Former Jazzman Favors Staying With Thunder
May 17, 2022, 2:15 PM
Oklahoma City Thunder center Derrick Favors (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY – Though most NBA fans have their attention focused on the Conference Finals which begins tonight in Miami, former Utah Jazz big man Derrick Favors found himself in the news Tuesday.
Favors picked up the player option for the final season of his three-year, nearly $30 million contract with the Thunder.
Favors signed the deal with the Jazz in the 2020 offseason but spent only one season in Utah before being dealt to the Thunder in a cost-cutting move.
Oklahoma City Thunder center Derrick Favors has opted into his $10.2 million player option for the 2022-23 season, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 17, 2022
The Jazz had to throw in a 2024 first-round pick, and a 2027 second-round pick with Favors in the trade.
The first-round pick is protected 1-10 in 2024 and 2025, and the protection dips to 1-8 in 2026. According to RealGM, if the pick isn’t conveyed over those three seasons, it returns to the Jazz at no cost.
Favors has played for three different teams over the last three seasons and has seen a decrease in production at each stop.
The Jazz originally dealt Favors to the New Orleans Pelicans in the summer of 2019 to make room to acquire point guard Mike Conley and forward Bojan Bogdanovic.
Favors averaged 9.0 points and 9.8 rebounds in New Orleans before returning to the Jazz.
derrick favors forever and for always pic.twitter.com/LJDFhOiDzw
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 1, 2019
The big man was a full-time reserve in Utah backing up Rudy Gobert where he averaged a then career-low 5.4 points and 5.5 rebounds in 68 games off the bench.
In his first season with the Thunder, Favors’s averages dipped to 5.3 points and 4.7 rebounds in 39 appearances including 18 starts.
The former Jazzman doesn’t figure into the Thunder’s current rebuilding timeline, and entering the final year of his contract, could be a trade option for a playoff team looking for a veteran center to play spot minutes off the bench, or for a team looking for future salary cap relief with his expiring deal.
Favors was the third overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft and will turn 31 before the beginning of next season.
