Big Game Hunting: Could Utah Jazz trade for Kawhi Leonard

Big Game Hunting: Could Utah Jazz trade for Kawhi Leonard

you want big game hunting I got big game hunting for the Utah Jazz next un locked on Jazz you are locked on Jazz your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day how are you I’m David lock radio voice of the Utah Jazz Jazz NBA Insider this is locked on Jazz today we’re going big game hunting do you trade for Kawai Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers it’s not unreasonable all explain does Brandon Ingram or CJ McCullum answer the Bell as big game hunting low Markin does hold some of the cards here and sneaky money deals have become a large part of this free agency and may be important to the Utah Jazz as well that’s all coming up on today’s edition of locked on Jazz as I mentioned I’m David lock radio voice of the Utah Jazz Jazz MBA Insider and this is locked on Jazz it’s your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz giving you Insight expertise geeky numbers and hopefully making it way better to be a jazz fan each and every day thank you so much for making locked on Jazz your first listen of the day we are free and available on all podcasting apps as as well as on YouTube please subscribe thumbs ups are appreciated if you think the Jazz should trade for kawh Leonard give it a thumbs up I’ll give you the explanation here in a second of how they would do that tell me also what you think of brand mingram or CJ McCullum in the comment zones on YouTube or hit me on X at delock 09 thank you very much for tuning in and for all of the every dayers out there you are the best we greatly appreciate you and all you do for the program and locked on podcast Network all right let’s make sure we understand something this is not insane but I want to know if the Jazz should trade for kaai Leonard thumbs up on YouTube if you think the Jazz should trade for Kawhi Leonard why would the Clippers possibly do it because I don’t know what the Clippers are doing the Clippers explanation or the explanation that they’ve given and others have given on Paul George signing to Los Angeles is that they are avoiding the second APR that’s the this new salary cap second apron we’ve talked about it all the impact of the apron um the second apron won’t allow a team to trade their first round pick seven years so if you’re a second apron by The Season’s end you automatically have your 30 32 pick Frozen and if a team remains in the second apron for two of four season its first round pick isn’t just Frozen it’s moving to the end of the first round seven years down the road and you can’t do anything with trades and moves and okay the second apron just big deal doesn’t make sense they offered Paul George a three-year contract that would have put them in the second apron if they weren’t trying to avoid the second if they were trying to avoid the second apron they wouldn’t have signed James Harden to a 2-year 70 million dollar deal and they wouldn’t have offered Paul George three years the only thing that might make sense here is that they promised Kawhi Leonard that he’d be the highest paid player on the team with the best contract and therefore they couldn’t give Paul George more and Paul George thought that was stupid because frankly if I could sign Paul George Kawhi Leonard or James Garden I think I might sign Paul George and Paul George’s agent might have thought the same thing so first thing on the Clippers either one of two things took place one is they just decide this isn’t worth it this was just a a disaster and it hasn’t worked and we’re moving on or two they made a promise to Ka Leonard of some sort and they got boxed and now they got screwed either of those two right now if you rank the West there’s four teams that are better than everyone else Oklahoma City Minnesota no order Dallas and Denver four teams are better and then you got Memphis we’ll see where they fit we got Phoenix we’ll see where they fit but they’re right in there and as long as the Lakers have LeBron and Anthony Davis they’re pretty darn good right so then you have the Pelicans who just trade for Deonte Murray I’m not entirely sure but but they’re right in there Sacramento’s still in there Houston’s coming the Clippers at best right now at best at best are the sixth best team maybe seventh best team in the Western Conference and the minute James Harden misses 20 games or Kawhi Leonard misses 20 games they’re eighth ninth 10th or 11th what are they doing and they have no trade assets the craziest thing is that the LA Clippers traded with the Philadelphia 76ers she traded James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers or from the Clippers from Philadelphia so that the 76ers could open up cap space to sign Paul George and Philadelphia got their their draft picks right so the Clippers between the Shay gilis Alexander deal and the James Harden deal their 2025 pick is a pick swap to Oklahoma City their 2026 pick is going to Oklahoma City their 2027 pick is their own it’s the least favorable of Denver and Oklahoma City their 2029 goes to Phoenix their 2029 is a pick swap that Philadelphia has the right and their 2030 is theirs like they have almost no trade draft assets they’re not good enough to win a title right now they probably need to start clearing space to go acquire Donovan Mitchell or whoever their next star is going to be and if you take a second and look at their salaries now their multi-year salary structure the only salary they have in the book for the 26 27 season is Kawhi Leonard’s 50 million in 2025 26 they have kaai 50 James hardens 36 Norman Powells 20 newly signed Derrick Jones is 10 Derrik Jones will be on