Trade Watch: Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, and the Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz have about as good of a "problem" as you can have in the NBA. With Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Derrick Favors, and Enes Kanter on their roster, the Jazz have the most frontcourt talent in the league. Not surprisingly, this leaves them thin in a few other areas, most notably at the point guard and small forward positions. With this in mind, the Jazz may look to move Millsap or Jefferson, their most expensive (but still valuable) assets, in return for depth in other areas.


They’ve both been very productive for the Jazz, providing good low post scoring, defense, and rebounding. They both become unrestricted free agents after this year, so it makes sense financially to only keep one of them with Favors and Kanter waiting in the wings. Millsap is probably a better defender who is a surprising ball hawking abilities for a power forward, averaging over 1 steal per game. He’s also incredibly durable, only missing a handful of games since he came into the league. Jefferson is still solid, but has had lingering injuries throughout his career. However, Jefferson may ultimately be the more valuable player for the Jazz, a true center with great post skills, high volume rebounding ability, and solid defense. Quite simply, Millsap may be more replaceable than Jefferson, especially with very promising power forward Derek Favors still in development. Here’s a look at Millsap’s numbers over his career:

Season	Age	Tm	Lg	Pos	G	FG%	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	STL	BLK	PTS
2006-07	21	UTA	NBA	PF	82	.525	.673	2.2	2.9	5.2	0.8	0.9	6.8
2007-08	22	UTA	NBA	PF	82	.504	.677	2.0	3.6	5.6	0.9	0.9	8.1
2008-09	23	UTA	NBA	PF	76	.534	.699	3.3	5.3	8.6	1.0	1.0	13.5
2009-10	24	UTA	NBA	PF	82	.538	.693	2.3	4.5	6.8	0.8	1.2	11.6
2010-11	25	UTA	NBA	PF	76	.531	.757	2.2	5.5	7.6	1.4	0.9	17.3
2011-12	26	UTA	NBA	PF	64	.495	.792	2.8	6.0	8.8	1.8	0.8	16.6
2012-13	27	UTA	NBA	PF	55	.486	.745	2.3	5.1	7.4	1.3	1.0	15.0
Career			NBA		517	.517	.722	2.4	4.6	7.1	1.1	1.0	12.4

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 2/21/2013.

Millsap is certainly compelling for any team looking add size, scoring, or rebounding. The Clippers come to mind considering they vigilantly pursued Kevin Garnett in recent weeks. The Spurs also jump out as a team lacking in size and depth. It all depends on how much the Jazz want in return, and a guard like Eric Bledsoe on the Clippers seems to make perfect sense for both sides. I’m not sure the Clippers would go through with it considering they are still very high on Bledsoe and Millsap could walk at the end of the year. With the Clippers a borderline title contender, I think they have to make a move like this to compete with bigger teams come playoff time.

Final Prediction: Jazz move Millsap for guard or wing-based packages, Clippers appear most likely to trade for him

Other Likely Suitors: Suns, Spurs, Nets, Timberwolves