After Dante Exum suffered a torn ACL last week there was a lot of speculation about what the Utah Jazz would do to try and replace him. One of the prevailing thoughts on a possible Exum replacement was Garrett Temple of the Washington Wizards. Temple is low on the Wizards depth chart and many people thought that the Wizards and Jazz might be able to work out a deal to send the veteran point guard to Utah to serve as their backup point guard for next season. It is being reported now that the Wizards aren't exactly eager to trade Temple, according to J Michael of CSN Washington.
Temple is currently the third point guard on the Wizards depth chart behind John Wall and Ramon Sessions, which would seemingly make him expendable, but he is reportedly a favorite of head coach Randy Wittman and provides defense which could be key for the Wizards. Regardless of whether the Wizards want to trade him or not the Jazz reportedly have not reached out to Washington about a potential trade for the 6 foot-6 point guard despite rumors that they would have interest in him.
Temple is set to make $1.1 million this year so if the Wizards did decide to trade him they could likely save themselves some money by instead using that roster spot for an undrafted rookie who will make less and have an unguaranteed contract. The Wizards will have to decide if saving the money is worth more to them than having Temple and his defensive abilities available off the bench. Last season Temple saw action in 52 games for the Wizards and averaged 3.9 points in 14.1 minutes per game but was a plus defender in limited action.
If the Jazz don't decide to make a trade for Temple or anyone else they will go into the season with Trey Burke as their starting point guard and Bryce Cotton and Raul Neto as the potential backups. Neither Cotton nor Neto has much of any NBA experience and the Jazz are a team with playoff aspirations so it might behoove them to give Washington a call or search for a veteran point guard elsewhere. If the Wizards do get a call from Utah about Temple then they will have a decision to make but until then they are fine with holding on to him for depth purposes.
