Jazz acquire Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Juan Hernangomez in three-team trade

The Jazz, Spurs and Trail Blazers reached an agreement on a three-team trade, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

According to Wojnarowski, Utah will acquire Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Portland and Juan Hernangomez from San Antonio. The Spurs will receive Tomas Satoransky and a second-round pick, while the Blazers will get Joe Ingles, Elijah Hughes and a second-round pick. Both second-rounders will come from the Jazz, Woj adds (via Twitter).

Even before Ingles went down with a season-ending ACL tear, the Jazz had been exploring the market to see if they could find an upgrade on the wing using his expiring contract and a draft pick. Following the injury, Ingles’ value dipped, and Utah apparently decided none of the options available for the forward’s expiring deal and a first-round pick were worth moving forward on.

Instead, the Jazz will make a move that reduces their tax bill, adds two healthy players to the roster and sees them sacrifice a pair of future second-round selections instead of a first-rounder. They should also create a trade exception worth nearly $10M by taking Hernangomez into an existing TPE.

Alexander-Walker, a third-year guard, had a promising sophomore season in 2020-21 but has struggled to score efficiently this season, averaging 12.8 PPG on .375/.311/.722 shooting in 50 games (26.3 MPG). He has spent most of the season in New Orleans, sent to Portland on Monday in the CJ McCollum trade. The 23-year-old has a $3.3M salary this season and will make $5M next season before becoming eligible for restricted free agency.

Hernangomez has had some success in the past as a stretch four but has played poorly in limited minutes this season, putting up 1.1 PPG and 1.7 RPG on 21.2% shooting in 23 games (6.4 MPG). He was traded from Boston to San Antonio in last month’s three-team Bryn Forbes deal. Hernangomez is essentially on an expiring contract, since his $7.4M salary for next season is non-guaranteed.

From San Antonio’s perspective, the deal is about picking up an extra draft asset. Satoransky is not in the team’s long-term plans, so the Spurs were rewarded for their willingness to add to this season’s payroll by taking on a slightly bigger contract. (Satoransky has a $10M expiring salary.)

The Blazers, meanwhile, continue to wheel and deal, agreeing to their third trade in the last week. It appears they weren’t particularly high on Alexander-Walker, choosing to flip him right away in a deal that clears another $5M off their books for 2022-23 and nets them another second-round pick.

Both Ingles and Hughes will be free agents this offseason. Ingles spoke last week about remaining in Utah to rehab his knee injury even if he were traded and said he’d be interested in eventually re-signing with the Jazz (Twitter links via Eric Walden of the Salt Lake Tribune).

Despite the fact that Satoransky, Alexander-Walker and Hernangomez were recently traded, the NBA’s rules don’t prevent them from being moved again right away, since they’re not being aggregated with a second player for salary-matching purposes in this deal.

From Portland’s perspective, Satoransky’s salary is being used to match Ingles’ $13M cap charge, with Alexander-Walker’s salary not required for matching purposes (the Blazers will create a trade exception worth his $3.3M cap hit), since Hughes can be acquired using a minimum salary exception. San Antonio is trading Hernangomez on his own for Satoransky.