Jaden McDaniels named as player the Utah Jazz should trade for and we disagree

The Utah Jazz need an abundance of help on defense for the upcoming season. That's not in dispute. The Jazz' were the worst defensive team in the league, a notion that only really took hold in the second half of the season after the club traded away key defenders Kelly Olynyk, Ochai Agbaji, and Simone Fontecchio. Without those three players and the rookies getting more minutes, the team lost its edge on defense and quickly fell apart.

They need guys who can shore that up and the folks at Bleacher Report seem to suggest Jade McDnaiels as a player the Utah Jazz should trade for. McDaniels adds some level of defensive ability to the Jazz, at least compared to what the club currently has, but Bleacher Report writer Dan Favale named McDaniels as an "All-Defensive candidate" which we we don't agree with.

McDaniels isn't a bad defensive player, and he may be worthy of being on an All-Defense team eventually. That just isn't this season. He saw his defensive figures jump considerably when Rudy Gobert arrived on the Minnesota Timberwolves and that inclusion didn't go unnoticed.

McDaniels defensive stats climbed over the last two seasons that Gobert was his teammate in Minnesota, so the idea that Gobert significantly helped him isn't getting lost on us and the idea that he could regress without Gobert is true.

Still, it should be noted that even if McDaniels regresses some, he's still better than a lot of other guys the Jazz have on their roster defensively, so he isn't the worst player possible to get. Still, if the Jazz are going to trade for a forward with defensive attributes, we'd rather it be one who is better on offense, like Deni Avdija, a creator with great mobility in transition.

Not a power forward like McDaniels who's pretty reliant on others to set up his shots for him.

If as part of a grander trade, like for fellow teammate Karl-Anthony Towns, then McDaniels makes sense, but on his own he's not worth the capital required to obtain him. There are plenty of good, defensive-minded players in the NBA draft and free agency, all of whom wouldn't require much beyond a draft pick or a contract to acquire.