The Utah Jazz have been tied to recent rumors involving Tyler Herro.
The Utah Jazz want to accelerate their playoff aspirations without destroying their future. An intelligent decision that other teams, like the Cleveland Cavaliers, should have thought about before gutting their future. The Jazz haven’t been looking to blow up the future core of their team, they seem pretty comfortable with things.
Yet, they keep getting mentioned in talks with the Miami Heat and the Portland Trail Blazers that would see the team land Tyler Herro as part of a three-way trade. The Trail Blazers are guard heavy, and the Heat have no other pieces of value to land the player they want from Portland, Damian Lillard, without shipping out Herro.
That’s where the Jazz comes in. Likely, the Jazz will have to move salary and at least one draft pick to land Herro. Depending on where the salary goes, you could see anyone from Kelly Olynyk go to Miami or Talen Horton-Tucker go to Portland.
Or vice versa. Maybe a fourth team would need to be involved, but regardless of how it happens, the why of landing Herro is clear; he makes the Jazz better without having to gut their future.
Herro isn’t the best defensive player, but that can be improved upon. What really can’t be taught is his bucket-getting mentality. He’s a great scorer who can get you from all three levels, while also hurting you from the free-throw line.
Pairing him with Collin Sexton and Lauri Markkanen makes the Jazz an explosive and dynamic offense, and while the defense needs help, you can improve that in other areas. For instance, getting some help behind Walker Kessler, or improving the perimeter defense and moving Markkanen back to power forward primarily.
Sure this means either moving John Collins to the bench or turning around and trading him as soon as the team can, but it’s a possibility to do either if you’re worried about the defense.
The offense would be good enough, however, to propel the Jazz into playoff contention.