Utah Jazz find a new way to feed the tank in loss to Toronto Raptors

The NBA did not like the way the Utah Jazz’s injury report has looked lately, and the Jazz paid a hefty price for displeasing the league.

Earlier this week the Jazz were handed a $100,000 fine for violating the league’s player participation policy after using the injury report to sit Lauri Markkanen for nine straight games while also limiting the games played by Walker Kessler and a number of others this season.

Well, on Friday night, the Jazz found a loophole. Kessler was not on the injury report, was available to play and in uniform. And he watched the Jazz’s 126-118 loss to the Toronto Raptors from the comfort of the bench the whole night.

Markkanen, who did suit up and start the game, played 18 first-half minutes and scored 16 points to help give the Jazz a two-point halftime lead, then did not play in the second half.

He watched the Jazz’s lead slip away, in a seat on the bench next to Kessler.

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Friday night marks the first time in Kessler’s three years in the league that he’s had a DNP-CD (which stands for did not play-coach’s decision). But in this particular case, with Kessler and with Markkanen in the second half, this was not a CD.

The Jazz don’t want wins. They want to play their young players more than anyone else, they want to work within the framework of the NBA rulebook and not have to pay fines, so, since the NBA rules allow for it, this is probably what you should expect for the rest of the season.

Sources have indicated that there will probably be more games like this to come with some DNPs of healthy players and some players who play limited minutes.

For those who are anti-tank, this is probably adding insult to “injury,” but the NBA rewards losing teams with top-tier prospective talent, so the Jazz are just operating in the system that has been built for them to operate.

For those who are pro-tank, this is probably music to the ears. The remaining 15 Jazz games of the 2024-25 season will be used to primarily play the first and second-year players heavy minutes and to see if they will fight for their opportunity and if they can show any sort of marked improvement.

That’s what we saw at the end of the Jazz’s loss to the Raptors. The Jazz closed the game with Isaiah Collier, Cody Williams, Brice Sensabaugh, Kyle Filipowski and Johnny Juzang on the floor.

In these instances, Jazz coach Will Hardy wants to see a commitment to the gameplan and attention to detail on the things that the players are being evaluated on.

“It’s about understanding the things that are important to us as a team and as an organization,” he said. “Can you go out and execute the basics of the game plan?

“It’s not about shot making. It’s not about points ... I care about the execution defensively, and it’s about team defense and the things that you can control.”

So, for the rest of the season, the Jazz will continue to serve the tank beast in whatever way the NBA allows and continue to evaluate the young players with as much playing time as possible, and if that means leaving guys off an injury report, necessitating that they put on their uniform only to sit for the entirety of 48 minutes, so be it.