The latest contest between the Utah Jazz and Orlando Magic got me thinking of a player the Jazz should target in a trade.
Last night’s contest between the Utah Jazz and Orlando Magic revealed once again how poorly the Jazz bench is. The starting players plus Royce O’Neale were exceptional, building up an 18 point lead. The Utah Jazz played winning basketball for all but eight minutes of the game, and those eight minutes nearly costed the Jazz a victory at home.
A key part to the comeback for the Orlando Magic was fueled by point guard DJ Augustin. Augustin was taken ninth overall in the 2008 NBA draft, and immediately contributed to the struggling Charlotte Bobcats.
He scored 11.8 points per game as the featured sixth man for the Bobcats, including a blistering 43 percent from long distance. Despite being only about six feet tall, DJ Augustin quickly established himself as an NBA caliber player with promising potential.
After subpar results the first five games of his sophomore year, Larry Brown cut down Augustin’s playing time as the Bobcats made a playoff push. In his third year he became the Bobcats’ starting point guard after Raymond Felton bolted for the Big Apple.
Augustin didn’t take advantage of the increased volume and playing time. His efficiency suffered and the Bobcats didn’t play too well with him as one of their main guys, so they decided to let him go and hand the reins to Kemba Walker.
After that Augustin bounced around the league struggling to stick around for more than one season with a single team. He only lasted one season in Indiana, got waived after 10 games in Toronto, finished that season in Chicago, and then relocated to Detroit on a two year deal.
The Pistons traded him at the deadline to acquire Reggie Jackson, and so Augustin packed his bags for Oklahoma City. One year later, the Thunder traded him to the Denver Nuggets to acquire Randy Foye, who was quickly playing his way out of the NBA at the time. That’s how low Augustin had fallen.
After being traded twice, Augustin was finally able to choose where he played as an unrestricted free agent. He signed a four year deal with the Orlando Magic and has finally found a stable home in the NBA.
He has enjoyed a career resurgence in Orlando, and even became their starting point guard for their long awaited playoff berth last season. This year he is back in his more natural role as a spark plug off the bench, providing instant offense for the Magic when their starters need a break.
Last night Augustin led all Magic players in scoring with 22 points off the bench, making eight of his 10 shots. He has a knack for getting fouled on three point attempts, which led to a four point play in the third quarter and three made free throws in the fourth quarter. 11 of his 22 points came in the fourth quarter when the Magic nearly pulled away with the victory.
If the Utah Jazz had a player like Augustin then maybe Utah wouldn’t be coughing up double digit leads every time Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell have to sit. I went to the ESPN NBA trade machine to find a way for the Jazz to get DJ Augustin this season. If Utah were to send Tony Bradley and Dante Exum to Orlando in exchange for DJ Augustin, the trade works.
However, I don’t think Orlando would be willing to give away their valuable reclamation project so easily, let alone for two fringe rotation players in Bradley and Exum. They currently occupy the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and are only a half game ahead of the surprisingly good Charlotte Hornets.
There has to be a third team involved to get Orlando from hanging up the phone on this deal, so I remembered their strange infatuation with DeMar DeRozan reported earlier this season. Thanks to some help from the twitter user @utahjazzman47, this deal was proposed this morning over the internet:
The biggest problem I see with this trade is the Jazz would be giving up some roster value for a player on an expiring deal. DJ Augustin becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer, and the free agent class of 2020 will be very small. The few players that are free agents will get huge offers from the teams with money to spend, and the Jazz would potentially lose Augustin for nothing in return. It would take a deep playoff run and a featured sixth man role to convince Augustin to stay in Utah, and even that might not be enough.
For the Spurs, they would be getting Exum and Aaron Gordon. Exum’s deal expires the summer of 2021, and that will be valuable cap space for the Spurs to operate with as that free agent class will be more exciting than 2020’s. Gordon is a tweener 3 and 4 that can fit in lots of systems in the NBA. He can guard well and use his athleticism to cut for easy baskets, and his team friendly deal expires the summer of 2022.
Most importantly, San Antonio would start their rebuilding era and not have to worry about DeRozan’s player option this summer throwing a wrench in their plans.
Exum would be buried on the depth chart behind Lonnie Walker IV, Dejounte Murray, and Derrick White, three young backcourt players the Spurs are hoping to develop. Add in veterans Patty Mills and DeMarre Carroll, and it’s tough seeing Exum getting any playing time in San Antonio. But it’s not like he’s getting very much opportunity here in Utah, so a fresh start might be best for both sides.
The Magic would be getting a solid scorer in DeRozan. Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic are shaky as primary scoring options, but DeRozan has already proved he can handle the scoring load for a playoff-caliber team in his Toronto Raptor days. He has limited potential given his age and his heavy reliance on mid-range shots, but apparently Orlando likes the thought of him on their roster. This would give the Magic a chance to exit their rebuilding era for good and maybe even leapfrog the Brooklyn Nets in the standings.
The Utah Jazz’s top six players are good enough to compete with the powers of the Western Conference, but when they rotate in the bench players Utah quickly loses their grip on a game. If DJ Augustin was there to provide a spark like the one he gave last night, the Jazz could keep pace in a seven game series with the Rockets or Nuggets in a potential playoff matchup.
I have a hard time seeing any major deal come to fruition for the Jazz before the February deadline, but the front office has to at least consider their options for upgrading the bench. Utah is only a solid bench away from reaching the contender status they hoped to achieve this season.