Austin Reaves has been on the Utah Jazz's roster dating back to last December. Despite everything else going for the Jazz, apparently, he's still in their sights. However, for obvious reasons, they just can't sign him with all the cap room they've lost. The only way they can is if they clear up the cap room to add him.
The Athletic's Sam Amick and Dan Woike reported that the Jazz are still interested in Reaves, but they would first have to trade some players to make that happen.
"Other teams that are known to have some interest in Reaves — like Utah and Atlanta, per league sources — would need to make roster moves to find the necessary space. League sources say winning will be a significant factor in Reaves’ thinking," Amick and Woike wrote.
So, it's still on the table even after the Jazz acquired Jaren Jackson Jr. and his massive contract. However, it would take some cap maneuvering to make it happen. That's not factoring in the high lottery pick they will sign to the team not too long from now, on top of Walker Kessler's incoming extension.
There are expendable contracts on their payroll, like John Konchar and Svi Mykhailiuk, and they could include one or more of their young blossoming players to sweeten the pot. But that's a lot of hoops to jump through just for the chance to sign Austin Reaves.
The only reason why they would do it
Moves like this have been done before. Among its most well-known occurrences actually featured the Jazz 13 years ago. They willingly took expendable players from Golden State's roster so that they could sign Andre Iguodala, who proved to be an important piece on three of their title teams.
But the Warriors only did that because they knew Iguodala would sign with them once they got that deal done. Sacramento did something similar two years later, where they also traded expendable players, including a lottery pick in the process, just to have a shot at adding a game-changer. Not to go all 2008 on you guys, but that turned out to be an epic fail.
Utah is smart enough that they shouldn't make moves like these unless they know Reaves is coming. It's possible, but it's hard to see the Los Angeles Lakers messing up their situation with him unless they truly lowball him (they may or may not lose LeBron, so they should know not to play with fire).
Reaves is still an intriguing option, and maybe Utah really goes all in on him, making an epic offseason somehow even better, but it would basically require doing the impossible.
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