The other day, we discussed how the Utah Jazz could go after Lonzo Ball. Their defense will remain porous until they add more players who can help on that end, and Ball is one of them. His only problem is that he doesn't bring much offensively outside of playmaking. Oh well, for how bad the Jazz are overall, they have plentyof offensive firepower.
Well, after the Cavaliers completed the Dennis Schroder trade last night, they pretty much confirmed that they are giving up on Ball. There's no reason to have him now that they have both Schroder and Keon Ellis.
So Ball appears to be as good as gone. Plus, dumping him on someone else would go a long way in helping the Cavaliers get under the NBA's second tax apron. The Jazz have taken flyers before and want to turn their fortunes around next season.
Hence, both sides have every reason to make this deal happen.
But what would the deal look like?
Cleveland now has even more incentive to trade Ball than they did yesterday, and they already had enough between his low impact and how much he costs. Schroder will simply be better in Ball's role, and Ellis gives them a 3&D guard off the bench, so Cleveland has gone from having little reason to keep Ball to none whatsoever.
But the real question in a potential Ball deal between the Cavaliers and Jazz is what would the Cavaliers' intentions be? Trading him in a salary dump would get them within inches of getting under the second tax apron, but they can just wait until the offseason to opt out of his deal without a second thought.
That might be what they want, or they may want to get someone good for him. Technically speaking, the Jazz have some players who fit that bill. Teams above the second tax apron are extremely limited in trades, as they can't add more salary, and they can't combine players in a trade (unless it's to get under the second apron). The only way they can trade with teams is if they agree to take less salary.
Utah has two wings that would certainly interest Cleveland and make less than Ball - Georges Niang (ex-Cav) and Kyle Anderson - so there's a possibility of them doing that as well, but because the Jazz would be doing them a favor, they won't do it just because.
In a perfect world, the Cavaliers would trade Ball for one of those guys while getting under the second tax apron, but that would require Utah's willingness to absorb more salary, which they can do, but wouldn't do it just to help Cleveland. They would want draft compensation, and the Cavaliers have some that would interest the Jazz.
It's possible that if Utah were to entertain this, it would be a straight-up salary dump, but there is potential for them to get something actually valuable from this, though it depends on how desperate the Cavaliers will be.