NBA Trade Rumors: Utah Jazz to target this big-name star at the deadline?

NBA Trade Rumors: There is speculation that the Utah Jazz could target John Collins ahead of the NBA Trade Deadline.

Through the first few weeks of the season, the Utah Jazz has been one of the better teams in the Western Conference. Read that sentence again. That’s not a typo. Even after trading Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert during the offseason, the Jazz has still been able to remain competitive in the West.

Whether that’s sustainable or not is irrelevant. You have to credit this front office, the coaching staff, and the players for being 11-6 through the first 17 games of the season. Their hot start to the season brings about many questions, including how this team will approach the NBA Trade Deadline.

At the beginning of the year, you would assume that Utah would be sellers. But perhaps their hot start has changed that. And there are whispers that would suggest that. Including one that says the Jazz has their eyes on a big name ahead of the trade deadline.

According to Shams Charania, the Jazz could target John Collins ahead of the trade deadline. Assuming this report is indeed accurate, there are a couple of interesting angles to this all.

For one, does this mean that the Jazz is not going to be a seller at the deadline? And, instead, perhaps they feel they can retool this roster quicker than initially realized. Adding Collins is a move that will improve the roster. For all his faults, Collins is not going to make a team worse.

And, in fact, he could thrive as a potential lead man for the Jazz.

Second, what does this mean for Lauri Markkanen, who has gotten off to a tremendous start this season? So far this season, Markkanen is 22 points and eight rebounds per game on 54 percent shooting from the field and 36 percent shooting from 3-point range.

It would hard to imagine Markkenen and Collins working playing next to each other as they have similar strengths and weaknesses. Though, perhaps the Jazz believes Collins is a slight upgrade from Markkanen and that the team could try to sell high on him and buy low on Collins.

Either way, it should set up an interesting next few months before the NBA Trade Deadline. If the early rumor mill is any indication, it seems that we could be in for another chaotic trade deadline. And you can bet that Danny Ainge (and the Jazz) is going to factor in it one way or another.