One of the strangest things about NBA life: A handful of the best 500 basketball players on planet Earth are valued more for the contracts they sign their name to than for their on-court talents.
The Utah Jazz’s first trade on Saturday was a perfect example of that.
The team sent backup center Drew Eubanks and veteran guard Patty Mills to the Los Angeles Clippers, in return, receiving wing P.J. Tucker, big man Mo Bamba, a second-round pick, and cash.
Tucker, 39, had not played for the Clippers this season. He’s in the final year of a 3-year, $33 million deal, but had stayed away from the team in the midst of a dispute about his limited role under Clippers head coach Ty Lue. The 26-year-old Bamba, once the sixth overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, filled the backup center role for the Clippers, playing 12 minutes per night in 28 games this season. He’s on a one-year minimum deal worth $2 million.
The team waived Bamba on Sunday. But it didn’t appear likely Tucker would suit up for the Jazz either. Hardy, when asked if either player would stay with the team, said that he didn’t know.
The departing Eubanks, meanwhile, has played 37 games for the Jazz, playing 15 minutes a night. He’s a much more traditional center, taking shots around the rim and finishing lobs from Jazz guards. He’s averaging 5.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. He signed a two-year, $10 million deal this season, though the second year was non-guaranteed.
(Mark J. Terrill | AP) Los Angeles Clippers center Mo Bamba (4) grabs a rebound away from Utah Jazz forward Drew Eubanks during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif.
Mills played 17 games for the Jazz, coming off the bench in all 17. The 36-year-old Australian had shot just 34% from the field and 29% from three this season. He’s also on a one-year veteran minimum deal.
Eubanks is expected to help the Clippers as the team’s new backup center. But the real motivation of the deal was completely financial: The Clippers entered trade deadline season above the NBA’s luxury tax, and dumping Tucker’s contract on the Jazz’s books allows them to skip out on millions of tax payments they’d otherwise have to make at the end of the season.
Meanwhile, the Jazz acquired a 2030 second-round pick out of the deal. The Jazz already had the rights to swap second-round picks with the Clippers in 2030 thanks to sign-and-trading veteran point guard Kris Dunn to the team in the offseason; now, the Jazz will own both their own and the Clippers' picks in that draft. The cash is a relatively insignificant sum, in NBA terms.
But as little as the players' skill sets meant to Saturday’s transaction, they did matter to the Jazz’s locker room. For Jazz head coach Will Hardy, both players were veteran stalwarts in a locker room full of youthful inexperience. Hardy had previously coached both players with the San Antonio Spurs, and played a significant role in them coming to Utah.
“Those two guys in particular I have very long-standing relationships with. So those conversations are a little bit different, because I recognize what they’ve meant to this place — I also recognize what they mean to me individually," Hardy said.
“I think those guys are both good players, incredible professionals and better human beings.”
The other players in the Jazz’s locker room also will miss Eubanks and Mills. Third-year center Walker Kessler, for example, said that “competing against (Eubanks) every day definitely, definitely helped me get better,” especially in the realm of physicality.
Mills, meanwhile, will be missed for the attitude he brought to the locker room.
“That dude is just a positive energy ball, man. He will be missed,” Collins said.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz guard Patty Mills (8) as the Utah Jazz host the Miami Heat, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025.
The deal isn’t expected to be Utah’s last of the deadline, with Collins and guard Collin Sexton considered to be on the trade block. Rumors have swirled for Kessler, though the franchise’s asking price for the center is considered to be prohibitively steep.
Only franchise player Lauri Markkanen is safe — thanks to the extension he signed this offseason, he cannot be traded before the NBA’s deadline on Thursday.