[morestealsthanscoresParticipant]

 Ok – proposing trades here is a death by negs, so this is more wish fulfilment than anything…I’ll offer my standard disclaimer on these things – DON’T JUST NEG IT, COUNTEROFFER! Try to balance the trade if you think it’s unbalanced – it’s way more interesting that way. Besides – I totally understand this won’t happen…!

So, lengthy disclaimer aside…my Jazz. I’ve been a Jazz fan since the Stockton and Malone days so I’ve seen some good, bad and terrible teams. This one fits into the ‘good’ category, but I have one major nagging doubt: can you win a ring with Gobert as your centre – especially on $22m a year? Watching him get spun in circles by Steph Curry in the 2017 playoffs made me just think – the trouble with putting that much money into a centre is that any pure centre can be forced off the floor by matchups – whereas a star small forward never can.

On the other hand – I was looking through the draft, trying to decide who the very best fit for my team would be, and it’s obvious: Luka Doncic. Think about it. We’ve got a super-quick (but slightly undersized) 2-guard that we’re building around over the next few years – and although he can create a shot, he’s definately a 2-guard, not a PG. We’ve got a load of defensively minded veterans that can’t create a shot to save their lives. And we’ve got a great team point guard who still can’t shoot well enough to take you to the finals. Trouble is, we’re really top heavy – we have no assets apart from Mitchell and Gobert…and I’m not moving Mitchell. It’s tough to sell high. It’s tough to make trades from a winning team. But as the Celtics have proved, this level of bold reinvention is what takes a team from good to great.

Enough preamble. Here it is:

Utah gives: Rudy Gobert

Sacramento gives: #2, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Willy Cauley-Stein and Zach Randolph.

Why for the Kings? Well, they’re one of the only teams that has a high draft pick this year that would be impatient enough to trade for a superstar – especially one locked down for 3 years. They get the current best player in the trade. Gobert is the sort of player that triggers a culture change – expect their defense to improve. But dig deeper – and they also shed some very unhealthy contracts – Randolph makes $12m a year for the next 2 seasons, and Bogdanovic will make $9m – better, but still high. All of a sudden, Gobert, Fox and Hield become a very interesting core.

Why for the Jazz? The prospect of a Doncic-Mitchell backcourt is exciting – two guys that can play both on and off the ball. Mitchell can cover most PGs on D, allowing us to hide Doncic on a wing. We can afford to take on those contracts as we don’t need the cash until we need to pay Mitchell. Bogdanovic becomes a nice sixth man scorer with room to develop in a great system.Cauley-Stein (Sac may say that’s too much and may want to give up Labissiere instead) becomes a short-term Gobert stop-gap, but ideally I’d draft someone like Spellman with #21 to give us a more modern option at centre. In fact, I think I’d make this trade if WCS wasn’t even included!

So – how do you make that one balance then?

 

[FrankTheTankkkParticipant]

Kings are never going to trade the #2 pick for Gobert. 

Jazz would have to trade Mitchell for the Kings #2, but we know that will never happen.

 

 

[morestealsthanscoresParticipant]

 You wouldn’t trade #2 for Gobert straight up?!? Wow, that’s cold. I know I’m hard on him but the guy is a straight-up gamechanger. As good as Doncic or Ayton could be, they’re still in hypothetical land – and the Kings are diabolical at developing players!

[The GoatParticipant]

 People overvalue draft picks on this site like crazy, dont worry about it.. its a draft site

Theres no way Utah would trade Gobert for #2. The Kings wouldnt need to, theyd just draft Bamba and they will potentially get a similar player on a rookie deal. Good idea though, Sacto need to be sure they get a star, 

 

 

[FrankTheTankkkParticipant]

 I would agree that he’s a great player, but you even said it yourself – 

"any pure centre can be forced off the floor by matchups – whereas a star small forward never can."

Centers just aren’t as valuable as they once were

 

 

 

[morestealsthanscoresParticipant]

 Very true. It’s funny really – listening to David Locke’s Locked On Network mock draft, it’s weird how most smart fans seem to think down similar lines! Doesn’t mean I don’t think the Kings would do it though!

[r377Participant]

 The Jazz have the 21st pick, maybe they would trade it for WCS ?

[Roland209Participant]

 is the most homer trade I’ve ever seen. Gobert for the #2 pick alone is questionable. 

[Ahkasi ClayParticipant]

 After the #1

Is there a player in this draft that could develop into a better player than Gobert is right now?

