The Utah Jazz handed the Los Angeles Lakers their first loss in nearly two weeks tonight with a 131-119 win. Luka Doncic was on the court, albeit playing through a minutes restriction on his new team. The Jazz brought Luka to LA, involuntarily accepting a cap dump for Jalen Hood-Schifino, which opened up the space to bring Doncic to the Lakers.
The controversial trade elicited many reactions from across the NBA world. Jazz GM Justin Zanik revealed how he reacted to the news, agreeing with Lakers GM Rob Pelinka about this addition being a ‘gift’ for the franchise.
“Obviously, Rob Pelinka even said in his press conference introducing Luka that it was a gift. I think that’s how a lot of my colleagues, don’t want to speak for them, but that’s how a lot of us felt.”
“Nico and Dallas do a great job. They obviously had their reasons and wanted to improve the defense and added a top-15 player in his own right there. They decided that was in their best interests.”
“This reshaped the Western Conference. When we are up there with these guys very soon, maybe I’d care a little more about being the third team. At this point, where we are, if we were in the Playoff right now, I’d ask them both what is going on here and I’m not doing it. But where we are, the ability to pick up stuff for basically free and do something another team would’ve done anyway, that was really sweet.”
Zanik also mentioned how the new apron rules played a major part in dictating how this NBA trade deadline played out.
“With the new apron rules, a lot of these bigger deals where you see primary guys moving, you need a third or fourth team. Not every one of them, but the majority of them, and we were involved in two of them. Where we were with our extra space and Ryan giving us great resources to pick up things that’ll benefit the Jazz, we were able to add a few.”
The Jazz acquired two second-round picks and Schifino for no outgoing assets in this trade, essentially getting things for free to help facilitate this deal. However, we know that Jazz CEO Danny Ainge never wants to help the Lakers easily and will remember their duplicity in this deal. Although, if the Lakers had the choice between maintaining their relationship with Ainge or acquiring Luka, they’d pick Luka every time.
It’s clear that Utah wasn’t thrilled about being used the way they were in this deal, with Zanik even referring to how they didn’t inquire much about the deal because they were getting free assets. As the Jazz hope to return to contention soon, they’ll have a target on the Lakers as long as Doncic is on there to make them pay for using them in this acquisition.
After losing in Doncic’s debut, the Jazz did well to pummel them tonight. While it won’t result in a sudden Playoff push, it will give the franchise something to smile about amidst a tanking year.
Thank you for being a valued reader of Fadeaway World. If you liked this article, please consider following us on Google News. We really appreciate your support.
