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The Utah Jazz have just completed a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers according to Yahoo! Sports / The Vertical guru Adrian Wojnarowski. Utah is saying goodbye to 7’3 three point shooting bigman Tibor Pliess, and two future 2nd round picks -- and recieving point guard Kendall Marshall in return. Marshall is going to be waived, because you know, the team already has George Hill, Dante Exum, Shelvin Mack, Raul Neto, and Marcus Paige all signed already.
Philadelphia is sending guard Kendall Marshall to Utah for Tibor Pleiss, two future second-round picks and cash, sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) August 26, 2016
The Jazz are planning to waive Marshall and remainder of his guaranteed contract, league sources tell @TheVertical. He'll become free agent.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) August 26, 2016
Marshall has $2M on deal that becomes guaranteed Saturday. Pleiss has $3M guarantee this season; only $500K of $3.1M guaranteed in 2017-'18.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) August 26, 2016
Tibor Pleiss was on the books this season for $3.00 million, and has a remaining year after of a non-guaranteed $3.10 million. This is a salary dump, which is fine, as Kendall Marshall’s $2 million gets guaranteed on September 2nd. Marshall’s multi-year deal extends for the next two seasons as well. The Jazz also received $3.00 million from the Brooklyn Nets for trading picks (#42 and cash for #52). The Jazz were already about $3 million under the cap, and this move further gives this team more of what it already had.
Utah seems to be focused on Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert, Boris Diaw, Trey Lyles, and Joel Bolomboy right now in the paint, and did not need Pleiss. Jeff Withey is 3x cheaper than Pleiss, and does a better job of being a traditional paint-oriented defender.
As for Kendall Marshall, man. He was a lotto pick back in 2012, and has played for the Phoenix Suns, Bakersfield Jam, Delaware 87ers, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Philadelphia 76ers. Now a Jazzman from when this deal goes through to when he will be waived . . . it hasn’t been that stellar of a professional career for a guy who was a McDonald’s All-American in high school, was on the All-ACC freshman team in college, and ended up winning the Bob Cousy award as the best PG in college basketball.
It’s upsetting for him, but it seems like Philly really didn’t want another guy handling the ball as they are trying to open things up for Ben Simmons. What they really don’t need is another bigman either, but hey, trust the process Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, and others. I can imagine that this gives them immediate cap relief. For the Jazz? Well, less of a logjam.
I support it. I didn’t think Tibor was going to be that guy to make us forget about Ante Tomic. Clearly he will not get that chance.