Collin Sexton of the Utah Jazz, and soon to be of the Charlotte Hornets
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ATLANTA, GEORGIA - APRIL 06: Collin Sexton #2 of the Utah Jazz reacts after a three-point basket against the Atlanta Hawks during the second quarter at State Farm Arena on April 06, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
In the run-up to the free agency period, the Utah Jazz and Charlotte Hornets have completed a trade that no one was expecting, and that few can find Utah’s logic for.
As first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN, the Jazz will send guard Collin Sexton to the Hornets, along with a second-round pick in 2030, in exchange for Hornets center Jusuf Nurkic. No other players or picks have been reported as being included in the deal.
It follows, therefore, that the Jazz seem to be targeting Nurkic. And it is not immediately obvious why.
Shams Charania
Just in: The Utah Jazz are trading Collin Sexton and a 2030 second-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets for Jusuf Nurkic, sources tell ESPN.
Jazz Seem To Believe They Will Get An Upgrade
Sexton was previously acquired by the Jazz as a side piece in a bigger deal, rather than being a targeted acquisition. He was one of the returning players in the deal that sent Donovan Mitchell to the Cleveland Cavaliers three seasons ago, along with a plethora of draft capital that they are still cashing in.
Nurkic, meanwhile, was acquired by the Hornets at the most recent trade deadline from the Phoenix Suns as something of a salary-dump. They gave up Cody Martin, Vasilije Micic, a potentially useful swap of 2026 first-round picks and a 2026 second-round pick for Nurkic’s services, being the ones giving up the draft capital to land the veteran despite not being a team going anywhere any time soon. Notwithstanding Martin’s usefulness, the assets were not premium ones, yet the Hornets were still the ones doing the buying, trading the future for the present. That is to say, the very opposite of what they are doing now.
Seemingly, though, the Hornets were right to view Nurkic as having resale value. And it comes as a surprise to anyone who has watched the pair to learn that, to Utah at least, that value is considered to be greater than Sexton’s. To the outsider, Sexton appears to be both younger and clearly better.
No Salary Ramifications, For A Change
Financially, this trade is a wash. Both players have contracts that expire after the upcoming 2025-26 season, and save for the $400,000 difference between Nurkic’s $19.375 million contract and Sexton’s $18.975 million, the pair have the same salary.
With neither team tax or apron-threatened, there exists no financial motivation for the deal, as there so often is in NBA trades. The trade, then, is a purely basketball one. And therein lies the confusion.
The inclusion of the pick suggests that the Jazz feel that Nurkic is the better player, at least for them. Certainly, he is decent. In 51 games across his time with both the Hornets and Suns last season, the 7’1 Nurkic recorded averages of 8.9 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists in only 20.8 minutes per game, standing as the defiant pace-and-space breaker who beats up on small ball defenders and plays in drop coverage. Nurkic has been a decent-to-good NBA player for 11 years, and barring serious injury, he will continue to be so for at least one more.
Sexton, of course, is the complete opposite sort of player to Nurk. In his seventh NBA season, he averaged 18.4 points and 4.2 assists per game as a hybrid guard, shooting a very healthy 48.0% from the field and 40.6% from the three-point line. All of those numbers comport almost exactly with his career averages, and although development into a full-time NBA game manager have not been forthcoming, Sexton has consolidated his career in Utah and proven himself as a quality NBA scorer.
Jazz Gave Up The Future Asset For The Older Player
Preference is one thing, and an eternally subjective one. If the Jazz’s brain trust feel that they will be in a better development position next season with Nurkic rather than Sexton – or at least better balanced as a roster, especially given the addition during the draft of rookie wing Ace Bailey – then a swap of the two has some purpose. Considering the contract situations, any analysis extending beyond next season is a distant second in the priorities list.
One significant difference, however, cannot be dismissed as subjective; Sexton is four and a half years younger than Nurkic. Surely, then, he should have been the one with the better trade value.
Perhaps, though, getting worse was the aim. Because of a trade made some years ago with the Oklahoma City Thunder – in a salary dump of Derrick Favors, of all people – the Jazz will lose their 2026 first-round draft pick unless it falls within the top eight selections.
If they are able to pick that high and keep the pick, any future obligation to the Thunder is extinguished. It therefore behoves the Jazz to deliberately continue to do something they have been doing accidentally for the past couple seasons – lose.
A Deliberate Backwards Step?
Combined, it appears the Utah Jazz think they will be in a better position going forward with Jusuf Nurkic on the roster than Collin Sexton, if only because they will be worse off for it. Forsaking Sexton’s production, age, potency and future sign-and-trade value, the Jazz would rather add a veteran center to a five spot rotation already staffed by Walker Kessler and Kyle Filipowski, ostensibly to make available a spot for their draft picks in Bailey and Walter Clayton, but maybe in reality just because it is a downgrade trade that will help them to keep a pick they arguably should never have given up.
The NBA’s transaction marketplace can be a weird one. With John Collins and Lauri Markkanen considered likely trade candidates, as well as possibly Kessler and Jordan Clarkson, complete assessments of the Jazz’s offseason will have to come later, once the direction of travel is fully established. But even then, it will still need explaining why the team giving up the better and younger player is the one adding incentives.