Should the Utah Jazz make this trade with the Portland Trail Blazers?
By Chad Porto
The Utah Jazz need help at the point guard position, even the biggest defenders of Keyonte George have to admit that. George, for all of his hype and fandom, has been bad since entering the starting lineup. He's among the team's least effective scorers, hitting just 34% of his shots from the floor and 31% of his three-point attempts. He's got a true shooting percentage of just 48.6% (11th on the team) and he's 12th on the team defensive box plus-minus with a -2.5 score.
Now, if you're going to tank and you want to see what George can be long-term, sure, 10.5 points and five assists per game is exactly what you're going to expect. But if you're a team looking to win 41 or more games per year, George isn't going to get you there. The Jazz need help at point guard and they need someone who can move George to the bench so the Jazz can both win and give the rookie more controlled minutes so he can slowly engage in the NBA action.
Instead of being thrown out there and drowning. And the folks at Sports Illustrated may have found a trade worth doing. In the proposed trade, the Jazz land point guard Malcolm Brogdon from the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for Kelly Olynyk, Talen Horton-Tucker, and a 2029 Top-5 protected first-round pick from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Blazers get a huge deal for Borgdon, namely a Top-5 protected pick, but considering Brogdon's age, (30) and the fact that while a good guard and an improvement over any guard the Jazz have, he's not a great passer nor is his shooting where you want it to be with what he's making.
That said, you still make the deal, you just maybe don't give them a Top 5 protection on the draft pick and instead give it a lottery-protection instead. We'd be willing to then forgo the 2024 second-round pick in return.
But regardless of what we're offered, we think Brogdon makes sense for the Jazz to get.