the books for 26 27 and that’s it there is an argument that the right move for the LA Clippers now signing James Harden probably wasn’t it is to trade kawhai Leonard before it’s too late and reacquire draft assets that’s big game hunting right kawhai Leonard is big game hunting and what do you need to build a championship team if you do T Jazz are we ready for a championship team probably not but if you’re building a top championship team you need a top 10 a top 20 and a top 50 player in the NBA well why Leonard’s about 10 to 15 right now and when he’s playing he’s top 10 and Lowry marinin is about 25 to 30 right now and we don’t have a top 50 but if Danny angers comments that you want to go big game hunting and you have Lowry Mark and so if you go get the big game you’re close well that’s getting close if you believe kawhi’s got something left if you believe Kawhi Leonard can play enough games and be healthy in the playoffs and be managed to be healthy in the playoffs and remember would Kawhi Leonard come to Utah will hardy was in San Antonio with Kawhi Leonard working with him as a young assistant when he first came to San Antonio Kawhi Leonard played 68 games this year he averaged 24 points six rebounds four assists a game he’s 32 but he’s still Kawhi Leonard the Jazz would suddenly have whatever variation of trade pieces you have to trade but let’s say they finish the process with keante George kawhai Leonard Lowry marinin maybe you have to move Taylor depending on many picks and you are now building out of that it’s pretty interesting I think you probably have to be willing to give up a a Taylor Hendricks or one of our young guys and a bunch of our picks so let’s dig into that next if we’re going big game hunting what would actually be a deal that get you kawh lender to the Utah Jazz for three years on 150 million doll contract $50 million a year Could you actually do it could the jack as actually go get kawh Leonard in some big game hunting we look at it next as we continue on today’s edition of locked on Jazz Wednesday edition of lock on jazz is brought to you by my friends over at intercap lending we’ve been telling you for a while about intercap and we really been telling you for a long time about intercap because Steve Carter is just this incredibly awesome great guy who’s our own personal loan officer well they have a new product at intercap and 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for a second if the Jazz want Kawhi Leonard the Clippers are going to want a ton I’m gonna guess for kawhai Leonard a top 14 player in the NBA you’re giving up probably three to four first round picks as well as one of our young players maybe two there are rumors that the Clippers are trying to trade zubac as well so you try to start putting this deal together and here was an initial try I had that fails and I can’t quite figure out what to do to fix it so let’s start with the first deal that actually works okay the the first deal that actually works is John Collins and Colin Saxton for kawhai Leonard okay that obviously doesn’t get a deal done for the 10th best player in the NBA and even four first round picks might not get that done you’re trying the Clippers Clippers are going into full rebuild into their new building they’re going to use your picks but they need some pieces so the next angle is they have to get off Russell Westbrook so you include Taylor Hendricks and Russell Westbrook and suddenly the deal falls apart because I don’t actually know why it has to do with the Clippers are close to the second AP apron with Paul George still on their books so it gets a little complicated and the Clippers are a luxury tax threshold team and so if you aggregate their salaries they cannot be plus 125 but if you add Taylor Hendricks and you add Russell Westbrook we’re actually sending them $50 million and taking in 53 so I would have thought that would have worked um so I’m not entirely sure why that didn’t work but it didn’t um so that would be kind of the first at least according to ESPN’s um it did it didn’t work I I actually think with the after Paul George Signs there’ll be some renewed flexibility in doing a deal of this nature now Kawhi Leonard I I think they’re actually a first apron team right now kawh Leonard because of when he signed his contract might have some restrictions to what he’s how you’re able to trade for him that’s that’s another one to keep an eye on here in a little bit but this is conceptually let’s just kind of stay with it conceptually rather than being you know completely like we’re trading this player and that player would you be willing as a jazz fan to trade something in the line of John Collins Colin saon to get the numbers you lose Colin who’s a really good player for Kawhi Leonard Russell Westbrook who you wave for a second time or you keep him and you’re giving up some combination of Taylor Hendricks Keon George they have James Harden I don’t know what you know I don’t actually at this point they wouldn’t care what they have because they’re just building their roster out and we’re giving up probably of our remaining picks three we have two picks next year a Cleveland and Minnesota we have hard for us to trade our picks because of the protections we have the Cleveland 2027 the Laker 2027 the Minnesota 2027 r228 r229 r230 Cleveland’s 2029 in minnesot so we have a collection and we have the Pix swaps but we right now have a collection of two four five six seven picks that aren’t ours and then if we stay in you know if we’re still we would now be giving up our pick likely to Oklahoma City because we would not be top 10 protected in this next draft so you’re moving that pick then you suddenly have