It's been well-established that the biggest reason why the Utah Jazz should trade Jordan Clarkson is because he doesn't fit into their long-term timeline. The second reason why is that Clarkson's services are best used elsewhere.
At this stage, the Jazz may be willing to trade Clarkson without any draft capital as long as they don't have to commit much, if not none at all, money past this season. However, if they have to take on a player whose contract runs past 2025 for the former Sixth Man of the Year, that's where things get interesting.
That brings us to a proposed trade made by SI on Knicks' Jed Katz, where he brought up a potential swap that would send Clarkson to the Knicks for Mitchell Robinson. Both are paid nearly the same, so the two sides could agree to a straight-up swap.
However, for a trade like this to happen, two other factors have to be at play.
1. The Jazz have to get draft capital back
Clarkson may not have much trade value, but he holds enough that if he's traded for someone who has demonstrably less than him, they would be entirely justified to ask for something valuable in return. Robinson fits that description.
Robinson is far from a scrub. He's an excellent rim protector when he's on the floor, but trade negotiations for him with his worrisome injury history would start with asking for a first-round pick back, even if his contract ends the same year's Clarkson's does.
He had an injury-plagued 2023-24 season, has yet to play this season, and keeps experiencing setbacks that will prevent him from playing until January or February at the earliest. Paying him when he's an injury risk should come with a first-round pick.
Even though the Knicks traded the bulk of the firsts they had for Mikal Bridges, they still have some left over, and better yet, they're not golden assets, but legitimate assets all the same. They have the Pistons protected first-round pick for this season, which could turn into something.
The irony is that Clarkson, too, has struggled with availability over the past three seasons, including the current one. However, he's an Iron Man compared to the likes of Robinson. For that reason, and since the Knicks are thinking championship this season, the Jazz would be well within their rights to ask for a first-rounder along with Robinson.
2. The Jazz would have to trade some of their bigs beforehand
Even with his injury history, it's not like Robinson is someone the Jazz wouldn't take a flyer on, even if they would likely re-route him elsewhere. The only problem is that they already have so many bigs that no playing time would be available for him.
The Jazz have Lauri Markkanen in his All-Star prime, Walker Kessler and John Collins looking much better, Kyle Filipowski's promising rookie season, and Drew Eubanks is doing Drew Eubanks things. Fitting Robinson into the equation doesn't make much sense unless at least two of those players are traded beforehand.
Markkanen can't be traded for a year, it's hard to know if the Jazz are still thinking about trading Kessler, and Filipowski shouldn't go anywhere. By process of elimination (and honestly, common sense), the two most likely candidates would be Collins and Eubanks.
Even if he's injury-prone, trading for Robinson should be contingent on the Jazz trading off at least two of their big in their current rotation. It seems a little odd to think of Robinson as a potential Jazzman but under these circumstances, it isn't the worst idea.