Utah Jazz power forward Derrick Favors posts up against Atlanta Hawks' Paul Millsap. (Photo : Getty Images)
The NBA Trade Rumors continue as teams seek to upgrade their team and most of the league's players are eligible for trade.
The Utah Jazz is an up and coming team with the emergence of Rudy Gobert. However, they hit a snag when Dante Exum got injured during the summer.
With Gobert being tagged as the center of the future for the Jazz, forward-center Derrick Favors is rumored to be shopped. While he is not playing badly, he could be used to address the other needs of the team.
This was predicted by Sports On Earth just before the season started. SOE's Michael Pina called Favors "most underrated player in the NBA" and he would benefit from a trade to a team that would need him more.
According to CBS Sports, the Jazz tried to shop Derrick Favors last summer to pursue Paul Millsap, who used to play for Utah before thriving with the Atlanta Hawks. It would not be a shock if the Jazz would attempt to trade him again for a power forward that would stretch the floor and complement Gobert.
The Jazz are at ninth place in the West and may need some changes to make the playoffs. Recent rumblings have the LA Lakers being open to trade their veterans like Roy Hibbert, Brandon Bass and Lou Williams.
Hibbert could play behind Gobert and serve as an insurance center if the Frenchman goes down (and he did earlier in the season) but he is more interesting for the Jazz because of his huge expiring contract. That would allow the Jazz to have cap space to pursue a free agent stretch four.
Brandon Bass would also play a reserve power forward role, but it is likely that Utah would prefer Jordan Clarkson over Lou Williams. Clarkson is perhaps the Lakers' best player this season and LA would do well to sell high on him.
Clarkson would fill the gap left by Exum and he could also play alongside him when he returns next year. The Lakers could trade Clarkson, perhaps their best trade chip at the moment, if they can get a young big man in Favors who could switch between center and forward.
Derrick Favors and possibly Trey Burke (upgrade to Clarkson) in exchange for Hibbert, Bass and Clarkson could address both teams' needs as speculated. This is one possibility that could be explored.