the ability to trade your 2027 our 2029 our 2030 and they would probably want our 2029 unprotected as kawai’s 35 years old and they would probably want a Cleveland 2029 20 and a Minnesota 2027 how far are you willing to go it’s big game hunting Kawhi Leonard’s big game Clippers are in no man’s land for all the talk of where are the Jazz gonna go this would be the direction of where the Jazz go they go and get Kawhi Leonard it’s not crazy I’m certain the Clippers are listening they’re really in a box right now losing Paul George somewhat disastrous for him so does this count if you’re a Utah Jazz fan would you want to do Kawai Leonard deal and how good are the Jazz if they come out of it with Kawhi Leonard Lowry marinan and we gotta piece the rest of it together right like like let’s say you just traded John Collins Colin sex and Taylor Hendricks I I I’m only making up just Taylor hendri is our highest thought after Prospect he was the ninth pick of a draft right it could be could be anybody and just you know throwing that out there so I’m not suggesting it I’m just throwing it out there for the discussion so then what are you your Keon George you’re ka la Kawhi Leonard and Lowry marinin you need a two I’m assuming Lowry’s now playing your four Walker’s playing your five do we have enough Jordan Clarkson is your starting two so it’s suddenly keante George Jordan Clarkson kawhai Leonard Lowry Markin and Walker Kessler with Cody Williams coming off the bench if he’s ready hard to know who am I forgetting We Have Bryce sensah we’ve traded in this scenario John Collins I’m not forgetting anyone I don’t think were Drew Eubanks so where do you go all right speaking of big game hunting do Brandon Ingram count as big game hunting Brandon Ingram who’s got one year left at 36 million he’s got some cards on this one you better make sure he’s gonna be able to sign all indications are New Orleans is willing to make that move I would guess after trading for Dante Murray that you might have New Orleans being willing to trade the services of CJ m are either of those big game hunting does Brandon Ingram and Lowry Markin and get you somewhere you want to be according to the ringer if you just kind of think of our top 20 top top 10 top 20 top 50 Lowry Markin is ranked 28 in the NBA so Brandon Ingram’s ranked 35th CJ McCullum I would guess is below 50 at this point I did not think he had the greatest year last year um CJ McCullum is wow they have C.J McCullum rank below Fred Van vet yep 68th not sure I’m paying 33 million for the 68th best player in the NBA Brandon Ingram gets you two top 30 40 players in the NBA he’s a funky player he has great numbers it always feels like something else is there he’s pretty good late in games though New Orleans was awful late in games last year he’s 68190 he’s only 26 like you put Lowry Markin and Brandon Ingram together on the same team and you actually have two pieces that are in the same age game and you have these two pieces for a while that are in their Prime getting better 127 126 and maybe you have two pieces that then as you continue to build with all these young pieces underneath them as some of them Prosper you go or you can move one of those two pieces for future players Brandon Ingram’s situation is that he is in the final year of a deal looking for a probably close to Max extension which makes people uncomfortable including the Pelicans rightfully so the Pelicans probably do not want to be paying Brandon Ingram on a multi-year deal at that level so sorry something just happened on my computer which probably wasn’t good um what are you willing to do there are you do you think the big game hunting is branding room I thought somebody said this well about the Jazz what the Jazz probably can’t do again is Play a 50 Game season and that’s what’s driving a little bit of the low marke in talk right now is that he’s is that you you cannot the Jazz probably can’t play another 50 Game season and then yank it back but you add Kawhi Leonard you’re not playing a 50 Game season you’re probably one of the top six teams in the Western Conference you add kawh Leonard to the Utah Jazz you might be the fifth best team in the Western Conference you had Brandon Ingram to the Utah Jazz little harder to feel what else can you do some big game hunting still possibly to be done by the Utah Jazz Lowry Markin and Brandon Ingram do hold some of these cards by the way we’ll discuss that as we continue next on lock on Jazz thanks very much for making lock on Jazz your first listen of the day locked on NBA is here for you every single day 30 minutes of all your NBA C all the biggest news and there for you Monday through Friday your team every day there are projected to be 15 teams with cap room next year 15 different teams with cap room next year if low marinin gets traded they cannot renegotiate and extend him the way the Utah Jazz camp and then the question if Lowry marinin just does an extension without the renegotiation I think he probably doesn’t want that because with 15 teams with cap room he can go get more money next year which suddenly means that anyone who’s trading for Lowry marinin is in all likelihood dealing with Lowry marinan as an unrestricted free agent one year after trading for him and if that’s the case you better know that Lowry marinan is interested in playing for you now the places that are being talked about seemingly San Antonio possibly Oklahoma City possibly Golden State possibly La one of the seem like places where Lowry Markin would seemingly be fine to play and they should be able to have the money to resign them and all those kind of things so that turn may turn out to just be absolutely fine but Lowry