Utah Jazz: 25 years of the best (and worst) trade deadline deals
By Ryan Aston
4) Jazz swap Rodney Hood, Iso Joe for Jae Crowder
In a three-team deal, the Jazz trade Joe Johnson and cash to the Sacramento Kings, while sending Rodney Hood to the Cleveland Cavaliers. In exchange, Utah receives Jae Crowder, Derrick Rose and a second-round pick.
Dimitrios Agravanis, Iman Shumpert, cash and a second-round draft pick go to the Kings; while the Cavs get Arturas Gudaitis and George Hill. Whew.
With the Jazz not wanting to pay Hood the big bucks in free agency and his fit with the team suddenly feeling less than awesome, moving him at the 2018 trade deadline became a top priority. So, too, was dealing Joe Johnson, who wanted to play for a contender and whose skills were quickly eroding with age.
They were ultimately able to hit both birds with one stone and acquire a player who would become one of the team’s ultimate positive impact pieces in Jae Crowder along the way.
Even as he struggled physically and mentally in the wake of his mother’s death and getting traded twice in a handful of months, the Jazz proceeded to rock it when Crowder took Favors’ place with the regular starters.
The five-man crew of Rubio, Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles, Crowder and Rudy Gobert outscored opponents by 29.9 points per 100 possessions to close out the ’17-18 campaign, that number was No. 1 league-wide among lineups that logged 190-plus minutes. It’s still ultra-positive this season, checking in with a net rating of 13.4, fourth-best among the Association’s heavy-use lineups.
Also — the team created multiple traded player exceptions with this move; the Johnson exception is worth more than $3.7 million, while Hood’s came in at $2.4 million. If the Jazz can parlay one or both of those exceptions as part of packages to acquire a big-time talent in the coming days, this deal may move up on next year’s list.