Utah Jazz fans know full well by now that their defense is pretty much a big joke. Even with Walker Kessler, the Jazz's defense can be torn through like a wet sheet of paper. It's why players like OG Anunoby and Keon Ellis have been floated as potential targets.
But there's no guarantee that the Jazz could get their hands on those guys. What they need is someone that they can buy low on who won't hurt them, even if he doesn't work out. In short, the Jazz should be looking for another Kris Dunn. One player who fits that bill, actually, pretty perfectly, is Lonzo Ball.
Ball is very much available
HoopsHype's Michael Scotto revealed that the Wizards, a team very much in the same boat as the Jazz, have interest in Ball.
"In addition, after HoopsHype reported three days ago that Hunter and Lonzo Ball were potential trade candidatesThe Washington Wizards are among the teams that have checked in on Ball, HoopsHype has learned. The Wizards have been open to being incentivized with draft pick compensation to use their nearly $30 million in luxury tax room space and traded player exceptions for teams needing to dump salary, league sources told HoopsHype," Scotto wrote.
If the Wizards want to do something like that, why not the Jazz?
Ball has been a bit of a bust for the Cavaliers, as they added him believing he was their Ty Jerome replacement. The former No. 2 pick from the 2017 NBA Draft has failed in that regard, but that doesn't mean it's over for him. It just means he doesn't fit with the Cavaliers.
Would he fit better with Utah? At this stage of his career, after all the injuries and long-term setbacks he's had to deal with, the Jazz's expectation for Ball would be to tighten their perimeter defense and be more of a complementary ballhandler and playmaker. In other words, he'd take the role that Dunn used to have.
It's far from guaranteed that it would work, but it's a flyer that ultimately would do no harm to Utah, a team that is desperate for what Ball would bring to them.
Ball has a team option for next season, so if he doesn't work out, the Jazz can cut him, not hurting their cap in the slightest. If he does work out, they can still cut him and work out a way to sign him to a team-friendly deal. Cleveland will likely cut Ball anyway if they can't find a suitor, whether before the season's end or in the offseason, so the Jazz have multiple ways to bring him aboard.
The Jazz have tried this before. Remember Jaden Springer? An excellent defender as a guard, but quite raw offensively. When Utah realized he couldn't cut it, they cut him. It's a shame he couldn't put it together, but it's not like Utah made any sort of investment in him, so it was no skin off their nose.
With all that out there, there would be some concerns.
Would Utah help Cleveland?
The Cavaliers started their season a little concerning, and while they have figured some things out, it hasn't been all hunky dory. They are also above the NBA's second tax apron, and if they can get below that by cutting expendable salary, they'd likely take it.
That's why trading Ball in a salary dump would work out perfectly for them. However, if they were to enter trade discussions with the Jazz, they may try to get something good in return. In fact, it wouldn't be entirely shocking if the Cavaliers asked for Kyle Anderson or to reunite with Georges Niang, who they traded last year for De'Andre Hunter.
The irony is that the Cavaliers helped the Jazz on multiple occasions during the Donovan Mitchell-Rudy Gobert era. The Jazz have more or less returned the favor by giving the Cavaliers Mitchell, but would they do it again with the assets the Cavaliers owe them?
Lonzo always will be an injury risk
The irony about Ball is that his biggest red flag is his inability to stay healthy, and yet, that hasn't been a problem this season. At least, compared to the rest of his career. Ball has played 35 of the Cavaliers' 50 games, putting him on track to play his healthiest season since his days in New Orleans five years ago.
Still, if the Jazz were interested, they would be trading for someone who has almost never been guaranteed to stay on the floor. Even if this is the healthiest season he's had in half a decade, he still missed 15 games.
The Cavaliers took a pretty harmless risk on Ball because even with his rap sheet of injuries, on paper, he was supposed to be make them more dynamic. He didn't even while impressively avoiding injuries. There honestly isn't much harm in the Jazz doing the same with lower expectations, but it wouldn't necessarily be an easy decision for Utah to make.