The Jazz agreed Friday to trade three former first-round draft choices, all so they can acquire one former first-rounder who has been bid adieu once already.
As part of a three-team, six-player swap, longtime Jazz center Greg Ostertag is returning to Utah after one season in Sacramento and shooting guard Kirk Snyder, center Curtis Borchardt and the contract of point guard Raul Lopez all are headed to Memphis.
Memphis also gets Sacramento guard Bobby Jackson, and disgruntled Memphis guard Bonzi Wells — who had his $8 million option for next season picked up by the Grizzlies on Friday — goes to Sacramento.
The deal still must be approved by the NBA.
It also cannot be made official until after expiration of the league's current moratorium on player transactions, which began July 1. That is expected to be Thursday at the earliest — but it might be pushed beyond then while the NBA and its players union put the final touches on a new collective bargaining agreement that already has been agreed upon.
As a result, Jazz brass was reluctant to discuss the trade. But it was acknowledged.
"There's been an agreement in principle about some things," Jazz basketball operations vice president Kevin O'Connor said Friday night, "but there is no trade 'done' — because nothing has been done in the NBA since June 30."
Only an unforeseen snag would prevent the deal from being consummated, and all of the principles involved have been informed that it is pending.
"He's thankful for his opportunity here," agent Bob Meyers said after speaking to Borchardt, one of his clients.
Snyder, who has been playing the past week on Jazz's Rocky Mountain Revue summer-league team, did not show up to Salt Lake Community College for Utah's Revue-ending game Friday night.
"It's a business: One day you're here, and one you're not," Jazz summer-leaguer Spencer Nelson said when asked about Snyder. "Kirk's a great guy, and I'm sure he'll be successful in Memphis."
The Commercial Appeal of Memphis first reported the trade on its web site Friday, the deadline for the Grizzlies to decide whether or not they would exercise the option on Wells' contract.
With Ostertag, the Jazz fill their need for a shot-altering big man.
What they're getting, however, is an enigma.
Drafted No. 28 overall out of the University of Kansas in 1995, the 7-foot-2 Ostertag alternately teased and impressed throughout most of his nine seasons in Utah.
He was in Jerry Sloan's doghouse after getting sideways with the coach with some degree of frequency, especially later in his career, but also played well enough to be rewarded with a lucrative contract extension, and actually has a solid personal relationship with the Sloan.
When his contract expired last summer, the Jazz did not rule out re-signing the now 32-year-old Ostertag.
But they also were not about to get into the bidding war with the Kings, who signed him to a two-year contract that paid $4 million this past season and pays $4.4 million in the coming season.
Ostertag, who plays with just one kidney after donating the other to his ill sister via transplant surgery, broke his hand in a household fall before his season in Sacramento even began. Afterward, during the 56 games he did play for the Kings, he never was able to win the confidence of coach Rick Adelman.
Throughout the past season, though, the Jazz regularly bemoaned Ostertag's absent defensive presence — and on Friday they evidently decided that reacquiring it is worth enduring whatever other pitfalls he may present.
Getting him, though, meant dealing away three high picks — one of whom wasn't going to in Utah next season anyway, and two whom the Jazz gave up on in short order.
Taken No. 24 overall in 2001, injury-plagued Lopez has been limited to less than two full NBA seasons due to recent surgery on one knee and two reconstructive surgeries on the other.
The Jazz were planning to let him out of his contract so he can return to play in his native Spain. As a contingency of the trade, Memphis will do the same.
Borchardt was taken No. 18 overall in 2002 by Orlando for Utah, and also has dealt with injuries throughout his career. The Stanford product has pins in his surgically repaired foot, has broken a finger and has broken a wrist. His career includes 67 games this past season, and just 16 in 2003-04.
Snyder was taken No. 16 overall in 2004, and played in 68 games last season. But he got into hot water twice, once for taunting Houston's coaching staff after a particularly impressive play and later for defending himself during a loading-dock fight in Dallas with Jerry Stackhouse of the Mavericks.
Already on a short leash, the Nevada-Reno product played poorly in the summer league. But the Jazz may have been looking to deal him even before the Revue started: Snyder's name came up in pre-draft rumors last month, though O'Connor later refuted the trade talk.
The Jazz now have just two of their seven first-round selections since 2000 remaining on their current roster — with four of the departed five having played just two seasons or fewer before exiting Utah.
DeShawn Stevenson, the Jazz's top pick in 2000, was traded to Orlando toward the end of his fourth season here, and 2003 first-round selection Sasha Pavlovic was left exposed in the 2004 NBA Expansion Draft after just one season with the Jazz.
Forward Kris Humphries, the No. 14 overall pick in 2004, and this year's No. 3 overall selection, point guard Deron Williams, are the only two first-rounders drafted by O'Connor who remain with the Jazz.
Meanwhile, agent Meyers said another of his clients, Minnesota free agent forward Mark Madsen, had not received a contract offer from the Jazz as of Friday night — but added that he did not believe the trade would negatively impact Utah's pursuit of Madsen.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com