The Utah Jazz are way under the cap right now. They used some of their cap room to acquire Russell Westbrook, who they instantly waived. Doing so may have signaled that they are willing to take on similar contracts.
On paper, it wouldn't be the worst idea to acquire expendable players either to fill up the cap room or take flyers on like they once did with Kris Dunn. That is, as long as they get some assets out of it because they would be doing their hypothetical trade partners a favor.
However, that won't be the case. ESPN's Brian Windhorst revealed that even after the Westbrook trade, the Jazz don't plan on adding anymore expendable players. In other words, they're not going to spend money just because.
"They have not signed their draft picks to save cap space even though they're way under the cap," Windhorst said on "The Hoop Collective." "And I was talking to some teams in the last few days who said that basically shut down any conversations. They did the Russell Westbrook trade where they took on his contract, and then they made him take a buyout.
"...They worked on that for a while to get him to take less money. And from what I'm told, some teams that have been talking to them about offloading more money there, the Jazz are telling teams, 'We're not using any of our cap space right now.'"
The Jazz already have two players on contracts that nobody wants: Jordan Clarkson and John Collins. Clearly, they see taking on more as a problem, even if they are not in a position to win now in the immediate future.
What this says about the second Jazz-Russell Westbrook trade
The Jazz did the Clippers and Westbrook a favor when they agreed to acquire Westbrook for Kris Dunn. The Clippers got their guy, and waiving Westbrook paved the way for him to join Denver. However, for Westbrook, that came with the condition that he give a lot of that money back.
Spotrac's Keith Smith revealed how much Westbrook gave back via his X account.
Russell Westbrook gave up $1.7M in his buyout with the Utah Jazz, a league source told @spotrac.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) July 23, 2024
Westbrook reduced his dead money cap hit from just over $4.0M to just over $2.3M.
Westbrook signed a two-year deal with the Nuggets. The Athletic's Shams Charania revealed the full details via his X account.
Former NBA MVP Russell Westbrook is signing a two-year, $6.8 million contract with the Denver Nuggets, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Deal has a player option for 2025-26 season. pic.twitter.com/nZeK3ZZsvT
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 26, 2024
Despite giving back $1.7 million, Westbrook made twice that with the Nuggets for this coming season in addition to the $2.3 million the Jazz are paying him.
The conclusion from this is that the Jazz only agreed to this because it barely took any of their cap flexibility, and they know guys like Westbrook will make up for that on the open market, which is why they demanded that he give back all the money he did.
The Jazz are not spending because they can. They clearly believe that is the best route going forward, and there's nothing to prove that such is the wrong choice.