With the Utah Jazz trading away Alec Burks and two second-round draft picks for Kyle Korver, it signified a commitment to winning from the Jazz front office.
Like most Utah Jazz fans, I was a little bit shocked to hear the news of a trade involving the Jazz on Wednesday. It’s not often you see the team make a move like this so early in the season. The fact that they were willing to do it, just speaks volumes to the mindset of the team.
After reading the details, I immediately felt like it could be a win for the team because of the veteran leadership and shooting that Kyle Korver can bring to this team. Shooting was absolutely the number one need for this Jazz team, and they will get that in a big way from Korver.
ESPN story on Jazz acquiring Cavaliers guard Kyle Korver, one of the most coveted players on early-season trade market. https://t.co/R8HsH8bGZK
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 28, 2018
Jared Woodcox of The J-Notes already did a fantastic job of breaking down the pros and cons of the trade, the cons mainly being the loss of a younger Alec Burks who was playing great this year, and losing a bit of financial flexibility due to the extra year on Korver’s contract. It’s only been one game, but already it’s been great to see Korver back in a Jazz uniform. He has a gravity on the offensive side of the ball that is impressive to see.
We could continue to break down the trade and review the benefits of having a player like Korver, but what I want to talk about is what this trades tells us about the Utah Jazz front office.
As mentioned earlier, this isn’t like the Jazz at all. I don’t even know the last time they traded a contributing rotational player prior to the New Year. If the Jazz were going to make a trade this season, I would’ve bet money that it would have been Burks or Derrick Favors, just because of their contracts. However, I expected any trade to happen closer to the actual trade deadline.
The first thing we can glean from this is that the Jazz organization was truly worried about the state of the team. After a rocky start that has been well below the preseason expectations, something had to be done. They could have looked to the extremely difficult schedule as an excuse and just hoped that things would get better. They could’ve blamed it on the abnormally low 3-point shooting percentage that was bound to adjust back to the mean.
Instead, they seemed to believe that what the Jazz had shown over the course of the first 20 games of the season was real, and needed to be acted upon.
A look at how #UtahJazz point guards have performed over the first 25% of the NBA season. Via @RoundballRuckus #TeamIsEverything https://t.co/fGgYS8o0pb
— The J-Notes (@TheJNotes) November 27, 2018
The second observation we can make from this trade is it shows a high commitment to winning by the organization. They could have always just ridden this out and seen what happened. The Jazz turned a disastrous season around last year right? I mean…they were nine games below .500. Even if they don’t turn it around, some fans were already suggesting a #tankforzion movement.
That is clearly not acceptable for this team.
That should excite all Jazz fans and make them grateful to follow a team and organization that is committed to success. They don’t just want to make the playoffs again, and they don’t just want to get to the second round. They want to win it all, and after an early season move like this, they are clearly willing to make changes to increase the odds of that happening.
I don’t know if Kyle Korver alone is enough to turn things around for the Jazz, but if he can help them get through this murderous first few months of the season, then the Jazz will have absolutely won this trade.