The Utah Jazz had reasons to move Cody Williams. He was still a project, the kind of player who probably wasn’t going to soak up meaningful minutes this season, and Utah is trying to win now. That made the trade understandable.
What makes it a little uncomfortable for the Jazz is where Williams landed.
Minnesota has spent the last few years proving it knows how to develop players, and that matters here. The Timberwolves have helped turn Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels and former Jazz guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker into real rotation pieces. Alexander-Walker is the name that should ring loudest for Utah, because his path and Williams’ profile line up in a way that feels hard to ignore.
NAW was a former lottery pick who had the look of a possible steal when he entered the league in 2019. He needed time, and he needed the right situation.
Minnesota gave him that runway. Once he got it, he took off, and after leaving for Atlanta, he went on to win Most Improved Player of the Year.
That’s the part that should make the Jazz uneasy. The Timberwolves didn’t just collect a talented player; they put him in position to become something more. Now they’ve got Williams, a similar sort of bet, and they’re clearly confident enough in him to keep him.
According to Shams Charania, “The Timberwolves are expected to keep Cody Williams, the No. 10 pick in 2024, and waive-and-stretch John Konchar, sources said. They found a home for Josh Green on a Jazz team that wanted an additional 3-and-D wing; moving his $14.7 million deal gives Minnesota the salary space…”
Utah knows better than anyone that draft picks don’t all hit. The Jazz have lived that reality, especially under Danny Ainge. But Williams doesn’t just have a chance to settle in with Minnesota - he could become good enough to make the Timberwolves even tougher to deal with.
That matters because both teams are chasing the same thing this season: making the deepest run possible. Minnesota has leaned into development to keep pushing forward, and that approach is part of why it has faith in Williams.
If he turns into a real difference-maker there, that’s trouble for Utah and for the Western Conference as a whole. The Timberwolves have been knocking on the door for a while, and they’ve changed their formula this offseason in an effort to break through.
Is Williams the final piece? Hard to say.
If the Jazz thought that, they wouldn’t have moved him at all, especially not to a West rival. Still, he was playing some of his best basketball in the final weeks of Utah’s tank, and if that progress carries over, Minnesota may have found exactly the kind of player it knows how to unlock.
And that’s what makes this trade feel risky for the Jazz: they didn’t just send Williams away. They sent him to one of the teams most likely to get the best out of him.
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His return gives the Jazz a second training camp addition for the upcoming season, and it also keeps a player in the organization who already knows the system and the people around it. For a team still sorting out the edges of its backcourt depth, a signing like this can matter in ways that go beyond the paperwork, even if the real test is still ahead. [Read more 🡒]