The Utah Jazz ought to pursue a Derrick White trade

The Utah Jazz ought to throw their best reasonable trade offer for Derrick White of the San Antonio Spurs.

One of the burning questions of the future for the Utah Jazz is their presumptive point guard of the future.

The reason why this question is so dire to be answered is because the front office has failed to answer the question for the past decade ever since Deron Williams was traded to the New Jersey Nets.

If you’ve seen the Harry Potter movies or read the books, then you will realize that the point guard position for the Utah Jazz is just about as cursed as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching position at Hogwarts’ school of witchcraft and wizardry.

In JK Rowling’s stories, no one person is able to hold on to the position for more than a year, and the school is always hiring a new professor every summer.

In the case of the Utah Jazz, here is a list of all the starting point guards who have come and gone throughout the years:

• Deron Williams, 2010-11
• Devin Harris, 2011-12
• Mo Williams, 2012-13
• Trey Burke, 2013-14
• Dante Exum, 2014-15
• George Hill, 2016-17
• Ricky Rubio, 2017-19
• Mike Conley, 2019-20

That’s quite a list! What’s even more troubling if you’re superstitious at all is most of these players have had their career go downhill once they left the Beehive State.

This is beside my point though, which is that the Utah Jazz desperately need to find their point guard of the future, and fast!

They were hoping Mike Conley would be the answer this season, which is a conundrum since the NBA season halted in its tracks just as Conley was starting to find his groove in Utah.

Mountain Mike took about two weeks to acclimate back to game speed after sitting out 18 games to nurse a temperamental hamstring, and once he was back in the starting lineup, he averaged 16.5 points, 4.9 assists, and 3.8 rebounds per game with 44 percent shooting from deep.

Mike playing like his usual self was going to be a huge weapon for the Jazz in the playoffs that they haven’t had the past couple of years, but now the playoffs are up in the air amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic.

There’s a good chance Conley will get to showcase more of what we’re accustomed to seeing from his Memphis days in the 2020-21 season.

He’s set to make 34.5 million dollars next season if he picks up his player option this summer (which he’d be crazy to decline), meaning his contract will be difficult for the Jazz to maneuver in any trades.

Another year of familiarity in Quin Snyder’s system should help Mike to be able to shine through all of next season, and shake off his dismal start to his Jazz days. Therefore, the Jazz have several reasons to not rock the boat again at the point guard position.

Here at The J-Notes we’ve teased several names the Jazz could pair up with Donovan Mitchell in the backcourt. Whether it’s Marcus Smart or Malcolm Brogdon, there’s been plenty of fantasies in Jazz-land about who should be Conley’s replacement when his time is up.

But one player I’d like to propose today is Derrick White of the San Antonio Spurs.

Not too many people had heard of Derrick White before last season, as he was a late first round pick that went to the San Antonio Spurs, perhaps the least flashy and flamboyant franchise in the NBA.

He spent most of his rookie season in the G-League with the Austin Toros, but slowly started to emerge his sophomore season. His playing time increased from 17 minutes per game the first 10 contests of the season to the minutes of a full-time starter the remainder of the year.

Then at a Team USA scrimmage last summer, White turned some heads.

It’s become clear that the San Antonio Spurs have once again found a gem in one of the later picks of the NBA draft. White has a solid 6-foot-4 frame which allows him to play solid defense, and is also unselfish on offense.

He’s lauded for his high intelligence of the game, which makes sense given that he’s already 25 years old and not a young rookie. He’s had the incredible privilege of grooming his game under Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs’ culture.

The one area where the Jazz could help him flourish is in 3-point shooting. Right now, the Spurs don’t have a lot of laser 3-point shooters on their roster, and White actually leads the team in percentage of triples made that were unassisted.

In Utah, White would be surrounded by several snipers on the perimeter and get to play in Quin Snyder’s “blender offense”. He’d have the luxury of Donovan Mitchell taking command of most of the possessions on offense, and he could develop his game as a spot-up shooter.

White’s shooting from deep hasn’t been very impressive at the NBA level. He’s a career 36 percent shooter from beyond the arc, but he did can 39 percent from the college 3-point line on 4.2 attempts per game.

The potential is there for White to become an even deadly outside shooter, and in every other aspect of his game he is the perfect complement to Donovan Mitchell.

One analogy I thought of when searching for the best backcourt partners for Mitchell was that of Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers teams of the early 2000s. AI was a natural shooting guard on offense but was too small to defend shooting guards.

So the 76ers paired him up with Eric Snow, a player who filled in every weakness to Iverson’s game, creating the perfect match.

Here is what Bleacher Report had to say of Snow when he retired in 2009:

"“Eric Snow understood better than anybody else that these little things are eventually what makes one good team better than others.It is this understanding that allowed him to guard opposing shooting guards with such effectiveness during his days in Philadelphia, while the smaller Iverson guarded opposing point guards.It should be noticed, that Allen Iverson had some of his lowest turnover per game averages in his seasons beside Snow, and then saw a spike in his turnover rate in the seasons after Snow departed.It was Snow’s snug defensive abilities on the perimeter which allowed Iverson to gamble the passing lanes, which in turn resulted in Iverson being among the leaders in steals in the NBA for many seasons. Iverson’s steals per game average have never quite been the same after parting with Snow.”"

The 76ers were able to survive on defense thanks to the presence of Dikembo Mutombo in the paint, which sounds awfully familiar to the Jazz building around Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.

Now, could Derrick White be the yin to Donovan Mitchell’s yang? Could he fully unlock the potential of a dominant Spyda Mitchell we have yet to see, with better steal and turnover percentages?

I certainly think so.

As for the question of how the Jazz get Derrick White, that’s where things get tricky. White is a first round pick from the same draft class as Donovan Mitchell, meaning he is also eligible for an extension this fall.

If the Spurs and White agree to an extension, then the Jazz will be hard pressed to find a trade to acquire White that the Spurs are willing to bite. However, if the Spurs can’t agree to an extension with White then the Jazz could attempt to get him through a couple of ways:

1. They could throw their best trade package with Tony Bradley plus future draft picks and acquire White mid-season
2. They could wait until White hits restricted free agency, and throw an offer sheet at him and perhaps maneuver a sign and trade with White and Bradley

Because of the awkward timing on White’s contract and the Jazz’s future first round picks being un-tradeable from the Mike Conley trade, it’s unlikely the Jazz would be able to acquire White until he’s well into his next contract.

Even then, in 2022 or beyond, it will still be a worthwhile phone call as Mitchell (23) and White (25) will be in their prime years coming up soon.

Donovan Mitchell and Derrick White were able to play as teammates on Team USA last summer, and I certainly hope they will get to do it again right here in Salt Lake City, competing for an NBA championship.