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The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 NBA trade deadline.
During the Danny Ainge (and now Austin Ainge) era, the Utah Jazz have had an issue with being bad to prioritize their draft positioning, aka tanking. While they hold a protected first-round pick of their own in 2026, the Jazz are making a big swing to improve this roster.
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Utah has agreed to trade four players, including rookie guard Walter Clayton Jr., plus three first-round picks, to the Memphis Grizzlies for Jaren Jackson Jr. and three role players.
This is a big-time deal for the Jazz to risk their top-eight protected first-round pick in June’s draft, but it also shows just how serious they are about moving forward and no longer being bad.
What does JJJ to the Jazz mean for Utah and Memphis? Are the Grizzlies more likely to send Ja Morant out before Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline? Let’s break out the red ink and grade this trade.
Jazz receive Jaren Jackson Jr., John Konchar, Jock Londale and Vince Williams Jr.
I love this trade for the Jazz. Let’s get the annoying draft stuff out of the way before we get to the basketball portion.
Utah’s pick in this highly coveted 2026 draft is top-eight protected. If it falls out of the top eight on draft lottery night, then it goes to the Oklahoma City Thunder, because of course it does. The Jazz are 15-35, which puts them at the sixth pick if zero lottery-ball tomfoolery happens. The next potential teams to “leap them” in lottery positioning would be the Milwaukee Bucks, Dallas Mavericks and Memphis Grizzlies. The Bucks and Mavs are both 4 1/2 games away from the Jazz in the reverse standings and the Grizzlies are five. But as we’ve seen with the lottery in recent years, a lot of teams are bucking the odds (pun marginally intended) and leaping over the worst records in the league.
The Jazz don’t seem worried about this. The Ainges openly hate losing just to lose. They’d rather benefit from someone else’s misfortune after acquiring their draft picks, while putting a good, competitive product on the floor. Acquiring the 26-year-old Jackson gives this team a lot of options with its roster construction moving forward. You can play Jackson and Lauri Markkanen together in the frontcourt. And do you remember Walker Kessler? He was Utah’s starting center before a shoulder injury ended his season after five games. He’ll be a restricted free agent this summer, but the team has maintained confidence in retaining him. This gets pretty interesting with his RFA status.
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We could see the Jazz bring him back on a good deal for both sides. Then it wouldn’t be completely ridiculous to go with a massive frontline at times with Jackson, Kessler and Markkanen together. That’s a lot of size and paint protection. Throw in Ace Bailey as a 6-foot-9 shooting guard, and you can see some massive basketball in Salt Lake City. This trade also allows the Jazz to go the other way and not have the pressure of bringing back Kessler if his price tag/offer sheet becomes too big for their plans.
Regardless of where that goes, the core moving forward for Utah will at least be Jackson, Bailey, Markkanen and the newly improved Keyonte George at point guard. Markkanen and Jackson are both signed for three more seasons after this one at significant money. George is on his rookie deal for one more season. Bailey still has three more seasons on his rookie deal. There is some flexibility for the Jazz, and they still have pick control of their own selections after this year, in addition to a Cleveland pick swap in 2028 and Minnesota’s top-five protected pick in 2029. If they want to be more aggressive, they can.
Williams is a really good wing option whom the Grizzlies have been developing. He needs to work on his shooting, but he does a lot of other things pretty well. For a team such as Utah that has been so good at player development, he’s a good project to have.
Mostly, the Jazz have been the worst defensive team in basketball for three straight seasons. It looks like they’re done with being historically bad on that end of the floor.
Grade: A
Grizzlies receive Walter Clayton Jr., Taylor Hendricks, Georges Niang, Kyle Anderson and three first-round picks
The Grizzlies are officially starting over. We got a little hint of that in the summer when they moved Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic for four first-round picks and a pick swap. We knew more of their plans earlier this season when it was known they were happy to take calls about trading away Ja Morant, although those conversations have not materialized the way they hoped.
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Now they’re acquiring some young role players, a couple of veterans and three more first-round picks for Jackson. This signals a complete teardown and rebuild. The picks in this deal are the most favorable of Utah’s, Minnesota’s and Cleveland’s pick in 2027, the Lakers’ 2027 pick (top-four protected) and Phoenix’s 2031 first.
These are the picks Memphis owns over the next seven years.
- 2026: Their own first and Orlando’s first (complicated pick swap scenario, though).
- 2027: Their own first, most favorable of Cleveland/Minnesota/Utah and Lakers top-four protected pick.
- 2028: Their own first.
- 2029: Pick swap with Orlando.
- 2030: Their own first and Orlando’s first. Also a swap with Phoenix.
- 2031: Their own first and Phoenix’s first.
- 2032: Their own first.
That’s a lot of draft capital! What does this mean for Morant’s trade future? Do the Grizzlies feel less compelled to bring back a first-round pick if they send out their star point guard? Or does the PR aspect of it still require them to show they’re getting even more draft capital into the treasure chest because of Morant’s continued star power? Morant is still a fan favorite and a really good player when healthy. His lack of availability, though, has definitely tempered any interest in the trade market with potentially bigger whales to go get. Also, not a lot of teams need point guards. The market isn’t massive.
As for the players the Grizzlies are acquiring, Clayton is a nice guard to throw into the mix. He can score, fitting it nicely with the Ty Jerome and Scotty Pippen Jr., guards they already have on the roster. Hendricks has not panned out in Utah, mostly due to a horrific leg injury early last season, but he has good potential as a defensive forward. Niang and Anderson could be veterans to flip. Niang is an expiring contract, and Anderson is not fully guaranteed for next season. Both would be good players to acquire before Thursday in smaller deals, but Memphis doesn’t really need to do much else with them if it doesn’t want to.
Grade: B+