 

[bigheavyParticipant]

 Mo Bamba….

[SwatLakeCityParticipant]

Not only would the Kings be mad to trade the #2 pick for Gobert, but the Jazz themselves would be mad to trade Gobert. Gobert and Mitchell are the two centerpieces the Jazz have for their team. Now I agree, the Jazz aren’t ready to beat the Warriors or win a championship for that matter… right now, but they will be in 3 or 4 years down the road. Yes, it will take that long, so as a Jazz fan you are going to have to have that patience and see this through. Hey, Philly fans were able to have patience for 5 long grueling years just to build their program from the ground up to the point where they can actually play well in the playoffs and not look like the laughing stock of the entire conference. The Jazz aren’t even close to where Philly was at in 2013, so I think me asking Jazz fans or heck even Dennis Lindsey asking Jazz fans to wait 3-4 years before we are ready to face the Warriors and win a championship is something all Jazz fans can do, and it is not beneath us to wait that long. We would all be happy to do so.

Trust me I’d love to have Luka as well, but its not going to happen. I’m not even going to propose a possible trade because its not worth going to the trouble. You are asking the Jazz to trade the future defensive player of the year??? Are you mad, you must be insane. You don’t do that, I don’t care how bad you think the rest of the Jazz are or how bad you want Luka, you don’t trade the future defensive player of the year for a draft pick you are not even sure will do well. Now I know all of us love Luka and think he is a godsend. But you know what, I do to, yet I’m not ready to trade Gobert for Luka.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready. Think of it like this, this time last year we all thought Ben Simmons or Lonzo Ball or Markelle Fultz would be in the running for ROY, now we are talking about only 2 candidate for ROY, and one of them wasn’t even considered as a potential ROY candidate at this time last year. Its just Ben Simmons and Donovan Mitchell. Fultz is a laughing stock to even be thought of as rookie of the year, and lets face it there’s no way Lonzo is getting it. Both Lonzo and Fultz are laughing stocks to be considered for rookie of the year. The two that are being considered, one wasn’t even a draft pick in 2017, he was drafted in 2016 (Simmons) and the other was the 13th pick of the 2017 draft, not the 1st, 2nd or even 3rd pick of the draft but the 13th. (Mitchell) So you think Luka is a godsend, and that we should trade the future defensive player of the year for him? Well after what we just witnessed this year for the ROY race, nothing is set in stone, and therefore even thinking about trading the future DPOY for essentially an unknown is grounds for checking yourself into a mental hospital.

And also (this is besides the point) but Mitchell proved enough this year that he can be the next point guard for the Jazz. No, he’s not there yet, but he can get there in 2 or 3 years. He’s continuing to work at it, and I bet next year we will see the Jazz run a lot of lineups with Mitchell at point, Rubio at point, and both in there at the same time. Heck, we’ve already started to see that same thing this past season. Next year, the Jazz will be doing that same thing but much more often and probably throughout the course of the entire season. And this time next year, we will all be saying to ourselves we were crazy to even think Mitchell could only be a small 2 guard. I’m saying he can play both spots equally well. And I know I’m going to get negged for saying that, but I’ve seen hints of this already happening ever since the Jazz started their miraculous comeback back in mid January.

 

[jtthebrickParticipant]

The Jazz just finished rebuilding and are trying to win now, the Kings will be rebuilding for a few more years.  It wouldn’t make sense for either team.

Gobert is worth more than the #2 pick in and of itself.  Yes, people on this thread are overvaluing the pick.  You just rarely see those sorts trades because good teams aren’t drafting high.

I mean look at this list of #2s.  I count just 6 of the last 33 that were clearly better than Gobert, and maybe 5 more that are debatable.

http://www.mynbadraft.com/nba-draft-picks/2nd-overall/20509/

[morestealsthanscoresParticipant]

 Exactly. The Kings would trade Gobert for #2 in a heartbeat.

[timinator1Participant]

Gobert is a complimentary piece, a defensive game changer. You can get that in the draft with the #2, or possibly something much better. You have the chance at #2 to get the best player on your team next year, and Gobert will never/should never be the best player on your team.  

[Captain LParticipant]

 I cna’t believe how many people on this site devalue Gobert so much, he is by far the best Defensive player in the league. People need t watch him more , it is easy to see, he moves so well that he can impact the game from the defensive end of the floor more so than any other player.  Look at the stats, he will surprise how much he effects the game.

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