The Utah Jazz were criticized for trading Collin Sexton for Jusuf Nurkic last offseason. Bringing up why is flogging a dead horse, as fans are very aware of why that was the case. However, Nurkic has been so solid for the Jazz that they could actually get something for him if they put him on the market.
NBA insider Jake Fischer revealed that Nurkic’s performance was good enough to still have a trade market.
“Jusuf Nurkić, meanwhile, has performed well enough in Utah that he is also expected to draw interest from rival teams if he plays out his own expiring $19.3 million deal,” Fischer wrote.
It turned out that the Jazz needed Nurkic more than anyone thought, as Walker Kessler’s season-ending injury forced him into a starting role. Nurkic is past his prime, isn’t much of a mobile center and is defensively negative at this stage of his career. Still, he hasn’t been that bad for the Jazz.
7.5 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 24.7 minutes per game are not bad for a starting center. Additionally, with Nurkic now out of contract, he would offer a team some cap flexibility next offseason.
There’s no way Nurkic could get them a steal, but if you read between the lines of what Fischer is saying here, he’d give the Jazz more value than they would from Sexton.
No matter who is better, Nurkic has more value than Sexton
Sexton was a good soldier in Utah and improved as an all-around player, but the fact that he only got the Jazz Nurkic, who was previously a disaster in Phoenix a year ago, showed that the league simply doesn’t value players like him that much. Guards who score first and can be exploited defensively are not considered effective players. If they had, Utah would have gotten more for him than Nurkic.
Even if Nurkic isn’t in his prime, he is (strictly speaking) a quality rotation major that playoff teams love to have. He is also a fairly unique player who can operate in the high post and score low, although he is not as good at scoring low these days as he used to be.
But as playoff teams start to figure out what they really need, Nurkic’s proof that he still has something left in the tank could be enough for someone who desperately needs a big to be just desperate enough to give him something of value. There’s no telling if that would have been the case with Sexton, but remember that Utah couldn’t find any suitors for him until Charlotte came calling when his contract expired.
For all his flaws, teams want players like Nurkic over Sexton because they have proven to be more effective and not as easily replaceable. If Utah gets more out of Nurkic than Sexton, then it shows that maybe that trade wasn’t so bad after all and the Jazz made the most of a situation that wasn’t really winnable anyway.
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