Utah Jazz trade deadline 2019: Five targets at the center position

Dewayne Dedmon

Atlanta Hawks center Dewayne Dedmon is one of the game’s ultimate late bloomers. After getting his first taste of competitive basketball as a high school senior, battling injuries as a collegiate and playing for four teams over his first four years in the NBA, he has established himself as a quality two-way big as a late 20-something with the Atlanta Hawks.

This season, Dedmon is averaging 10 points and seven rebounds per game in the ATL.

If you ask me, he’s exactly the kind of player the Jazz could use behind Gobert. Specifically, a long (seven feet tall, 7-foot-4 wingspan), athletic defender, with inside and outside ability on the other end of the floor who has worked incredibly hard for a long time to get where he is.

Dedmon is low-key one of the league’s most efficient rim finishers — his field goal percentage within three feet of the hoop is well over 70 percent for the last three years. And since extending his shooting range beyond the arc two years ago, he’s at 36 percent from three and is currently  taking over three per game.

With his salary coming off the books at the end of the year, the Hawks may be inclined to swing him over to a contender in exchange for a future asset. There’s a lot to like about what’s happening in Atlanta, but they’re still a few years away, and a future draft pick may be more useful to them than a 30-year-old journeyman big.

Other trade target lists:

Point Guards
Shooting Guards
Small Forwards

Power Forwards still to come.