Trade lesser picks now for a better pick later.
That’s the Utah Jazz’s thinking as the team traded three of its future first-round picks, originally acquired in the Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell trades for a 2031 unprotected first-round pick from the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday evening. ESPN’s Shams Charania first reported the trade.
In all, the Jazz are trading the least valuable of their picks from all of 2025, 2027, and 2029 to the Phoenix Suns. They acquired those picks in trading Mitchell and Gobert during the 2022 offseason to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves, respectively.
As of right now, the pick traded in 2025 would be No. 30, as the Cavaliers have the NBA’s best record, and the Cavs are likely to continue to be one of the NBA’s most talented teams over the next few years.
In return, the Jazz receive a completely unprotected 2031 first-round pick from the Phoenix Suns. How good the Suns will be in 2031 is anyone’s guess, but the possibility that it could be a high pick made it intriguing to the Jazz’s front office. The Jazz, in need of high-end star talent, are interested in acquiring more promising picks that could be among the lottery’s best — albeit six years down the road.
The Suns, meanwhile, feel that acquiring three of the Jazz’s first-round picks unlocks trade possibilities for the club as they improve their roster around Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal in the short term. This deal gives them three picks to send out in trades for role-playing talent, plus the ability to trade their own (protected) versions of picks in 2026, 2028 and 2030 to teams who may be interested in sending talent out.
There are still over two weeks remaining until the NBA’s trade deadline on Feb. 6. Jordan Clarkson, John Collins and Collin Sexton are expected to be available in the league’s trade market until that final trade buzzer figuratively sounds.
