Pistons, Blazers presumably join Utah Jazz in Mirotic pursuit

The Utah Jazz are no longer alone in their pursuit of Nikola Mirotic in a trade as Detroit and Portland have reportedly joined the hunt.

Just as quickly as the Nikola Mirotic to Utah rumors heated up, it seems they may be on the verge of cooling down. It was reported this morning that the Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls were in trade talks regarding the power forward who is most certainly on the trade block. However, Utah is no longer alone in that pursuit.

It has been announced that the Detroit Pistons and possibly the Portland Trail Blazers are also looking to join the hunt for the capable stretch-four big man.

However, heightened competition for Mirotic’s services isn’t all that surprising and isn’t the main reason why the Jazz may be cooling their jets on going after him. Instead, it’s the asking price that the Bulls have presumably put out there. Several reports, including that of the Chicago Tribune’s K.C. Johnson above, have indicated that Chicago is pursuing a first round pick in exchange for Mirotic.

That seems like a bit too high of an asking price in my mind that I don’t think the Jazz will be willing to part with. Therefore, it’s quite likely that instead of sending Mirotic Utah’s way, the Bulls will look to deal him to a team that’s willing to give up a little bit more.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Mirotic to Utah trade is dead, especially since there’s two aspects of a potential deal that could help keep it alive. The first option is an idea courtesy of Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey and Dan Favale, which you can see the workings of in the tweet below:

Essentially, the Jazz could include a pair of heavily protected first round picks in a trade that would turn into second round picks if they didn’t fall outside of the indicated protections. This would make the deal a lot easier to swallow on Utah’s end, but also likely wouldn’t be enough to “trick” Chicago into pulling the trigger on supposed first round picks.

The other aspect working in Utah’s favor, as I mentioned this morning, is that Mirotic has a no-trade clause in his contract that allows him to turn down a trade destination that he doesn’t want to go to. If he really thinks playing in Utah for Quin Snyder is his best option, which Adrian Wojnarowski vaguely alluded to, then Mirotic could try to push the issue and demand that Chicago move him to the Jazz.

However, Chicago by no means is obligated to trade Mirotic. He can push all he wants, but if they don’t like the return from the Jazz, they could very well just say, forget it, and hold onto him until the end of this season. They’d likely prefer to get something out of him over just exercising their team option to let him go for nothing, but that doesn’t mean they’ll just trade him for table scraps.

So while the Mirotic to Utah idea shouldn’t be considered a closed door, there’s certainly some obstacles that have arisen. Even the two potential solutions that I mentioned are very far from being guarantees and can be easily countered.

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

Make no mistake about it, Utah’s early trade talks with Chicago are a clear sign that they’re being active leading up to the trade deadline. And even if Mirotic ends up with Detroit, Portland or somewhere else entirely (or, heck, staying put in Chicago even), you can bet that the Jazz have other irons in the fire as they look to improve their team in the savviest way possible.

Stay tuned, Jazz fans. There’s no doubt that trade season is heating up and things are quickly getting interesting.