Maybe an interesting way to sell Smart at his highest given his DPOY status, and get some of the Jazz’s older pieces as they rebuild (this helps them clear 22M off their books):
BOS In: Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdonovich, Talen Horton-Tucker
UTA In: Pritchard, Theis, Nesmith, Stauskas, Kendrick Nunn, 2026 LAL 1st, 2022 BOS 2nd
LAL In: Smart
Or:
BOS In: Conley, Bogdonovich, Horton-Tucker
BOS Out: Smart, Pritchard, Theis, Nesmith, Stauskas, 2022 2nd
UTA In: Nunn, Pritchard, Theis, Nesmith, Stauskas, 2026 LAL 1st, 2022 BOS 2nd
UTA Out: Conley, Bogdonovich
LAL In: Smart
LAL Out: Nunn, Horton-Tucker, 2026 LAL 1st
Gets us the Floor General PG and backup wing we desperately need, plus a very young, growing defensive-minded guard in Horton-Tucker as our longer-term replacement for Smart (if we did all of this, I’d still go after Dort too). Gives LAL some hope of an upgrade over last year, which is how we get the 2026 1st out of them (LeBron could care less about that pick, but it would be very attractive to Ainge). Ainge would move Nunn to a contender somewhere for a pick and save another $5 million, getting the Jazz below the luxury line while waiting to figure out what to do with Gobert and Mitchell, plus he gets to show the world how smart he was when he drafted Pritchard and Nesmith…
Conley/White
Brown/Dort (separate deal)/Horton-Tucker
Tatum/Bogdonovich
Horford/GWill
Timelord/MLE on a 5/4
The above is a massive upgrade IMHO so long as Conley remains solid in his mid-30s like CP3 has.
While we’re at it, let’s try to hire Quin Snyder as Udoka’s top lieutenant or Stevens’ top lieutenant if Snyder wants a break from being HC (Stevens can definitely relate to Quin’s feelings of being burnt out and not wanting to deal with Ainge lol)