The Oklahoma City Thunder are at it again. Hours after acquiring two future first-round picks in Thursday's NBA Draft, the Thunder got yet another early Friday morning, agreeing to take Derrick Favors from the Utah Jazz in exchange for a future second-round pick.
How much will shedding Favors' salary help mitigate Utah's coming luxury-tax bill? And will Oklahoma City be able to flip him to another team as with other veterans?
The deal
Thunder get: Derrick Favors, future first-round pick
Jazz get: Future second-round pick
Utah Jazz: B
Giving up picks to get out of center contracts signed barely seven months ago has been a theme this week, as the Detroit Pistons did the same thing with Mason Plumlee as the Jazz with Favors. In this case, Utah is in pursuit of tax flexibility rather than the cap space Detroit could create.
Not long after agreeing to a three-year, $30 million deal with Favors to return as an unrestricted free agent last summer, the Jazz signed starting center Rudy Gobert to a five-year extension that kicks in this season at $34.3 million. That plus an extension for guard Donovan Mitchell starting at $28.1 million pushed Utah perilously close to the 2021-22 tax line with starting point guard Mike Conley heading into unrestricted free agency.
Shedding Favors' $9.7 million salary mitigates that substantially. The Jazz are now $13 million away from the luxury-tax line including the non-guaranteed salary of reserve wing Miye Oni. Barring another salary-saving move, Utah almost certainly will pay the tax if Conley returns, especially given the four other roster spots the team needs to fill with just nine players under contract. But the Jazz should be able to stay within $10-15 million of the tax line rather than going deep into it.
Alternatively, if Conley decides to leave, Utah now has the ability to use the non-taxpayer midlevel exception to replace him. That wouldn't yield a point guard of equal ability to Conley, an All-Star for the first time last season, but would offer more options than if the Jazz were limited to the smaller taxpayer midlevel.
The downside is Utah now has two future first-rounders headed elsewhere. The Jazz's 2022 first-round pick will go to the Memphis Grizzlies to complete the Conley deal unless it somehow falls in the top six. (In that case, it would roll over with declining protection through 2024.)
Assuming the 2022 pick does go to Memphis, that would open a three-year window for this pick to convey starting in 2024 with top-10 protection in 2024 and 2025 and top-8 in 2026 before converting into a second-round pick according to my ESPN colleague Tim Bontemps. Most likely, we're looking at Utah sending out a pick in the middle to late first round in 2024. The Jazz did structure this pick so that they can offer a guaranteed first-round pick to another team in 2028 if needed for another deal.
Who backs up Gobert is also now an open question. We barely saw Udoka Azubuike, drafted No. 27 by Utah last fall, because Gobert and Favors missed a combined five games all season and Azubuike was sidelined nearly three months by a severe ankle sprain. The Jazz may need to go shopping for a more experienced backup, though they should be able to get one more cheaply than Favors. A return by Tony Bradley, dealt away last offseason to make room for Favors, might make sense after Bradley ended the season with the Thunder.
Oklahoma City Thunder: B+
As compared to some of the Thunder's other trades to add first-round picks, this one doesn't look like a home run because Favors will be challenging to move again for value. He's potentially got two years remaining on his contract (Favors holds a player option for 2022-23) and the market for backup centers is limited because of the ease of finding them in free agency.
On the plus side, Favors will benefit from no longer being compared to Gobert, the Defensive Player of the Year. He actually posted solid individual stats last season, posting a career-high .663 true shooting percentage and blocking shots at the second-best rate of his career, but Utah was predictably less effective with Favors on the court and Gobert on the bench. The Jazz allowed 12.1 more points per 100 possessions when Favors played, according to Cleaning the Glass, and scored slightly worse on a per-possession basis too.
Still, Oklahoma City's best chance of dealing Favors again will probably be as part of a deal for a player with a worse contract. If that opportunity doesn't materialize, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Thunder buy Favors out at some point while collecting the pick -- now their 11th from another team coming through 2026.