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The Utah Jazz just completed an out of the blue trade with the Toronto Raptors for Steve Novak and a draft pick. The cost of this was non-guaranteed contract holding point guard, and fan favorite, Diante Garrett. The Draft pick information was not yet announced, but anyone with a brain and an internet connection can kind of figure it out. The Raptors are in win now mode right now and probably don't need their draft picks right now -- so it's likely that this trade will be fully resolved as recently as possible. For the Jazz, though, they seem to be putting a lot of eggs in the basket of the 2017 NBA Draft. So I think they would want one from 2017, but Toronto's earliest 2nd rounder they can give is 2015.
We'll see what happens, but here are all the picks we have, and from where:
It should be noted that the Jazz do not owe any of their picks, currently.
The Golden State Warriors picks and the one from the Denver Nuggets are a result of the Andre Iguodala / Richard Jefferson / Andris Biedrins / Brandon Rush / Randy Foye trade. The pick that will either be from the Boston Celtics or Toronto Raptors is from the Memphis Grizzlies trade for Jarnell Stokes. The last one, the Raptors trade for Steve Novak, is really the fulcrum. Another 2nd rounder in the right draft will help the team maintain flexibility in a potentially bumper crop.
All in all the Jazz have done well with collecting assets. The Philadelphia 76ers had a lot of draft picks in the 2014 draft, and we saw what they did with them. Having assets is one thing, and doing something positive with them isn't always a given.
I'm happy that the Jazz are collecting assets though, having them is better than not having them. Taking on Steve Novak 's contract for two years isn't going to be a back breaker.