Unpacking the Jaren Jackson Jr. Trade

Looking ahead at the Grizzlies upcoming rebuild and why the Jazz needed to end theirs.

The NBA hit us with a flurry of trades on Tuesday. We are now at 7 trades, including the heavily rumored James Harden for Darius Garland swap that resulted in the Clippers receiving a second-round pick. This likely means the Cavaliers approached the Clippers about this first and were very out on Garland.

It’s worth noting that many of the trades made so far had details reported before becoming official. That changed on Tuesday morning when the first truly surprising trade involving an All-Star was reported.

If the Grizzlies didn’t acknowledge they were in a rebuild, they will now that they’ve traded Jaren Jackson Jr. to the Jazz. The trade marked the first one of the season where a team extracted multiple first-round picks for a player. It might not be on par with the Desmond Bane return in terms of volume of picks, but the quality may be better.