The Utah Jazz would tank their rebuild by trading for the disgraced Miles Bridges

So, this news is gross. The Utah Jazz are apparently one of the teams interested in acquiring the embattled and troubled Miles Bridges, currently a forward on the Charlotte Hornets. Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports broke the story, saying that the Jazz enquired about Bridges' availability, but didn't specify how serious the interest was, or when the talks occurred. Sports Illustrated followed up on the story and pointed out that Bridges was an "upgrade" over Simone Fontecchio, but such an upgrade we can look past his baggage?

Bridges plead no contest to charges of him abusing the mother of his child. He's currently on a three-year probation for his actions. That type of cloud doesn't just disappear. Fans everywhere will know what he did and if you're looking for the Jazz fandom to buy into the team, maybe bringing someone into the team who has that on his record is a good idea. Look at how Josh Giddey was treated just for allegations of misconduct; Bridges was punished for his actions.

And yet, the Jazz think it's a good idea to bring that type of person into the fold? Are we kidding here, guys? There isn't a fan, with any morale sense, that wants Bridges on the Jazz. And honestly, it's not even like he's that much better of a player over Fontecchio.


Fontecchio is taking only 40% of the shots that Bridges is but is scoring 45% of what Bridges was. Fontecchio has better averages from the floor and from three. Not to mention he's a better box plus-minus player too; having higher offensive, defensive, and overall BPMs than Bridges.


In the world of combat sports, this is where we point out that Bridges just has a higher name value than Fontecchio, not actually better skills. If the Jazz used Fontecchio like the Hornets used Bridges, the numbers would likely be similar.


And we don't even need to guess at that, we can just look at how well Team Italy did in the FIBA World Cup this past summer thanks to Fontecchio's play. Have we not learned anything from Lauri Markkanen? Just because a team doesn't use a player up to his talents, doesn't mean that player isn't good.


Bridges is taking a lot of shots on a bad Hornets team that doesn't have any real offensive support around him, while Fontecchio has to deal with John Collins, Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, and Markkanen getting 10+ shots per game. Of course, Bridges has "better" stats, he's the only player who can shoot on his team.


It costs nothing to avoid Bridges, and it may even be less expensive in every way conceivable to stick with Fontecchio. Not to mention less controversial. The Utah Jazz have enough to worry about image-wise thanks to the Karl Malone's of the world, there's no reason to bring even more scrutiny to a rising franchise.