:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/48878207/usa-today-9042541.0.jpg)
The Utah Jazz had a lot of smoke coming into this NBA Trade Deadline, but there were very few fires that actually happened. Thankfully, and this is opinion, the team didn't end up with Ty Lawson and his "More-Money-Than-Derrick Favors-This-Season" contract. That Utah Jazz were involved in a three-team trade with the Atlanta Hawks and the Chicago Bulls, that had Shelvin Mack, Kirk Hinrich, Justin Holiday, and a future 2nd round pick all trade places. Also, because this part appears to be opinion, there were no resolutions on Trey Burke or Trevor Booker -- so that wasn't amazing. But overall, people were happy with what the Utah Jazz managed to do, on a night where no team was really shaking things up (except for the future Eastern Conference finalists, the Detroit Pistons). There were a few publications that went out to grade every team's moves . . . so this isn't as big as the NBA Draft. But here they are:
| News Org. | Author | Grade | Analysis | ||
| 1 | Bleacher Report | Adam Fromal | C |
Is Shelvin Mack really an upgrade over either Trey Burke or Raul Neto? Mack has established himself as the superior distributor, but his lack of scoring acumen makes him a worse offensive option than Burke. He's also been atrocious on defense, which makes it tough to justify playing him ahead of Neto. Overall, most metrics show he's been the worst of the three. |
|
| 2 | Fox Sports | Brett Pollakoff | C+ | Mack's role had been extremely limited with the Hawks this season, so perhaps reuniting him with Gordon Hayward -- his college teammate at Butler -- may give him a bit of a spark. The cost was minimal for Utah, and even though this is a relatively minor transaction, it could be considered a small win for both sides. | |
| 3 | Hardwood Paroxysm | Ian Levy | GIF |
For the low-low price of a second-round pick, the Utah Jazz reunite college teammates Shelvin Mack and Gordon Hayward and get a solid game-managing point guard to help out with what has been an enormous weakness. That second round pick goes to the Chicago Bulls who also received Justin Holiday and send the man, the legend, Kirk Hinrich, to Atlanta. Jazz Grade:
|
|
| 4 | Hoops Habit | Gerald Bourguet | B |
As the trade deadline approached, the Utah Jazz got hungry for an experienced point guard to bring some steady play to the backcourt, and for awhile (sic) there, it seemed like the Jazz were ready to get really desperate by casting their lot for Ty Lawson. But rather than make that kind of monumental mistake, Utah settled on a safer alternative: the seldom used Shelvin Mack in Atlanta. In a three-team deal that included the Bulls, Utah acquired Mack and only had to send a 2018 second-rounder to Chicago in order to do so. With the way Utah's been playing since Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors returned healthy, going on a 7-2 streak over their last nine games, they didn't really need to make many changes at the deadline. To that end it's hard to be overly critical of Utah's lack of activity, even if Mack is averaging an underwhelming 3.9 points and 1.6 assists in 7.5 minutes per game on abysmal .421 / .148 / .750 shooting splits this season. The question is, what was going on with Trey Burke and the Jazz PR team? |
|
| 5 | Sports Illustrated | Rob Mahoney | B |
Utah’s need for point guard help earned a measured response on Thursday, when the Jazz flipped a marginal asset for a veteran placeholder. Mack was too good a player to be Atlanta’s third point guard, and certainly too good to play a largely distant third to capable superiors in Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder. The Jazz offer a way out—an opportunity to play regular minutes, to work alongside a coach (Quin Snyder coached Mack in Atlanta) and star (Gordon Hayward played with Mack at Butler) with which he’s quite familiar, and to genuinely help a team in the playoff hunt. (Full article here. Different from link to the left.) |
|
| 6 | Washington Post | Tim Bontemps | B | The Hawks have no need for Mack, given they have apparently decided to keep starter Jeff Teague to go along with young reserve Dennis Schroeder. So, with that said, the Hawks turned around and sent Mack to one of the team’s they’d been talking about a possible Teague trade, the Jazz. Utah has been desperate for point guard help as the Jazz try to finally get back to the playoffs, and Mack will pair nicely with Raul Neto – assuming the Jazz choose to move on from former first round pick Trey Burke before today’s deadline. | |
So, overall, no one hated this deal for the Jazz. And personally (there we go again with that word), transmuting an "asset" (future 2nd round pick, a Denver 2018 2nd rounder that we got in that Andris Biedrins / Kevin Murphy trade) into a player (actual NBA level talent, Shelvin) is a good thing. It wasn't the best thing. And it wasn't the primary goal I would have going into the deadline. Of course, my goals are possibly different from the Jazz Org's goals. I want more of Trey Lyles on the court, because he's going to be a better player than Trevor Booker. I felt like Book's $4.7 million expiring contract would be easy to move -- especially since some teams were interested in him. If Booker is a long term fixture for this team, it better be as the 4th big, and not the 3rd. I went over this over here. So I would have tried to move Booker.
It's not the end of the world. And looking at this move in a vacuum, it's not that bad. Our writers agreed.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/6069987/2015_2016_Trade_Deadline_Grades_-_SLCD.0.PNG)
Most of us went with a B; MyLo is drinking the kool-aid; while Basketball John, Peter J Novak, Diana Allen, and JuMu were not completely sold. When all you do is move a 2nd rounder and get a 3rd stringer you're not exactly shooting for the stars. And clearly the Jazz did not feel desperate enough to do that right now.