The first trade that anyone ever thinks about for the Utah Jazz come trade deadline season is the trade that saw Deron Williams go from Salt Lake City to Brooklyn when the team's franchise point guard became so unruly that he got himself traded. Willams' exit marked the end of Jerry Sloan's time in Utah, and his departure was caused by Williams for the most part. The two couldn't stand each other and somehow that caused both men to leave.
So clearly, one of the biggest and best players in franchise history, as well as one of the best players of his day, getting traded would surely make this trade the biggest deadline deal in history, right? Well, not so fast.
While the Williams' trade could easily be described as the trade that involved the biggest player the franchise has ever dealt, it's not the best trade in Jazz history. That trade would involve Keon Clark and Ben Handlogten.
The Jazz sent both Clark and Handlogten to the Phoenix Suns for Tom Gugliotta and three draft picks. Two first-round picks and a 2005 second-round pick. A pretty inconsequential trade at the end of the day, right?
Wrong. The trade would help build the Jazz back up with a major pick being made from one of those picks. The Jazz used one of those draft picks to select Butler forward Gordon Hayward, who helped return the Jazz to the top parts of the Western Conference and was one of the best players in the NBA until he suffered a devastating injury when he left the Jazz.
That Hayward selection helped the Jazz develop their next successful era, and while he was only there to start the next chapter. He and Rudy Gobert led the Jazz to a Southwest Division Championship in his final year with the club and missed out on playing with Donovan Mitchell by one season.