With trading season underway, the Utah Jazz have confirmed to be not only sellers but also sellers who are ready to move on from their available players as soon as possible. Among the players who likely fit that bill are Jordan Clarkson and John Collins. One who might not is Collin Sexton.
At 25 years old, Sexton is still decently young who has shown improvement as an all-around player on top of his proven abilities as a scorer. He has popped up in trade rumors, but at the same time, it doesn't really feel like the Jazz are trying to get rid of him like they are with Clarkson or Collins.
Sexton has plenty of appeal because of his talent and inexpensive contract. For that reason, following the Dennis Schroder trade, ESPN's Bobby Marks, who used to be the assistant general manager of the Brooklyn Nets, made a bold statement about Sexton.
"Similar to Schroder, Sexton is an ideal trade candidate but with a slightly higher salary and one more year remaining on his contract."
The Schroder trade will likely set the market for what the Jazz should expect for Sexton. The Warriors didn't have to give up much for Schroder, but that's because he's expiring. If the trade whispers surrounding Sexton are true, the Jazz could expect more, but they shouldn't expect a haul.
Sexton being an ideal candidate might be why he's hard to trade
From the very moment Sexton became a Jazzman, it was up in the air as to whether he was part of the Jazz's long-term future or if he was bound to have the same fate as the likes of Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic.
Over two years later, that still remains in question. Utah may make more moves as they have for the past two seasons, but in Sexton's case, he's not one of those players that a team trades just because they can.
There may not be more of a catch-22 as a trade candidate than Sexton. He's proven enough that no one would blame the Jazz if they decided they'd rather just keep him and yet knowing where the Jazz are at, one can't help but question why is he still on the team?
Sexton is good enough that he should be on a team with playoff aspirations, but he's also been good enough in Utah that the Jazz have every right to believe that they will be that very team with playoff aspirations. Granted, that won't happen for some time, but the Jazz wouldn't be wrong to think that way.
*If* they think that way.