7:54pm: The three-team trade is now official, the Jazz, Blazers and Spurs announced.
2:24pm: The Jazz are sending Memphis’ 2022 second-round pick to Portland in the trade and will send a 2027 second-rounder to San Antonio, reports Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
Utah has already traded away its own 2027 second-rounder, so the pick going to San Antonio will likely be the least favorable of Oklahoma City’s, Houston’s, Indiana’s, and Miami’s ’27 second-rounders. The Jazz previously acquired that pick from the Thunder in the 2021 offseason.
1:13pm: The Jazz, Spurs, and Trail Blazers have reached an agreement on a three-team trade, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
According to Wojnarowski, Utah will acquire Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Portland and Juan Hernangomez from San Antonio. The Spurs will receive Tomas Satoransky and a second-round pick, while the Blazers will get Joe Ingles, Elijah Hughes, and a second-round pick. Both second-rounders will be coming from the Jazz, Woj adds (via Twitter).
Even before Ingles went down with a season-ending ACL tear, the Jazz had been exploring the market to see if they could find an upgrade on the wing using his expiring contract and a draft pick. Following the injury, Ingles’ value dipped, and Utah apparently decided none of the options available for the forward’s expiring deal and a first-round pick were worth moving forward on.
Instead, the Jazz will make a move that sees them sacrifice a pair of future second-round selections – rather than a first-rounder – for two healthy players, while reducing their projected tax bill in the process. Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link) estimates $11MM in tax savings. Utah should also create a new trade exception worth nearly $10MM by taking Hernangomez into an existing TPE.
Alexander-Walker, a third-year guard, had a promising sophomore season in 2020/21, but has struggled to score efficiently this season, averaging 12.8 PPG on .375/.311/.722 shooting in 50 games (26.3 MPG). He has spent most of the season in New Orleans, having been sent to Portland on Monday in the CJ McCollum trade. The 23-year-old has a $3.3MM salary this season and will make $5MM next season before becoming eligible for restricted free agency.
Hernangomez has had some success in the past as a stretch four, but has played poorly in limited minutes this season, putting up 1.1 PPG and 1.7 RPG on 21.2% shooting in 23 games (6.4 MPG). He was traded from Boston to San Antonio in last month’s three-team Bryn Forbes deal. Hernangomez is essentially on an expiring contract, since his $7.4MM salary for next season is non-guaranteed.
From San Antonio’s perspective, the deal is about picking up an extra draft asset. Neither Hernangomez nor Satoransky is in the team’s long-term plans, so the Spurs were rewarded for their willingness to add to this season’s payroll by taking on a slightly bigger contract (Satoransky has a $10MM expiring salary).
The Blazers, meanwhile, continue to wheel and deal, agreeing to their third trade in the last week. It appears they weren’t particularly high on Alexander-Walker, choosing to flip him right away in a deal that clears another $5MM off their books for 2022/23 and nets them another second-round pick.
Both Ingles and Hughes will be free agents this offseason. Ingles spoke last week about remaining in Utah to rehab his knee injury even if he were traded and said he’d be interested in eventually re-signing with the Jazz (Twitter links via Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune).
[RELATED: Joe Ingles Has “No Doubt” He’ll Come Back From ACL Tear]
Despite the fact that Satoransky, Alexander-Walker, and Hernangomez were recently traded, the NBA’s rules don’t prevent them from being moved again right away, since they’re not being aggregated with a second player for salary-matching purposes in this deal.
From Portland’s perspective, Satoransky’s salary is being used to match Ingles’ $13MM cap charge, with Alexander-Walker’s salary not required for matching purposes (the Blazers will create a trade exception worth his $3.3MM cap hit), since Hughes can be acquired using a minimum salary exception. San Antonio is trading Hernangomez on his own for Satoransky.
Danny Ainge is this good!
Walker has 2 more years 1st round rookie contract
Hughes has little value
My grade
Jazz B
Spurs C
Blazers D
Not really Sillivan,
Portland was looking for cap flexibility, and a 2nd is about all the Spurs we’re going to get for Juan.
Getting a 2nd for Juancho is a miracle in itself.
Danny Ainge is the cheapest
Leon Rose is the 2nd cheapest.
I would do Joe Ingles and 2 second round picks for Covington, the strongest wing defender.
2026 First to upgrade a player better than Covington if needed.
Covington isn’t even on any team involved in this trade
Yesterday you said he was a horrible GM. So, which is it?…Also, he is not the GM.
Nickeil seemed like a good player why is Portland flipping him the next day? Is it just for salary clearing purposes ?
