Nikola Mirotic to Utah Jazz not just speculation as talks are underway

A trade sending Nikola Mirotic to the Utah Jazz could very well be in the works as it was reported that trade talks between Utah and the Chicago Bulls are indeed taking place.

There’s been quite a lot of noise on social media, particularly among Utah Jazz fans on Twitter, concerning the possibility of the Jazz adding Nikola Mirotic to their ranks. We’ve also covered it quite heavily here on TheJNotes.com as well. First, before we knew much about what the Jazz were looking for, I pinned Mirotic as a guy that Utah could very well look to pursue simply based off the fact that the Chicago Bulls had made it clear that he was on the trade block.

Then, when an ESPN piece from Adrian Wojnarowski came out stating that Mirotic would be intrigued with the idea of playing in Utah, I jumped on that as well, adding my personal opinion that I definitely could see this transaction going down. Later, my J-Notes colleague Tyler Thorpe detailed why he thought a Mirotic to Utah trade was a win for all parties involved.

Now, with further news breaking today, it seems that the Mirotic to Utah train is picking up even more steam. The speculation had been rising up to this point that the two parties had begun discussions, but nothing was completely concrete. However, Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune confirmed this morning that the Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls are indeed engaged in trade talks to bring Mirotic to Salt Lake City.

We’ve discussed the pros and cons of a Mirotic signing almost to death in recent pieces, but I loved the further insight that Tony Jones added in this morning’s piece. Here were his thoughts on the potential addition of the power forward:

"Mirotic is a polarizing figure on the trade market, and brings strengths and weaknesses.On one hand, he projects as the shooting power forward the Jazz desperately need. Mirotic has played in 17 games this season, starting three. In that time, he’s averaging 17.4 points and seven rebounds per game. He’s shooting 46 percent from 3-point range and he’s developed his game off the dribble and in the post enough to balance his spot-up shooting from the perimeter.If the Jazz trade for him, Mirotic would give Donovan Mitchell and Rodney Hood another complementary scorer, and would provide the Jazz with much-needed offensive spacing.On the other hand, Mirotic is pedestrian, at best, defensively. He has also never averaged more than 11.8 points per game in a season, which suggests his scoring output this season could be an outlier. He also missed much of the first month of the season when he suffered a facial fracture in a practice altercation with Bulls teammate Bobby Portis."

There’s undoubtedly a lot of truth in these statements. There are certainly risks to trading for Mirotic as there would be in any trade. However, if Utah can put together a logical deal that doesn’t result in them giving up too much for the power forward’s services, I’m actually quite in favor of the deal. He has expressed interest in coming to Utah and playing for Quin Snyder, his playmaking stretch-four abilities would mesh with Utah’s system, he could be an ideal fit next to Rudy Gobert and he’s on a relatively friendly contract.

Mirotic is set to make $12.5 million in each of the next two seasons, but has a team option in the second year, meaning if he comes over to Salt Lake and turns out to be a total dud for the closing months of the season, the Jazz could part ways with him without incurring any unwanted cost.

On the flip side, $12.5 million isn’t a back-breaker contract, especially considering that the Jazz will likely be shedding salary to add him anyway, so it won’t be all that big of a deal to keep him on board if the experiment works.

The other thing that is working in Utah’s favor in current talks with the Bulls is that Mirotic has a no-trade clause in his contract, meaning he has the ability to refute any trade that he doesn’t find appealing. If he is truly dead-set on joining the Jazz and the Bulls are truly hellbent on moving him, this will play well into the Jazz’s hands as it will reduce Chicago’s leverage and likely push them into making a deal with the Jazz.

Next: Utah Jazz: Key to success is to put the ball in Donovan Mitchell’s hands

We’ll see what ends up coming of these reported trade talks, but all indications are that Nikola Mirotic is almost certainly on the move and it appears quite likely that the Utah Jazz could be his ultimate destination. Be sure to stay tuned in to TheJNotes.com as more information arises on Mirotic and other Utah Jazz related trade rumors.