Danny Ainge is up to his old ways at his new job. Now president of basketball operations for the Utah Jazz, Ainge just completed his first full year in charge and it has been a success by most measures. He got comically large hauls of draft picks and young players for Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. Lauri Markkanen, included in the latter deal, put forth a shocking All-Star season by averaging north of 25 points per game and established his place as a long-term foundational piece. He was, unfortunately, so good that the Jazz ended up with the ninth pick in the 2023 NBA Draft but that was the only downside of an otherwise stellar start to the rebuild.
Utah hasn't been super active in free agency this summer, though. They traded for John Collins because the Atlanta Hawks were willing to give him away for a bag of chips. Otherwise, the Jazz have been silent. Until Saturday, when they extended a contract offer to Philadelphia 76ers restricted free agent Paul Reed. This would normally not be super out of the ordinary. Reed is a good player who will never get a chance to play big minutes while Joel Embiid is on the roster, and that combined with his restricted free agent status makes him a perfect target for a rebuilding team with cap space to burn like Utah.
However, the structure of the contract that Ainge put together makes it clear that the offer was created to screw Philly. The Jazz offered Paul a three-year deal worth $23 million.
