Utah Jazz named as a suitor for the Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro

The Utah Jazz may just land their biggest name of the offseason in Tyler Herro.

The Utah Jazz are trying to figure out where to go from here. They’re further ahead in their rebuild than were they expected to be at this point, having a very solid season in 2022-2023 behind a breakout season from Lauri Markkanen. They finished 37-45 and missed out on the play-in tournament by three games. They weren’t supposed to be this good, this fast, after they lost Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, and Bojan Bogdanovic back to back to back.

So is it possible that the Jazz are about to accelerate their rebuild even more? Well, according to  Jake Fischer of Yahoo! Sports, maybe. Fischer recently wrote that the Jazz seem to be the favorite to land the young guard. Apparently, the Jazz had Herro on their radar last year when they were shopping around the services of Mitchell.

Fischer goes on to write;

"For the Blazers’ hopes of finding a multi-team package with Miami, there is optimism among league personnel that Portland will find at least a first-round pick from another franchise that’s more keen to welcome Tyler Herro. Although outside of early rumblings about Brooklyn and Chicago, the only team even loosely connected as a Herro suitor has been Utah. The Jazz’s valuation of Herro was a key talking point around last year’s Summer League, too, as team staffers were readying for Utah to move on from Donovan Mitchell — in a trade sweepstakes that NBA figures believed would come down to the Heat’s offer featuring Herro, similar to their possible package for Lillard, and a potential offer from New York that could have included R.J. Barrett. Both players went on to sign four-year contracts worth about $30 million in average annual salary, which will begin with this 2023-24 season."

Now the question remains, would Herro be worth a first-round pick?

Well, that entirely depends on which first-round pick we’re talking about. The NBA draft is not like other drafts. After the first 12 picks, the quality of the players tends to decline significantly. Not always, there’s always someone worth having as the first round goes on.

But if you’re trying to decide between a player as good as Herro, and a bottom-10 pick in the first round, what’s to decide? So it’s very likely that the Jazz could offer up a pick that belongs to the Cleveland Cavaliers, or even a future Jazz pick, assuming the rebuild is going well, in exchange for Herro.

A pick in the mid to late 20s for a potential All-Star still in his early 20s? You make that trade every time.

Now, would Portland be willing to take that in exchange for Herro? That’s the question. It’s very likely they will. After all, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Cavs significantly overpaid for Gobert and Mitchell, which helps explains the Washington Wizards’ lack of return on Bradley Beal.

It feels like the trade market reset itself after last season, and if it has, the Blazers may be willing to take any first-round pick offered. But, only time will tell if that theory can hold water.