Jazz insider explains why they haven't traded John Collins & Jordan Clarkson
By Matt John
With or without Lauri Markkanen, the Utah Jazz are embracing the next chapter of their franchise. In situations like this, guys like John Collins and Jordan Clarkson would be on different teams, but that hasn't been the case.
Clarkson and Collins will likely be on the Jazz's 2024-25 opening night roster despite Utah's best efforts to trade them, per The Athletic's Tony Jones. He explained on ESPN 700 why the Jazz prefer to be rid of them.
"The thing that people are not understanding is that the Jazz are really going to prioritize the young guys from Day 1. And if they had their druthers, they would have traded Jordan Clarkson. If they had their druthers, they would have traded John Collins. I think we all know that's not possible at this point, and very likely begin the season on the roster."
Jones explained further what the problem was with their trade market.
"They just couldn't trade their veterans. You can't trade people if there aren't people who want to trade for them," Jones said. "John (Collins) makes a little too much money. And I don't anticipate the Jazz being able to trade him until the last year of his contract. Jordan Clarkson is the one that surprises me because I thought he'd have a lot more of a market this summer, but it just hasn't materialized."
The Salt Lake Tribune's Andy Larsen confirmed something similar about Clarkson in a July 22 story. Jones added why the market is so hard for them.
"The thing that has been unforeseen is teams being wary of the first and second salary cap aprons. Teams just aren't taking money as easily and readily as they've done in the past."
It's not just about what their current contracts are. It's because teams want to avoid the penalties. The theme of the 2024 NBA Offseason is that teams don't want to pay such massive penalties of they are not winning. Sure, the Jazz would like to get rid of those guys, but they don't have much to lose by keeping them.
Better yet, who knows what the future holds. A team might get desperate to tell themselves that it doesn't matter about the penalties as long as Clarkson and Collins helps them.
John Collins will come off the bench
Jones also confirmed that because the Jazz will commit to their young guys, Collins will come off the bench in favor of Walker Kessler. This will likely only hurt Collins' trade value further. In actuality, Collins may very well stay until his contract expires.
Since the Jazz are in a position where they don't have to worry about winning now, they can live with that. That won't change the fact that getting Collins has been nothing short of a disaster.