Trade Rumors: Could Shelvin Mack be on his way back to Utah?

It’s an unlikely scenario, but especially if the Mike Conley trade rumors are real, there’s a chance that the Utah Jazz could also add Shelvin Mack back to their ranks as well.

The NBA Trade Deadline is drawing ever nearer and as a result the rumors are starting to fly with increased furor. By now, you’ve probably already read the numerous reports on the Utah Jazz’s interest in Mike Conley, Nikola Mirotic, Jrue Holiday and a handful of other impactful players.

Of all the Jazz rumors that have been mentioned, the one that seems to potentially have the most traction is a deal that has appeared on several reliable and major outlets that would feature a deal headlining Ricky Rubio for Mike Conley. For all we know right now, the Grizzlies aren’t in agreement with the trade, but a lot could change between now and the trade deadline.

And for the sake of argument, let’s assume the Grizzlies do end up willing to deal Conley for Rubio. With Conley making over $30 million this year and Rubio making just over $14 million, though, their salaries don’t come even close to lining up. Therefore, in other words, for such a transaction to go through, the Utah Jazz would have to include more players to make a deal work.

They could just put in someone like Derrick Favors or Dante Exum along with Rubio and do a simple 2-for-1 trade for Conley. This seems pretty unlikely, though. The other option the Jazz would then have would be to instead include an assortment of players alongside Rubio, including Thabo Sefolosha and two additional low-salary players.

If this were accepted (again, this is very hypothetical), then the Jazz would be sending four players to Memphis in exchange for Conley. As noted on Twitter by Salt City Hoops’ Dan Clayton, if that occurred, rather than have to deal with the excess players in too few roster spots and eat salary that would unavoidably have to be waived, Memphis may instead request that the Jazz take back a player on a minimum contract.

The Grizzlies have a few such players, one of which is all too familiar to Utah Jazz fans – Shelvin Mack.

That’s right, in other words, there’s a hypothetical situation in which in order to get this deal done, the Grizzlies require the Jazz to take back a minimum contract player along with Conley and that player could very well be Shelvin Mack.

I can already hear a few groans from several Jazz fans who weren’t too fond of Mack, but honestly I wouldn’t mind this one bit. If the Jazz want Conley, this would be an infinitesimally small sacrifice to get the deal done. Not only that, but I always thought that the criticisms of Mack were far too harsh. Sure, he’s not an ideal starting point guard candidate by any means, but he’s a serviceable backup and far from a bad player as several Jazz fans made him out to be.

Not only that, but his contract is up at the end of this year, so it would likely be a short reunion. Sure, there are a lot of jokes about Quin Snyder’s affinity for Mack and that he could very well see major playing time yet again in a reunion with the Jazz. But I don’t foresee that being much of an issue at all and, once again, if this were what it would take to get Conley in a deal, there’s no questioning the Jazz would pull the trigger.

I’ll conclude by saying that I don’t see this happening. First of all, the Jazz aren’t necessarily going to ultimately make a move for Conley in the first place, and they certainly aren’t the guaranteed front runners at the moment. Not only that, but there’s no telling if the Grizzlies would indeed want the Jazz to take a player back, or that said player would ultimately be Shelvin either.

So regardless of your feelings on Shelvin Mack I wouldn’t get too worked up over this possibility. Then again, there’s certainly a possibility of it occurring, regardless of how slim it might be. The trade deadline is almost here, so buckle up, Jazz fans.