entering a major rebuild stage, will likely want a first-round pick for Evans. Although he’s been a joy to watch this season, I don’t think the Jazz will be willing to give up a first-rounder for a guy who’s been far from consistent during his career.

If Utah could steal Evans without giving up such a valuable pick and if they could somehow have an assurance that they could keep him on the roster at a reasonable price after he hits free agency, I’d be pretty excited about welcoming him aboard to play alongside Donovan Mitchell. However, with a number of risks surrounding him and an asking price from Memphis that could be too high, I don’t see Utah being able to swing a deal that would send him their way.

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The Utah Jazz most certainly have a lot of options, but finding one that’s mutually beneficial to them and to the team they’d be dealing with is going to be far from easy. The guys on this list are some of the more reasonable ones that Woj mentioned as being available that Utah could pursue, but most of them are still far from a sure thing.

One thing is certain, the Jazz will need to look to make some changes if they hope to put themselves in a better position in the coming years, so whether it’s with one of the players on this list or someone who becomes available that hasn’t been reported as on the trade block yet, I’d be shocked if we don’t see them make some kind of move.

There’s a lot of intriguing possibilities and it will be exciting to see when and for who the Utah Jazz finally pull the trigger.