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The Utah Jazz were in fourth place in the Western Conference standings before the 2019-20 season was suspended due to COVID-19. The team had a record of 41-23 and looked primed to go on a deep postseason run.
Shooting guard Donovan Mitchell and center Rudy Gobert each made their first All-Star teams this season. However, Gobert's positive coronavirus test forced the season to be suspended, and now there are questions about whether or not Mitchell and Gobert can co-exist moving forward.
Gobert was reportedly touching a lot of players’ belongings in the locker room before his diagnosis, which rubbed his teammates the wrong way. Gobert's biggest blunder, of course, was when he jokingly touched reporters’ mics after a press conference in Utah.
The Jazz may have to trade Gobert this offseason if Mitchell makes it clear to management he doesn’t want to play with the two-time Defensive Player of the Year anymore. So far, though, there have been no reports indicating that this is going to be the case. Utah will likely sign Mitchell to a rookie-scale extension this summer, locking him in as a core piece moving forward.
Assuming Mitchell and Gobert are able to play with each other, the Jazz need to make a rather surprising trade this summer to improve the team. Point guard Mike Conley's first season in Salt Lake City has been a disaster, and the sample size was big enough to see that he's not the right floor general to lead this team moving forward.
With that being said, the Jazz should trade Conley this offseason, just a year after acquiring him from the Memphis Grizzlies. Utah needs a more explosive scorer from the point guard position paired with Mitchell. Conley has never been known to be a dynamic scorer and that showed this season. He averaged just 13.8 points while shooting 40.5 percent from the field, 37.6 percent from beyond the arc and 79.5 percent from the free-throw line.
Conley is set to make $34.5 million next season. The Jazz need to get off that lucrative contract so management has more money to offer Mitchell and improve the roster around the high-flyer. Utah can't be paying Conley $34 million a year to put up pedestrian numbers. The franchise would have re-signed Ricky Rubio if they were looking for a game manager at the point guard spot. The Jazz traded for Conley in the first place because they thought he was going to be the scoring threat that would open the floor for Mitchell and create more driving lanes for the slasher.
Surprisingly, the Jazz's offensive rating dropped by 2.2 points when Conley was on the court, according to Basketball-Reference.com. NBA teams don't usually see their production lessen when the starting point guard is in the game. That says a lot about how poor of a fit Conley was with Utah.
The Jazz should trade Conley in the summer and look to re-sign Jordan Clarkson. Utah can trade Conley for another guard or look at the free-agent market for its next point guard.
Guys such as Goran Dragic and Fred VanVleet will hit the open market this offseason, and they are better scorers and playmakers than Conley at this point.
