{"id":101054,"date":"2025-08-22T05:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T05:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/101054\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T05:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T05:00:10","slug":"the-jazz-could-resolve-the-latest-russell-westbrook-conundrum-for-a-third-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/101054\/","title":{"rendered":"The Jazz could resolve the latest Russell Westbrook conundrum for a third time"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Utah Jazz have helped Russell Westbrook find his next career opportunity multiple times over the past few years. First, they helped him go to the Clippers, then they helped him go to the Nuggets<\/a>. Because the Jazz are still in the same place now that they were then, they can help Westbrook with his next supposed team, the Sacramento Kings.<\/p>\n

NBA Insider Jake Fischer reported on Bleacher Report’s live stream<\/a> that the Kings are basically Westbrook’s one last hope of staying in the NBA<\/p>\n

However, that’s not so simple with the Kings’ current cap situation and their guard rotation. With Zach LaVine, Keon Ellis, and the newly added Dennis Schroder, someone is going to have to get the boot to make room for Westbrook. Reportedly, that’s Malik Monk.<\/p>\n

Sactown Sports’ Allen Stiles<\/a> confirmed on July 28 that the Kings are willing to trade one of Monk or Devin Carter to make room for Westbrook, though Monk makes somewhat more sense because trading him would save more money.<\/p>\n

If the Kings really are hellbent on bringing in Westbrook and want to get rid of Monk to make room for him, the Jazz could definitely step in to help them make such a move.<\/p>\n

How the Jazz could make resolve the Westbrook-Kings dilemma<\/p>\n

This is a good opportunity for Utah to potentially get another draft asset for very little. The Kings would trade Monk to save enough money to add Westbrook on the cheap. The best way they could do this is by exchanging the following.<\/p>\n

Kings get: KJ Martin<\/a> (whose nonguaranteed contract would get waived), Kevin Love (who the Kings would waive and stretch)<\/p>\n

Jazz get: Monk, 2026 first-round pick from the Kings (top-eight protected)<\/p>\n

It works out for both teams. The Kings save the money they need to sign Westbrook, and the Jazz cut ties with expendable players who didn’t have much of a future with the team anyway, and get something out of it.<\/p>\n

Do the Jazz have any use for Monk? Of course not, but they could try to build up his value for contenders who want a player like him. Granted, they tried this with players who have a similar archetype as Monk with Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson, and well, we all know how that turned out. He is younger than Clarkson and has played for a playoff team, unlike Sexton.<\/p>\n

They could potentially roll him over to another team for another expiring contract if a team wants to save money. That may require more contracts, but the Jazz are flexible, and Monk could be the bar for their young guards to clear.<\/p>\n

And for their troubles, they could potentially acquire a first-round asset, or trade one for a potential upgrade, similar to their trade with the Phoenix Suns<\/a> back in February.<\/p>\n

If the Jazz don’t want to acquire any more long-term contracts and don’t want to add more assets, then they wouldn’t get involved a deal like this, but a deal like this would be easy money if they do want another asset and are willing to take a contract (that they could potentially trade away) for their troubles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Utah Jazz have helped Russell Westbrook find his next career opportunity multiple times over the past few…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-101054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}