Kyle Anderson's time with the Golden State Warriors was brief — 36 games, to be exact. He signed a three-year, $27 million deal with the team in the 2024 offseason, and the Warriors traded him seven months later to the Heat in the Jimmy Butler deal. Anderson is now in Utah, after this past summer's Norm Powell trade.
How is he doing with the Jazz? Well, Anderson is averaging 7.5 points, 3.8 assists, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game in 19.5 minutes across six games. He missed a few games with a back injury, but aside from that, he's racked up several DNPs. In the six games that Anderson has played, Utah is 0-6. He's yet to step foot on the court in a win.
Anderson, who is 32, is fading fast with the Jazz. He is in the second season of his three-year contract, making $9.2 million this season and having a $9.7 million non-guaranteed salary for the 2026-27 season. Given that Utah is in a limbo period of prioritizing its youth while trying to compete with Lauri Markkanen, the Jazz could try to trade Anderson before the Feb. 5 deadline. He hasn't shown much to contenders that could be interested in adding him to the bench, though.
Unfortunately, he wasn't a good fit with the Warriors (even after the offseason hype), but luckily for the organization, they moved on quickly, using Anderson to land Butler.
Kyle Anderson has been a non-factor for the Jazz
Anderson, who was part of the Timberwolves squad that reached the conference finals in 2024, should want to go to a contender. Utah's 7-13 record is better than most thought it would be a quarter of the way through the season, especially considering the team is down Walker Kessler, but it'll be an uphill battle for the Jazz to make it past the play-in tournament, if they even make it there.
Given how little Will Hardy has used Anderson, it's safe to assume that the Jazz would prefer to trade him, but that will be very challenging. You have to play to prove to teams that you're worthy of trading for. Utah doesn't seem to care much about that, which says a lot about how the team views Anderson.
Maybe he'll find a new home before the deadline, but if not, it seems unlikely that the Jazz would buy out his contract. He may spend the entire season in Salt Lake City and hope that he'll find a new opportunity next summer.