More often than not, the Utah Jazz have hit big on the trades they've made around the exact time they traded Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. However, there's one trade that didn't make sense two years ago that, even now, still doesn't add up.
It's not like said trade hurt the Jazz much, because it didn't. They didn't lose any assets, and in all fairness, they got a downgrade, which knowing their situation, was what they needed. But it was weird that they got no assets out of it.
If you haven't guessed it, the trade in mind was when the Jazz traded Bojan Bogdanovic for Kelly Olynyk. It was straight up, with no strings attached, which didn't really make sense.
Bogdanovic had limited value at the time
A Bogdanovic trade felt inevitable one way or the other. There wasn't much use for him anymore, he was 33 at the time, and his contract was set to expire. Trading him made sense. What they got for him did not.
Even if the contract was expiring, Bogdanovic could still score and provide floor spacing with size. He wasn't the best defender out there, but he wasn't overpaid for what he did. It's not like the Jazz should have expected a king's ransom for his services, but Kelly Olynyk seemed like an underpay.
Maybe that was the best deal they could have gotten at the time, but they could have waited to see how desperate a contender could have been down the line. Granted, they've done this with Jordan Clarkson to no avail, but Bogdanovic is a better player than Clarkson is, and his expiring contract made him more tradeable.
That's nothing against Olynyk. He was by all means an excellent player given the expectations, but why trade a player who fit better on a winning team for another player who fit better on a winning team, but only less talented? And without any sort of pick attached no less?
Olynyk is a very useful player who fills holes on a team that didn't really need him. His addition added to the uncertainty of the Jazz's direction after blowing up their team. This was the feeling even at the time.
It makes no sense two years later because even with Olynyk's contributions, it didn't lead to anything. Overall, it feels like the Jazz could have chosen a different route than the one they took. If they had traded the other veterans then, maybe it would have made sense, but they kept much of that core around anyway.
The Jazz salvaged this trade
The Jazz took advantage of the situation later when they sent Olynyk, among others, to the Raptors for what turned out to be Isaiah Collier.
This trade was excellent all around since Olynyk was expiring, didn't have a long-term future in Utah, and the Jazz would take any opportunity to strengthen their youth movement. When it was all said and done, the original trade turned into Bogdanovic for Collier at its core. The jury will be out on Collier for some time, but the Jazz have the time to see what they have in him.
It just feels odd that they should have gotten more out of Bogi than Collier alone. What makes this weird is that the Jazz have done a pretty good job taking advantage in the trades they've made for the past two years.
But such was not the case with Bogdanovic.