Revisiting what would a Zach LaVine trade to the Utah Jazz look like

The Utah Jazz have got to go in on Zach LaVine, but what would a trade look like?

We’ve sung this song before, the Utah Jazz could use someone like Zach LaVine, so what would that look like? Solid question, and one that we’re not done asking or answering. Especially not after the recent news that LaVine may be done with the Chicago Bulls. The two sides are both looking into trades and that means that the NBA is going to get interesting.

And that means a team like the Jazz could likely benefit from any movement in Chicago. The usual suspects are being considered, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Dallas Mavericks, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat and others are all being considered.

The 76ers and Mavericks don’t need LaVine, they’re plenty good already. The Lakers lack the assets and honestly, the Heat have a better player in Tyler Herro, why give him up for LaVine?

If you can have Herro or LaVine, you pick Herro, right? This is a long-winded way of saying that the number of teams who can either 1) afford LaVine or 2) need him is not as long and deep as people may want to believe. He’s a borderline All-Star at his best, pushing 30. A team that trades for him needs to be desperate.

Hi, hello, have you met the Jazz? The Jazz ooze desperation right now. The rebuild was a full-on tear-down last season but the team got too good too fast and now everyone was talking about how this season would be a playoff season. Well, at 3-7, the team isn’t heading anywhere but to the lottery.

But assuming the goal is to make the playoffs this year (without doing long-term damage to the team), a trade for LaVine could help achieve that goal. But what would a trade look like? Well, we already looked at one before when LaVine was playing better and the Jazz had nothing but hope in their eyes; so this is what that trade ended up looking like;

"Utah Jazz get: SG Zach LaVine, PG Alex CarusoChicago Bulls get: G Collin Sexton, C/F Kelly Olynyk, G Talen Horton-Tucker, F Brice Sensabaugh, 2026 First-Round (Top 10 Protected), 2030 First-Round Pick (Lottery Protected), 2029 Second-Round Pick."

But now, such a trade is no longer on the table. Instead, this is what the Jazz should be willing to part with;

"Utah Jazz get: SG Zach LaVine, PG Alex Caruso, C Nikola VucevicChicago Bulls Get: SG Jordan Clarkson, PG Talen Horton-Tucker,  PF/C Kelly Olynyk, C Omer Yurtseven, SF Brice Sensabaugh, (and Kris Dunn if the money doesn’t work), 2026 First-Round (Unprotected), 2030 First-Rounder (Lottery Protected), 2029 and 2030 Second-Round Picks"

This massive trade may not seem like a lot back, but in recent trades with the Portland Trail Blazers, older tradeable assets like Jordan Clarkson do carry value. The Bulls can simply re-trade Clarkson, Horton-Tucker, and Olynyk for even more draft capital while building their future with guys like Sensabaugh and the rookies they get from the picks and other players.

For the Jazz, they get a staunch defensive point guard, a better shooter than Clarkson and Horton-Tucker combined, and an offensive big in Vucevic who can replace Olynyk on the team offensively. Vucevic would likely come off the bench with the team looking like;

• Starting 5: PG Alex Caruso, SG Zach LaVine, SF Lauri Markkanen, PF John Collins, C Walker Kessler.
• Rotation: G Collin Sexton, PF/C Nikola Vucevic, PG Keyonte George, F Simone Fontecchio

Now that’s a team that the Jazz could make some headway with.