Why The Jazz Don’t Make More Trades

Posted by James Seaman on February 24, 2009

Another NBA trade deadline came and went last week without the Utah Jazz making a move. While the Jazz have opted to make major deals before (acquiring Jeff Hornacek before the deadline in 1994 and trying to obtain Rony Seikaly in 1998, in addition to non-deadline moves like the Korver trade), this year’s lack of activity serves as par for the course.

So why doesn’t the franchise make more significant moves? I believe the Jazz’s small market status gives them less margin for error and prohibits risky trades and personnel gambles. The New York Knicks serve as a perfect contrast. It seems the Knicks are constantly reinventing themselves and revamping their roster. Who cares that the Knicks haven’t been competitive in years? The franchise would obviously never leave New York. Conversely, imagine a situation where the Jazz made severe personnel miscalculations, failed to field a competitive team for years on end, and suffered significant attendance losses as a result. There’s no guarantee the Jazz would remain successful and profitable in Salt Lake City. The Utah Jazz don’t follow the same reckless practices as a franchise like the Knicks because they can’t afford to. The consequence might be losing the team altogether.

The Dallas Mavericks made a painful mistake last year when they dealt young Devin Harris for aging Jason Kidd. Such an impetuous move undoubtedly jeopardized the Mavs’ immediate future as a potential title contender. Of course, Mark Cuban’s thinking at the time was that Kidd would provide Dallas the immediate boost they needed to put them over the top in the Western Conference. Taking the longer view—five to ten years down the road, let’s day—the Mavericks might still regret the Harris decision, but no amount of losing will cost a huge metropolis like Dallas its NBA franchise. (Before you jump on the Seattle example, consider that conflicts between ownership and the public doomed the Sonics, not years of sustained losing).

Thinking about the Jazz’s conservatism in making personnel moves, the Portland Trail Blazers serve as a cautionary tale. A similarly small market franchise, the Jazz and Blazers paralleled one another with consistent success during the 1980s and 90s. But the Portland community’s loyal support of the Blazers weakened when the team began featuring a cast of less-than-savory characters that also failed to win games. Fortunately for Oregonians (and unfortunately for Utahns), the Blazers seem to have found their way back to the light. But the example reminds Jazz fans what could happen if the franchise began making big personnel mistakes. Simply put, the Jazz can’t afford it.

8 Comments

Boondock Saint on February 24, 2009 said:

Never thought of it that way….thanks for the insight James.

TN jazzfan on February 24, 2009 said:

bring the jazz to nashville!

CCS on February 24, 2009 said:

nah, you guys got the grizzlies lol

TN jazzfan on February 24, 2009 said:

thats west tennessee man i live in middle tennessee lol

mesaak47 on February 24, 2009 said:

screw that
the jazz are perfect in salt lake city

justalars on February 25, 2009 said:

I say we have the state buy the Jazz so they never leave. Like Green Bay in the NFL

Colt on February 25, 2009 said:

Gees I sure hope we beat the T-wolfs tonight!

Derrick Daye on April 02, 2009 said:

From Kevin O’Connor via email…

You can say lack of trades, we like to try to grow from within with homegrown talent. But I think if you look, over the last five years, our roster has totally changed with the exception of Jarron Collins, Andrei (Kirilenko) and Matt (Harpring). (We have) those three guys, but we’ve added 12 other players. I don’t think we look to make a trade cosmetically. I think we look to make a trade to improve ourselves. When we made the trade last year for Kyle Korver, we made it earlier than right around the trade deadline because we were 16-16 at the time and we wanted somebody to play 50 games rather than 30 games. We were anticipating making that deal and had been talking about it for awhile. We feel that there’s a value to having the players know the system and know what we’re trying to do and that’s one of the reasons we haven’t historically made a lot of different moves. If there’s one out there to make, we make it; I think if you look at what Larry H. Miller did five years ago and to change the face of our franchise when we went out and signed Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur for the contracts that we did and gave Andrei his contract, we were being, I think, aggressive. We’re just picking and choosing a little more than other teams.

Unless you’re trading for a guy in the last year, or year and a half of his contract at the trade deadline, your biggest key is to understand what it can do long term for you. We’re a small market team, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to put the best team on the floor.

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