Over the last two seasons, the Utah Jazz have lost, and lost a lot.
It has been an unfamiliar time for Jazz fans, who over the course of the franchise’s history have been accustomed to winning and winning a lot.
Since 2000, the Jazz have won the sixth-most games during the regular season of any NBA franchise, behind only the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers, winning .545 of their games in total, per statmuse.
Go back even further, say to 1980, and the Jazz have the fourth-most wins of any NBA franchise, behind only the Lakers, Spurs and Celtics.
All of which is to say a multi-year rebuild has been unfamiliar territory. Painful territory at times.
It hasn’t yet proven worth it on the court — and there is always a danger that a rebuild won’t — but there is a lot of optimism about the current standing of the Jazz, and a lot of optimism regarding the assets accumulated and what the Jazz may do with them.
In his recent examination of what all 30 NBA teams need to do this offseason, ESPN’s Bobby Marks was rather high on the Jazz, giving the team a rating of 10 out of 10 when it comes to future draft assets.
Sure the Jazz have questions, but they have the ability to create some answers — arguably better than most teams.
“Utah will have unprotected (first round draft picks) from both Cleveland and Minnesota in 2025 and 2027,” Marks writes. “The Jazz are owned a 2029 unprotected first from Cleveland and a top-five protected 2029 first from Minnesota. Utah also has the right to swap firsts with Minnesota or Cleveland (top-eight protected) in 2028. Utah is also owed a top-five protected first from the Lakers in 2027.”
That the Jazz have an enviable war chest isn’t surprising given the hauls the team received when it traded Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, but after developing Lauri Markkanen into an All-Star plus making three first rounds selections in last year’s draft, Utah has a young corps with potential.
It is a group of players that ESPN’s Jeremy Woo believes affords the Jazz to take a risk in the upcoming draft by perhaps taking a project rather than an immediate contributor, a talent play for the future at the expense of immediate improvement.
“The Jazz are on a longer rebuilding path and should be open to taking on project-type players, particularly later,” Woo writes. “They have a need for a bigger playmaker, which should put prospects such as Nikola Topic on their radar at No. 10, but Utah should be focused on accumulating talent at this point. The Jazz have plenty of young prospects on the roster who need playing time next season and don’t necessarily have to get immediate minutes from whomever they draft, which could make a draft-and-stash pick palatable with their later picks.”
The presence of Markkanen on the roster, plus a host of young players with potential — and likely more on the way — makes the Jazz coaching job a good one overall when compared to the rest of the league, writes CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn. In the top half of the NBA, at worst.
“... Job security in Utah is strong, as the Jazz have had only six full-time coaches since moving to Salt Lake City in 1979, but (Ryan) Smith didn’t own the team for most of that run,” Quinn writes. “For the Jazz job to rise to the top half of (the league), (Danny) Ainge probably needs to pick a direction. Either trade Markkanen now, fully embrace a rebuild that never quite came and load up for the stellar 2025 NBA draft, or go the other way and use some of that draft capital to meaningfully improve the team. Those picks represent Utah’s upside, but until we know how they’re used, the Jazz are only a promising job, not necessarily a great one.”
That the Jazz have questions this offseason isn’t surprising, and Marks has multiple questions, such as:
- Is there space for more draft picks on the roster?
- What will the Jazz do with some significant cap space?
- Is it time to utilize the war chest in favor of immediate improvement?
Marks also noted that the Jazz have question marks at point guard (Keyonte George played the position for the first time in his career as a rookie) and in the frontcourt after some stagnation from Walker Kessler.
Development of younger players remains a question — how good can George or Taylor Hendricks become? And then there is the need for the Jazz to improve overall on defense after they were one of the five worst teams in the league last season in defensive rating.
Still, given the players the Jazz have already found in the early stages of their rebuild, plus the assets accumulated, there is a lot of optimism about the state of the franchise, even if it sometimes doesn’t feel that way for fans accustomed to winning.