alt=Joe ColesThere’s a shakeup going on in Utah.
The Jazz traded center Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Walker Kessler, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmaro, unprotected first-round picks in 2023, 2025 and 2027, a pick swap in 2026 and a top-five protected pick in 2029.
Gobert had been with the Jazz since 2013, winning three Defensive Player of the Year awards and making the All-Star Game three times. Gobert leaves a legacy as one of, if not the best, defender in Jazz history.
National NBA analysts graded the deal from the Jazz’s perspective. Here’s what they think about the trade.
“The Jazz had one of the bigger pick deficits in the NBA as recently as Wednesday. They were out two picks due to win-now trades made by Dennis Lindsey, but they’d also traded young players like Grayson Allen and Trey Lyles soon after picking them. Some of those trades were absolutely warranted, but the totality of the strategy made Utah one of the NBA’s oldest teams. Yet in the past 24 hours or so, they’ve managed to add a total of six first-round picks: an unprotected Philadelphia pick from a fairly combustible 76ers team in the Royce O’Neale trade with Brooklyn, four first-rounders from the Timberwolves here, a swap in 2026 and Walker Kessler, who just went No. 22 overall in the 2022 NBA Draft. That’s one of the bigger asset turnarounds in recent league history.” — Sam Quinn
“A year ago, I was dismissive of the idea of trading Gobert as an overreaction to Utah’s playoff disappointment. A season later, I think the time was probably right. A first-round playoff exit with Luka Doncic missing the first half of the series was much more difficult to justify, especially with so many teams now capable of using the five-out formula the Clippers developed in 2021 to drag Gobert away from the basket.
It was also worth asking how long Gobert would retain this kind of trade value. He turned 30 last week and has one of the NBA’s largest contracts. The Jazz were surely right to maintain a high price for a Gobert trade, enabling them to avoid seeming desperate yet still take advantage if someone was willing to meet that threshold.” — Kevin Pelton
“Though I’d made an argument for keeping them together, Gobert and Donovan Mitchell had clearly reached their limit as a star tandem. And after some playoff runs that called into question both players’ utility in high-leverage moments, change was inevitable in Utah. The Jazz acquiring such a draft haul for Gobert is a great place to start. This move gives Utah significantly more salary flexibility, a chance to build around Mitchell with picks and vets to move, or the ammunition to begin a more significant teardown.” — Rohan Nadkarni
“This thing has been falling apart for a few years, and Quin Snyder skedaddling for uncertainty was a sign that Danny Ainge and company were ready to break this up. Gobert and Donovan Mitchell didn’t get along, and ownership (for now) chooses Mitchell as the marketable star of the team over Gobert. There are plenty of reasons to justify that, but we’ll save that for another time. As the Jazz tear down a pretty successful but non-contending era of this franchise’s basketball, they now arm themselves with a lot of assets.
The reason the grade isn’t higher right now is we have no idea what is next for Mitchell and this Jazz team. Is Ainge going to send him out too and try to bring in as many rebuilding assets as possible? How much will this team be gutted, and what will that mean for them? The Jazz will say and leak all the right things about retooling the roster around Mitchell, but that’s what you’re supposed to say.” — Zach Harper