Time to check in with the Utah Jazz to see how their tanking project is going.

Not well, thank you. They’re in Year 3 of the Great Tank and have only the second worst record in the Western Conference and fifth worst in the entire league.

Sorry, that’s not good enough, which is to say it’s not bad enough.

If you’re going to do something wrong, do it right.

If the Jazz are going to do this thing — and it’s too late to turn back now — then go all in on tanking so they can grab the prize. And the prize is: Cooper Flagg, the sensational freshman at Duke.

He could be just the piece the Jazz need to rejoin the NBA’s elite teams. The Jazz, of course, would put themselves in a better position to draft Flagg by finishing last among the NBA’s 30 teams.

They are currently three games out of last place. They are in a race to the bottom with the Charlotte Hornets, Toronto Raptors, New Orleans Pelicans and Washington Wizards.

Utah Jazz performance this season

After a nice six-game losing streak to start the season, the Jazz messed up and won three of their next six.

What was that?!

In December, the Jazz had their first two-game winning streak of the season.

They did it again to start the new year.

Are they committed to this thing, or not?

On Sunday night, they had a perfectly good opportunity for a loss and blew it, beating Brooklyn by one point in overtime to claim their first home win since November.

It might be time for another roster dump.

Related
Jazz beat Nets in overtime with Isaiah Collier game-winner

Look, the Jazz started this thing, so they should finish it. There’s no need for any pretense.

It’s not as if they have made a secret of their intentions.

The Jazz have been tanking for three seasons after choosing to follow the blueprint famously and unapologetically established by the 76ers, who tanked their way into becoming championship contenders (but have ultimately failed to win a championship, which is worth noting).

In 2022, the year after the Jazz posted the best record in the league, they traded away their five best players for 11 first-round draft picks. The Jazz lost 45 games.

Last season, the Jazz were contending for a playoff spot, sitting at .500 with less than one-third of the season remaining and having won 12 of 14 games during one stretch. That was not part of the plan.

They traded away three more players to add two more first-round picks to their collection and won 31 games.

While based in New Orleans, the Jazz knew how to lose without trying. Those were the days. They had the worst record in the league in 1974-75 and 1978-79.

Then they never won more than 28 games during their first three seasons in Salt Lake City, but they have never managed to finish with the league’s worst record again, even while trying.

Worst seasons in Jazz history

Wins Season Place

23 1974-75* 18th/18

26 1978-79* 22nd/22

24 1979-80 22nd/22

28 1980-81 20th/23

25 1981-82 21st/23

26 2004-05 27th/30

25 2013-14 27th/30

*Based on New Orleans


The Jazz also are among the six teams that have never owned the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Well, that’s not quite right. They owned that pick twice while in New Orleans by virtue of their won-lost records, but traded them away.

They traded the 1975 No. 1 pick to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Pete Maravich. The Hawks used the pick to select David Thompson.

The Jazz traded the 1979 No. 1 pick to the Los Angeles Lakers for Gail Goodrich. The Lakers used that pick to select Magic Johnson. Oops.

Forty-five years later, the Jazz have not had a No. 1 pick. The Cleveland Cavaliers and Wizards have both had six No. 1 picks, the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings five each, the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, 76ers and Portland Trail Blazers have had four each.

The Jazz: zilch.

Even the Boston Celtics and Lakers — who have won 35 NBA championships between them — have had a combined total of three No. 1 draft picks.

The Jazz are on pace to win about 24 games this season, which would be one of the worst performances in franchise history, but that probably won’t be good/bad enough to finish last.

The Jazz have managed a steady, methodical decline. Their win totals the past four seasons, starting with 2020-21: 52, 49, 37, 31. Going, going, gone …

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Comments

For all their self-inflicted pain, the best draft picks the Jazz have been able to secure since the tanking began is ninth in 2023 and 10th in 2024.

They have six players from the 2023 and 2024 drafts, but they still have not found the centerpiece to build a team around. Their best player is Lauri Markkanen, whom they obtained through a trade.

Tanking — what are they really getting out of this?

Who knew tanking and losing were such hard work.

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