Barrett for Nurkic/2027 1st

[gswhoops]

For next year, Barrett's more valuable than Nurkic's dead weight contract. However Utah wouldn't care about that. It might even be a negative for them, so they certainly wouldn't be paying anything for it.

For 2026-7 Barrett's EC is less valuable then the nothing that comes after Nurkics' contract ends. Utah would need incentive to take that on (and any on-court improvement for 2025-6 isn't incentive for them.

I think this is the disconnect here. Utah is at best ambivalent about winning next year (and more likely actively tanking) while giving their high-upside young guys as much development time as they can handle. They don't want RJ taking touches away from Bailey/Clayton/Hendricks/Williams/etc. If anything, they'd be looking to move established talent (cough Lauri cough) for future assets.

[Crymson]

The Jazz, who are rebuilding and just dumped two ball-dominant veteran gunners in order to prioritize usage for their youth, would be one of the teams LEAST interested in making a trade like this. That would be true even if Barrett were a non-ball dominant, positive-value player and were not on a bad contract, and neither of those things are true.

[redslastlaugh]

RJ Barrett doesn't have trade value. To move him, you have to take back equally bad money or attach draft capital