NBA Rumors: Jazz Tensions 'Worse Than We've Even Been Led to Believe' After Deadline
The Utah Jazz are reportedly dealing with locker room turmoil coming out of Thursday's NBA trade deadline.
On Friday's episode of The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix and Howard Beck (h/t HoopsHype), Beck said "some tensions" exist within the Jazz locker room that "might be a little worse than we've been led to believe."
The Jazz have won four in a row and rank fourth in the Western Conference with a 34-21 record.
Utah wasn't too busy at the deadline, but it added two players in a three-team trade with the Portland Trail Blazers and San Antonio Spurs.
The Jazz shipped out injured guard Joe Ingles, forward Elijah Hughes and two second-round picks for guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker and forward Juancho Hernangomez.
That gives the Jazz additional depth to support the core of Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson.
The Jazz boast a pair of three-time All-Stars in Mitchell and Gobert, plus Gobert is a three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year.
However, rumors of issues between Mitchell and Gobert have swirled since the 2019-20 season because of Gobert's actions in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Days before Gobert became the first NBA player to test positive for COVID-19, he mocked the league's policy on social distancing by touching all the microphones and recording devices in front of him.
As well, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Gobert was "careless" in the locker room before he tested positive, touching other players and their belongings.
Mitchell subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. In an appearance on Good Morning America (h/t ESPN's Tim MacMahon), Mitchell admitted he was upset with Gobert, saying, "It took me a while to kind of cool off."
Questions have persisted about the relationship between Mitchell and Gobert.
A lack of playoff success may also have contributed to the reported frustration in Utah, as the Jazz have not advanced past the second round despite making the playoffs in each of the past five seasons.
While they haven't gotten over the hump, the Jazz are still contenders to make it out of the Western Conference this season, especially after impressively beating the second-seeded Golden State Warriors 111-85 on Wednesday.
A failure to improve in the playoffs, though, could start rumors that Mitchell wants out of Utah, per Beck, which would be a huge blow after the franchise signed him to a five-year max contract extension in 2020.
