Utah Jazz: 3 Rudy Gobert trades that absolutely will not happen

Utah Jazz land rebuilding stimulus package

If the last trade was a reconfiguration for the Utah Jazz, consider this one more of a nuclear option.

Here, we find the brass in Salt Lake City shipping off their defensive anchor in favor of a wholesale rebuild. The package they’d be receiving, however, is substantial enough to consider.

Payton Prichard wasted little time making himself a fan favorite in Beantown, shooting 3s with the confidence of a 10-year vet to the tune of 41.1% accuracy on 3.8 attempts per game. Prichard is more than just a floor-spacer as well: he’s a strong, crafty ball-handler that can create his own looks out of isolation as easily as he can catch-and-shoot.

Meanwhile, Nesmith only found 14.5 minutes-per-game as a wing on a wing-heavy NBA title contender, but he flashed the kind of instincts and athleticism that point to the potential to be an impactful 2-way defender throughout his career.

Horford is a place holder: he’d slot into Gobert’s starting position in the short-term until the Utah Jazz found their center of the future. The draft picks are considerably more important to Utah’s side of this package. The two teams may jostle over the number of picks and the protections attached to them, but the Jazz should hang up if Boston won’t at least forfeit the amount of draft capital listed here.

Once more for the people in the back: the Utah Jazz should not, and will not, trade Rudy Gobert for the proposed package in this article. However, if they were considering that course of action in an effort to build a team more adjacent to Donovan Mitchell’s projected development arc, this trade would meaningfully contribute to that end.