Jazz Trading Joe Ingles, Landing Nickeil Alexander-Walker In Deal With Blazers, Spurs

The Jazz have sent injured forward Joe Ingles to the Trail Blazers in a three-team trade that also involved the Spurs, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

In exchange, the Jazz will receive guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker from the Trail Blazers and Spurs forward Juancho Hernangomez, and the Spurs also will acquire guard Tomas Satoransky and a second-round pick. Alexander-Walker and Satoransky were just acquired by the Blazers in the CJ McCollum deal with the Pelicans.

Meanwhile, along with Ingles, the Blazers are receiving small forward Elijah Hughes and a second-round pick from the Jazz. Ingles is out for the season with a torn ACL and will an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Joe Ingles last week, in anticipation of being traded: "If I’m able to get someone back that would help them make a push for the end of the year, I understand that. I’m not going to sit here and be sour and upset."

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) February 9, 2022

“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,” wrote Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors. “Following the injury, Ingles’ value dipped, and Utah apparently decided none of the options available for a first-round pick were worth moving forward on.”

Hughes will also be a free agent, making the Blazers’ third trade in less than a week seem fairly meaningless, other than to create even more salary-cap maneuverability once July rolls around.

“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,” Adams explained.

Despite all the movement, Blazers star guard Damian Lillard indicated he intends to stick with the Blazers while they revamp the roster.

“For me, my heart is Portland Trail Blazer,” Lillard said, via Casey Holdahl of NBA.com.