still holds some of the cards here Lowry May really want an extension now remember the jzk sign Lowry again until August because that’s when he finally did his deal leaving Chicago to get to Cleveland and not until that deal rolls over do you have the opportunity to do this extension with Lowry but one of the wild cards even in the Brandon Ingram conversation is the fact that you have probably next year as many as 15 teams with cpru it also makes Cleveland getting the Donovan Mitchell extension done great but really nerve-wracking because a bunch of teams could then trade for Donovan Mitchell maybe the LA Clippers after they trade us Kawhi Leonard just a thought so one of the you know as we watch this all take place a little bit of my point of the show is today is that there’s a lot of talk about Lowry and there’s a lot of talk about what are the Jazz going to do and there does seem to be a fairly legitimate discussion that like do the Jazz really want to get caught in the same game they had the last two years where they’re actually will Hardy’s such a good coach and the team plays hard enough and they keep getting better as the year goes on and they we were terrible at times last year and still fought through it and got through it and do all these things and then we find a way to get ourselves into a position in which then we pull rip cord and lose what was it 19 over last 23 probably not going to want to do that again so the feeling there is you kind of have to go one way or the other who knows but maybe it’s still big game hunting all right the other thing by the way in all these deals that are getting done in the NBA right now that are worth mentioning there’s little sneaky money deals going on so and this is actually something that’s important for the Jazz Oklahoma City’s done this as well as anyone so Oklahoma City has signed Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins two players that probably don’t matter a lot in a lot of people’s mind and even Isaiah harinstein to these fairly significant contracts so Aaron Wiggins who’s like their ninth guy just got an eight and nine and 10 eight you know four-year deal with averaging about n million and Isaiah Joe got a four-year deal averaging about 11 or 12 million and then harken Stein got a 30 million dollar well there’s two things that Oklahoma City done brilliantly one is that when Shay when Shay has his next big money deal and when Chad holgren and Jaylen Williams are both up on their next big money deal Mo most of these deals will be done so that’s it’s really smart the final one is that when you have all these draft assets like Oklahoma City like Utah like San Antonio and you want to go make an upgrade for a player you have to have salaries to trade to go get that player so to some extent what Oklahoma City has done has signed $50 million of viable NBA players who are also $50 million of trade chips plus the ludor 17 million it’s probably a trade trade chip but assuming that they never want to trade Shay or that they don’t want to trade Chad or they don’t want to trade Jaylen Williams but I want Jaylen Williams please um was that the cutest thing ever that Jaylen Williams was there for Cody Williams press conference yesterday so great but because they don’t have those they now have $50 million to go Aggregate and move to go get whatever their next piece and make the next trade it’s kind of interesting do you think there’s any chance that Oklahoma City will trade us Jaylen Williams I’ll take Jaylen Williams I think jayen Williams is the next great star in this league he’s the next Shay Jaylen Brunson star in this league which is really daunting because if it’s not him it’s Chad hren they really have him they have him lined up and ready to come is there a chance you could get a deal with them for something I don’t know I like Jaylen Williams but keep an eye on those sneaky money deals there’s some value to me at this point for the Jazz when you look at the free agents that are left be it an Isaac aoro who I liked actually from the very beginning be it a Gordon Hayward be it somebody that you might be interested in signing them for a deal at a decent money number so that you can go trade them at a later time a buddy heeled probably has been sh because it’s not you’re not trading the player you’re trading the salary to go get the player you want it’s I it’s in theory the Jazz kind of have this right now it just hasn’t come to fruition yet with John at 26 and Colin at 19 and Jordan at 14 they have these pieces that you should be able to Aggregate and put together it just hasn’t happened yet and you need to keep having those that is locked on Jazz today thanks very much who knows what happens by tomorrow but we’ll be here for you bringing you your team every day we now send you on YouTube to our what’s your thoughts thumbs up or thumbs what’s your guys thoughts give me your thoughts on all those possibilities uh we now send you your first 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You want Big Game Hunting does Kawhi Leonard count as big game hunting? The Los Angeles Clippers are in no man’s land after losing Paul George. Is it possible they would be willing to move Kawhi Leonard. Could the Utah Jazz pounce and add Kawhi Leonard to Lauri Markkanen and build a Western Conference contender.

David Locke, radio voice of the Utah Jazz and Jazz NBA Insider, takes a look at the possibility and where it would leave the Utah Jazz.

Does Brandon Ingram count as big game hunting. The New Orleans Pelicans are rumored to be discussing deals with Brandon Ingram. He would be on the same time line as Lauri Markkanen.

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