{"id":447670,"date":"2026-02-04T02:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447670\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T02:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T02:13:08","slug":"grizzlies-trade-jaren-jackson-jr-to-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/447670\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies Trade Jaren Jackson Jr. To Jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"

6:06pm: The trade is official, according to a press release<\/a> from the Jazz.<\/p>\n

12:44pm: The Grizzlies and Jazz have agreed to a blockbuster trade, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link<\/a>), who reports that former Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr.<\/a> is heading to Utah along with wings John Konchar<\/a> and Vince Williams Jr.<\/a> and center Jock Landale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"In exchange, Memphis will acquire guard Walter Clayton<\/a>, swingman Kyle Anderson<\/a>, forwards Taylor Hendricks<\/a> and Georges Niang<\/a>, and three future first-round picks, sources tell Charania.<\/p>\n

Those three first-rounders headed to the Grizzlies are the Lakers\u2019 2027 pick (top-four protected), either the Cavaliers\u2019, Timberwolves\u2019, or Jazz\u2019s own 2027 pick (whichever is most favorable), and the Suns\u2019 2031 pick (unprotected), reports Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a shocking move for a couple reasons. For one, multiple<\/a> reports<\/a> ahead of Thursday\u2019s trade deadline suggested that Memphis had no interest in moving Jackson and hoped to hang onto \u2013 and build around \u2013 the big man going forward.<\/p>\n

Additionally, while there were multiple teams said to be inquiring on Jackson\u2019s availability<\/a> in the hopes that the Grizzlies changed their mind, there was no indication that the Jazz were among them or that they\u2019d be looking to use their stash of future draft picks to make this sort of move this week. Entering Tuesday\u2019s games, Utah holds a 15-35 record, which is the sixth-worst mark in the NBA.<\/p>\n

However, the move for Jackson suggests first-year president of basketball operations Austin Ainge and the Jazz are preparing to take a step forward next season. League sources tell Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link<\/a>) that the team doesn\u2019t plan to trade forward Lauri Markkanen<\/a> and still wants to re-sign center Walker Kessler<\/a> in restricted free agency this summer. Utah envisions a frontcourt made up of Markkanen, Jackson, and Kessler, Jones explains.<\/p>\n

Third-year guard Keyonte George<\/a> and 2025 lottery pick Ace Bailey<\/a> are among the other long-term building blocks in Utah, where the Jazz still control at least one first-round pick in every future draft, starting in 2026. Notably, that 2026 first-rounder will be sent to Oklahoma City if it lands outside the top eight \u2014 the Jazz are still in a fairly strong position to hang onto it, since there\u2019s a 4.5-game gap between them and the NBA\u2019s seventh- and eighth-worst teams (the 18-29 Bucks and 19-30 Mavericks).<\/p>\n

As for the Grizzlies, we\u2019d heard for weeks that they were open to trading<\/a> two-time All-Star Ja Morant<\/a>, but it wasn\u2019t clear whether they intended to retool around Jackson or fully rebuild around a younger core headlined by Cedric Coward<\/a>, Zach Edey<\/a>, and Jaylen Wells<\/a>. Now we have our answer.<\/p>\n

While Clayton and Hendricks are just 22 years old and could carve out places in the Grizzlies\u2019 long-term plans, the return for Jackson is primarily about adding three more first-round picks to an ever-growing collection of draft assets and creating additional cap flexibility in the present and future. The Grizzlies now control 12 first-rounders in the next seven drafts, notes Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Jackson renegotiated and extended his contract with Memphis last offseason and will earn $205MM over the next four years after this one. He\u2019s the only player of the eight involved in this trade who is owed guaranteed money beyond next season, and taking on his long-term deal will likely eliminate Utah\u2019s cap room this summer.<\/p>\n

In terms of 2025\/26 money, Utah will be taking advantage of its significant breathing room below the luxury tax line by increasing its payroll by more than $18MM \u2014 the Jazz are sending out a combined $27.5MM in salary and taking back roughly $45.8MM.<\/p>\n

As Gozlan tweets<\/a>, the Jazz will use their four outgoing players to legally match Jackson\u2019s $35MM cap hit, then take the other three incoming players into existing traded player exceptions<\/a> (or their mid-level<\/a>, if they prefer to preserve their bigger TPE).<\/p>\n

Memphis, meanwhile, will create a record-setting trade exception worth nearly $28.9MM, per ESPN\u2019s Bobby Marks (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"6:06pm: The trade is official, according to a press release from the Jazz. 12:44pm: The Grizzlies and Jazz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[13013,6408,137212,210310,186760,72268,99,114748,210311,21146,120328],"class_list":["post-447670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-georges-niang","tag-jaren-jackson-jr","tag-jock-landale","tag-john-konchar","tag-kyle-anderson","tag-lauri-markkanen","tag-sports","tag-taylor-hendricks","tag-vince-williams","tag-walker-kessler","tag-walter-clayton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447670","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=447670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}