Jazz, Raja Bell End Buyout Negotiations

WEDNESDAY, 8:03am: According to Rudoy, while he confirmed that he's no longer talking to the Jazz about a buyout for Bell, he didn't say the team is now working on trade scenarios involving his client.

"Absolutely not," Rudoy told Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. "I was asked if we are discussing a buyout and I said 'no.' The rest is pure speculation. There is no trade talk that I know about."

TUESDAY, 2:08pm: The Jazz and Raja Bell are no longer discussing the possibility of the team buying out the final year of Bell's contract, agent Herb Rudoy tells Shams Charania of RealGM.com. According to Rudoy, the two sides have moved past buyout negotiations, and are now talking about potential trade scenarios involving his client.

The week before training camps officially got underway, we heard that the Jazz and Bell's camp had agreed that it was "in the best interest of all parties" if Bell didn't report to the team. With the regular season now just a week away, it doesn't appear that the two sides are a whole lot closer to resolving a situation that worsened last season when Bell clashed with coach Tyrone Corbin.

Bell is owed a guaranteed $3.48MM for 2012/13, the last season of his three-year contract. If the veteran guard and his agent had been able to line up an alternate destination for the 36-year-old, I imagine they would have been able to reach an agreement with Utah on a buyout. The end of buyout negotiations suggests to me that teams aren't exactly clamoring to acquire Bell, and that working out a trade will be difficult, but that's just my speculation.

Charania mentions the Lakers and Heat as potentially "viable destinations" for the 12-year veteran.

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