Yes
From what I view,
Walker has more upside than Horton Tucker.
Walker 2- year $8 million contract
Nah, he’s not long for the league. Doesn’t have an NBA skill except maybe for dunking. You’re right he was tantalizing at first, but he can’t shoot, isn’t much of a defender, and isn’t big enough to get minutes on a good team without a scoring tool. Negative win shares this year.
Horton tucker us garbage
Another expiring contract ….. Blazers are redoing team around Dame. Or they will go full rebuild. I only those two things.
Both options fine with me tbh. Blazers finally doing something!
Why would the Jazz want a stiff like Juan? Ingles could warm the bench all the same. I mean I guess it was the cost of doing business. Maybe they can flip him again for something of value like a coupon book.
He’s scored more points this year than Ben Simmons
So has Joe Johnson. Doesn’t detract from the fact that this Juan doesn’t make it the right move.
Dude adds nothing to the Jazz’s playoff push. But like I said, I think it was just for making the money work. Hopefully the Jazz can use his salary for a player of value… like Theis would be a good move, Craig, Bryant, Harrell, Favors.
I’d take Craig. While I like Favors his best days are behind him. Theis would be interesting but Whiteside and Azubuike have been fine as backups to Gobert and Gay has been good as a small ball 5. Bryant is meh and I’d pass on Harrell.
Portland wanting to get cap space makes it worse. Ingles is good…but he was unathletic before and just tore his ACL. Portland is a small market team…cap space is a recipe for disappointment. This is embarrassing for Portland. They are making dumb move on on top of dumb move. This is a disaster for Portland.
Ingles isn’t going to play for them as he’s an expiring contract. This trade was about getting a draft pick and $5mil in cap space for 2 guys that weren’t part of their plans.
I feel like the Blazers could have done better for Nickiel. And they didn’t get enough for CJ. I get clearing salary but they need to be getting more for these pieces.
Have you seen NAW play this season?? He’s been AWFULLL
What are you expecting for him? They got a draft pick and $5mil in cap space.
Exactly, I’m surprised they did that well…
NAW still has potential, plus he was part of the CJ haul. So basically trading NAW for a second rounder just makes the CJ haul much less impressive
Draft picks are assets, even 2nd rounders. So now they’ve basically gotten a lottery pick along with 3 2nd round picks, and even more cap relief from CJ trade. I doubt they really were looking at NAW as anything more than something they could flip when he was included.
UTAH 2nd pick mat turn to a no value bottom 5 pick
Analyst said league executives looked at CJ as a negative asset. So they were lucky to get anything for him.
They’ve gotten a first round pick as well for CJ
I view this as Jazz looking to get some younger legs for Ingles without giving up the one 1st they can trade.
Costs savings is minor and for this season only. They’ve added about 11 mm plus to next year’s payroll, which is most likely still in the tax territory. Translation is they must like these players, at least some.
Juancho contract is non-guaranteed next season and NAW will be extension eligible
JH, yes, didn’t know that. But NAW’s extension would be for 2023-24. His option’s been exercised for 2022-23.
All things considered, for CJ and Nance the Blazers got Hart, one first rounder and three second rounders. Don’t you think he’s worth more than that?
He isn’t. If he were paid 20 mil a year or next year was the last on his deal maybe. But dude is making 35 million in two years from now and has never been an All star or all nba player
B*TTHOLE TRADE GRADES:
Utah
Grade: B
Summary: A pair of seconds for NAW isn’t terrible – and maybe they get lucky and he turns his season around. Probably won’t help their perimeter D, but NAW is a serviceable NBA player with some upside.
Spurs
Grade: C+
Summary: Sure, whatever. Another second round pick. Cool.
Portland
Grade: F+
Summary: Is Portland going to be signing a mega star free agent this summer? Whom may that be, I wonder? The FO here seems curiously intent on dumping serviceable to really good players (Powell, Nance, CJ, Covington) for limited draft assets and cap room that they probably won’t be able to use.
Cronin knows that Portland has to overpay to land any R/FA … But clearly the Powell/Rocco trade was a big L
If you are building around Dame then it better be a quick rebuild. He is 31 and coming off surgery. This has a short countdown clock (probably next season) before they end up dealing Dame for much less then they could get now.
For those keeping track, Spurs turned Bryn Forbes’ 1 year 5M deal into 2 SRPs and 3M in cash.
Good housekeeping, and not bad for an undrafted 4 year player they developed out the G League a few years back.
NA-W will do well in Utah, they put in position to suceed, if you want to that is.