As we get closer to the end of the NBA season and the start of summer transactions, chatter about what moves different teams might make is heating up.
On Tuesday morning, that included reporting from Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer surrounding Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert.
Fischer reported that Toronto Raptors wing OG Anunoby “grew dissatisfied at times with his role in Toronto” last season and that Utah or Portland could be potential landing spots for him if he ends up getting traded.
Toronto has been a popular destination in speculation surrounding a place Gobert could get traded to, so could that be a match, particularly given the Jazz’s need for wings?
“The Jazz are weighing trade possibilities with three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, who NBA sources have pegged as one of Toronto’s targets to satisfy its appetite for a starting rim-protector,” Fischer wrote.
That said, Fischer also reported that there’s “debate” within the Utah organization about the idea of trading Gobert.
To boot, as Fischer observed, Toronto may have a hard time putting together a package for Gobert that would work financially, as the Raptors would have to include Gary Trent Jr. in a deal involving Anunoby or send Pascal Siakam instead of Anunoby and Trent Jr.
Fischer wrote that an Anunoby-Trent Jr. deal “might be too rich for Toronto brass and would leave the Raptors with little proven shooting,” and also that “early word from league personnel has also suggested the Raptors value Siakam more than Gobert.”
Elsewhere as it relates to the Jazz, Fischer wrote that the New York Knicks’ chances of trading for Donovan Mitchell remain “highly unlikely,” in part because other teams could probably put together better deals as far as Utah is concerned.
Fischer specifically gave the example of a theoretical Miami Heat trade that could involve Tyler Herro, “other salary and multiple first-round picks.”