Rocky business -- UTA/DEN

[babyjax13]

I think the conversation here has gotten a bit weird.

Sexton is a really good player relative to contract, if you look at his impact stats he is as impactful as Zach Lavine and D'Angelo Russell, which is to say that he is a starting caliber player whose play results in wins. I think there is good reason to suspect - that since he started the year playing much fewer minutes as a bench player - that his impact stats would actually be a bit better. He's certainly not better than Murray, but he is really good.

The only reason for Denver to do the deal is if they truly think their core around Jokic is absolutely unsustainable, and so they've decided to completely start over. It probably takes something pretty drastic for that to actually happen, and I imagine they'd look at parting out MPJ, first. e.g., MPJ for Bojan + Cam Johnson, with other pieces to balance salaries.

The only reason for Utah to do it is to flip Murray, but that means sacrificing draft position and potentially being stuck with a large, long-term bad contract if Murray's injuries affect his long-term play. In a vacuum it is not enough value, but Utah shouldn't be giving up the much cheaper player for someone whose presence on the team would actively harm our long-term prospects.

RE what it would take in a vacuum to turn Sexton into Murray, I think the answer is two picks from Utah, probably one being the "highest of" our 2027 picks, and one being the lowest of our 2025 picks. I 100% would not do that as Utah, but there would at least be reasons for Denver to consider since they can package the picks to upgrade other parts of the roster.