It's become pretty clear that the Utah Jazz want to add to their blossoming core. One of the ways they could do it is by adding more established stars around Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George. As it turns out, Trae Young is very much available at the moment, but he's absolutely someone the Jazz should stay away from even if he makes them his top preference.
ESPN's Shams Charania confirmed that Young and the Atlanta Hawks are working together to find a new NBA team for the four-time All-Star.
Just in: Atlanta Hawks All-Star Trae Young and his agents, Aaron Mintz, Drew Morrison and Austin Brown, are working with the franchise on a trade, sources tell ESPN. Young's reps and the Hawks have started collaborative talks over the last week on finding a resolution. pic.twitter.com/dUCNnDKqTt
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 5, 2026
Let's start this by acknowledging the elephant in the room: the Jazz thought about adding Young at one point, though no one knows how serious they were about that. That was last year, and let's face it: there was a lot of uncertainty about the Jazz back then, fueled primarily by no one knowing how exactly the team planned to get back to the playoffs.
Now, despite Utah still not being close to making the playoffs, the team's outlook is a lot better than it was last year. It helps that Keyonte George has emerged as their lead guard, so adding Young seems superfluous. George's ascension would be the primary reason why Utah would steer clear of Young.
Even if he hadn't played as well as he did, Young's effectiveness as a player has very much come into question. The Hawks had that miracle playoff run in 2021, but never got better, have only regressed, and have been in a holding pattern over the last few years.
Not only that, but Young is a difficult player to build around. Despite his clear talent offensively, the Hawks have had their hands tied because of his shortcomings defensively. There's no guarantee the Jazz, one of the NBA's worst defensive teams, would be able to mask his problems there.
At this stage, acquiring Young doesn't make sense for the Jazz.
The Jazz haven't been mentioned in the Young trade rumors
Maybe we should add a "yet" to that sentence, but the fact remains that since it's been confirmed that Young is on the trade block, the Jazz haven't been mentioned. In fact, the only team that's been named is Washington.
Again, because of George, it's difficult to see how the Jazz could talk themselves into Young. The only way they could get involved is more or less what they did in Luka Doncic trade last year: just take a useless contract and acquire a draft asset.
Utah wants to build a long-term playoff contender, so while with their current roster construction, it's hard to see Young joining them, they could use this opportunity to add someone else. That is, as long as that player is expiring, promises to stay, and won't get in the way of their tank.
So yeah, getting involved would make things very complicated.