The Jazz get back five players and four future first-round picks in exchange for the All-NBA center.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) blocks a shot by Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaron Jackson Jr. (13) as the Utah Jazz host the Memphis Grizzlies, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, April 5, 2022
| July 1, 2022, 7:49 p.m
| Updated: 20:42
Intrigue was building all Friday that the Utah Jazz were making a big move, that league executives were starting to believe the team might be headed for a breakup and rebuild.
When the move finally came, it wasn’t just a big one. It was seismic.
The Jazz have traded one of their key pieces, All-NBA center and three-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, to the Minnesota Timberwolves, according to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
In return, Utah will receive two-way wing Malik Beasley, defensive-minded guard Patrick Beverley, forwards Jared Vanderbilt and Leandro Bolmaro, rookie center Walker Kessler (picked No. 22 in the 2022 NBA Draft) and four future first-round picks.
Those picks would be unprotected picks from the Wolves in 2023, ’25 and ’27, plus a protected top-five pick in 2029. The Jazz could also choose to trade picks in 2026 if Minnesota ends up with more bad record.
It doesn’t appear to be a full rebuild, however, as Wojnarowski reported that the team plans to “retool the roster around the All-Star [guard] Donovan Mitchell.
Gobert and Mitchell have been Utah’s centerpieces for the past half-decade. However, even though the Jazz have qualified for the NBA playoffs for the past six seasons, the team has never made it past the second round.
The team that blew a 2-0 series lead into the 2021 Western Conference semifinals against a Clippers team without injured superstar Kawhi Leonard and then this year’s first-round ouster by a Dallas Mavericks team that was without All-NBA guard Luka Doncic for three games made Utah’s future uncertain.
Will the team try to trade pieces around Gobert and Mitchell? Or opt for a more drastic change?
The movements of the past month now expose the latter option.
In early June, head coach Quin Snyder decided to step down after eight years at the helm, saying he felt it was time for the team to have a new voice.
Earlier this week, the Jazz agreed to a five-year contract with Celtics assistant Will Hardy, a deal considered unusually long for a first-time coach and having the effect of generating speculation that the team is showing commitment to him with a big change coming.
On Thursday, with the opening of free agency, Utah’s front office sent starting forward Royce O’Neal — a strong 3-point shooter and the team’s best perimeter defender — to the Brooklyn Nets for a 2023 first-round pick.Executive Danny Ainge and general manager Justin Zanick also opted not to retain Juancho Hernangomez and declined to make qualifying offers to Eric Pascal and Trent Forrest.
On Friday morning, ESPN personality and NBA insider Brian Windhorst gave a long and cryptic televised call showing league executives wondering, “Why would the Jazz do this?”
Hours later the answer came.
Gobert, a three-time All-Star, three-time DPOY, one-time All-NBA Second Team honoree and three-time All-NBA Third Team selection, has been with the Jazz since 2013.
He was drafted 27th overall that year by the Denver Nuggets, who traded his draft rights to Utah. The Nuggets’ general manager that year was Tim Connelly, the man who had recently taken a new position as the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations.
For his career, Gobert is averaging 12.4 points, 11.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game on 65.3 percent shooting. However, he has become one of the best players in the league in recent years. In the 2021-22 season, he led the NBA in rebounding (14.7) and FG% (71.3%), while averaging 15.6 points and 2.1 blocks.
Although he became beloved among the team’s fans for almost single-handedly maintaining a perimeter-less defense, his development and improvement over the year, and his boisterous, underdog attitude, his time in Utah was not without controversy.
He and Mitchell sparred in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The NBA entered a months-long hiatus after Gobert became the league’s so-called “patient zero” — the first player to test positive for COVID-19. Mitchell was furious when he became the second to test positive the next day, accusing his teammate of being reckless and careless.
Although the two eventually repaired what The Athletic infamously called an “irredeemable” relationship, the premise of tension between them never fully disappeared.
Indeed, last season, as the Jazz battled injuries, a COVID outbreak that made most of January a lost cause, and a string of blown double-digit leads that all together hung over the team like a dark cloud, there were additional signs of strain .
When Gobert returned from his COVID-related absence, he blasted the team’s defense without him, taking a thinly veiled shot at Mitchell, noting that Phoenix Suns teammate Devin Booker was “making plays” on defense. Less than two months later, Mitchell returned the favor after a loss in Dallas. After Gobert missed the game with a leg injury, the guard pointedly continued to praise “guys who fit in.”
So where does jazz go from here?
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