Utah Jazz: J-Notes staffers evaluate every NBA trade deadline deal
By Ryan Aston
With the Utah Jazz and the rest of the NBA entering the final stretch before the playoffs, The J-Notes crew joins me in looking back at the trade deadline.
It’s been less than a week since NBA All-Star Weekend and fans are still riding high on Utah Jazz rookie Donovan Mitchell’s Slam Dunk Contest title and LeBron James’ MVP performance in the big game on Sunday. That said, for armchair GMs everywhere, the real action took place a week earlier at the league’s trade deadline.
While it wasn’t a crazy free-for-all with multiple All-Stars switching cities, there were still several significant deals. Some of which could have major impact on the stretch run of the 2017-18 season and the race for playoff positioning.
The Jazz were involved in one such deal, swinging Rodney Hood and Joe Johnson for Jae Crowder. It’s early yet, but the move looks to be benefiting all parties. For their part, Crowder and the Jazz are suddenly surging after some early season struggles.
But what of the rest of the Association? Obviously, there’s still a lot of basketball to play this season, but what’s the snap judgment on all the deals that were completed ahead of the trade deadline? Who were the winners and losers?
The J-Notes staffers are here to answer those very questions.
Before the Jazz resume play on Friday, we decided to take a moment and look back through every trade that went down in the days and hours before the deal-making ceased and give our takes.
Here’s what myself, my co-editor Jared Woodcox and contributors Zack Padmore, Tyler Thorpe and John Keeffer think about what went down. Contributors Tyler Crandall and Hayden Van de Maat and social media guru Jared Barker offered some thoughts as well.
Without further ado…
Next: Blake Griffin trade