The Utah Jazz are going "big game" hunting this offseason. Those are the words taken from Danny Ainge himself. The team is looking to land a star or two to pair with Lauri Makkanen and chase some titles. The goal would be to find a complementary player, someone who can help elevate Markkanen's game while also giving him a break on occasion from having to carry the bulk of the scoring.
There aren't a lot of guys out there that we know, for sure, are on the block, but one of the names that could end up being on the block is Devin Booker of the now-eliminated Phoenix Suns. Booker and the Suns got swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves behind a dominating performance from Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, with defensive assistance from two former Jazz players, Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley.
The Wolves are on to the second round for the first time in 20 years, when Kevin Garnett was in town.
The Suns are looking at a rough offseason. They don't have the talent to just run things back, and the team is looking like it's about to be dismantled. They have no real wiggle room to add the type of players they need, and their only options are to flip Devin Booker for assets or blow the whole thing up.
There's just no other way to make things better in Phoenix, not even trading Bradley Beal, assuming he'd wave his no-trade clause. Beal no longer has the value he did just last season (though anyone in their right mind would have told you he wasn't even worth that.
So the Suns are likely to trade Booker and the Jazz have the pieces needed to land him. At least that's what Bleacher Report thinks. They proposed a trade that would see Booker land in Salt Lake, but the deal may be too rich for our blood.
Now, every major star has either gone for four or five picks in any trade dating back to the Rudy Gobert trade. Kevin Durant ended up in Phoenix thanks to five picks and while Damian Lillard only went for three, his trade from the Milwaukee Bucks also included Jrue Holiday, who the Portland Trail Blazers were able to flip or an additional two first-round picks.
So we accept that the Jazz will need to trade away at least five picks to land Booker, assuming a major trade happens that doesn't undercut the five-pick minimum that is currently the standard. Still, in all of those cases, teams didn't get five picks, they often got three picks and two pick swaps.
Trading Booker for five outright picks doesn't seem like a bad idea but they're losing two high-quality players in John Collins and Collin Sexton Not All-Stars by any means but great scorers. That should be taken into consideration in the deal, as should the fact that the Jazz aren't looking for one player, but two.
They may seem like they have an overabundance of draft picks right now, but that could quickly change if they try to land two stars. Keeping some of your draft reserves is imperative if you want to build a sustainable winner. So if we can get this done for three picks and two swaps, we're in.
Otherwise, we got to wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze.