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As the trade deadline nears and the rest of the NBA is talking about the futures of Ja Morant, Giannis Antetekounmpo, Anthony Davis, Jonathan Kuminga and other somewhat maligned or disgruntled players, things are pretty still in Utah.
The serenity of the landscape around Salt Lake City is a pretty apt representation of the mood as the Feb. 5 trade deadline nears.
Sure, anything is possible. There is unpredictable vastness and movement is constant. But there are pockets along the mountains of the NBA where things stand still and change comes at a slower pace.
A number of NBA sources have said that they don’t think the biggest and splashiest NBA trades are going to happen at this year’s trade deadline, instead believing that this offseason will be particularly loud when it comes to player movement.
Likewise, for the Utah Jazz, there are no plans to shake things up midseason. They are still trying to maintain a losing record in order to secure a top-8 pick in the 2026 draft, so they can’t bring aboard the kind of top-tier talent they intend to chase after after this season concludes.
There are definitely smaller moves that the Jazz could make at the deadline, moving some of their more veteran players, but the team is weighing the value they are seeing with the team as constructed.
The Jazz could move on from Jusuf Nurkić, Svi Mykhailiuk and Kevin Love in an effort to gather more future draft capital or young players. Or, they could keep them around as they retool the more youthful side of the roster.
There seems to be a group of four that the Jazz brass feels particularly great about moving forward — Lauri Markkanen, Keyonte George, Ace Bailey, and Walker Kessler, and there is increasing belief that Nurkić and Mykhailiuk could be valuable as supporters to that group of four beyond this season.
Since the Jazz’s younger players — the ones who are not a clear cut part of the future — are more likely to be included in a bigger deal later down the road than they are in a fringe mid-season trade, it means the likelihood of something happening in the next couple of weeks is slim.
So, while this is not the kind of punchy news Jazz fans will be excited to hear, it does mean that this upcoming offseason promises to bring about some real change, not just for the Jazz roster, but for the NBA at large.
New with the Jazz
From the archives
Extra points
- Older and wiser, Kevin Love reflects on his NBA journey (Deseret News)
- At the halfway point of a tanking season, Jazz are still looking for identity (Deseret News)
- How homegrown Utah product, Sam Merrill, beat the odds (Deseret News)
Around the league
- Warriors’ Jimmy Butler suffers season-ending ACL tear
- Winter storm impacting NBA and college sports schedules
- How Buss family infighting drove the $10 billion sale of the Lakers
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