Did you hear the news? The Utah Jazz, owners of the worst record in the world (of basketball), rewarded their head coach with a six-year contract extension.
Will Hardy, the Utah Jazz’s young coach, has a won-lost record of 85-161 after three seasons. That’s an average of about 28 wins and 54 losses per season.
He finished the regular season with a league-low 17 wins — the fewest in franchise history. The NBA season is about 19 weeks long, so, you know, do the math.
Normally, after such a season, a team would show the coach the door and tell him they want to go in a different direction.
The Jazz rewarded him with a contract extension through 2031.
Congratulations, Coach, on helping us run this thing right into the ground.
Well, as everyone knows, Hardy was placed in an awkward spot. The Jazz hired him in 2022 and essentially told him not to be successful. They started a Tank-a-Thon by trading away the team’s best players — Bojan Bogdanovic, Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and Royce O’Neale — in exchange for a few veteran players and 11 first-round draft picks spread out over seven years. They traded away additional players, including Mike Conley, for more draft picks in 2023, when the Jazz’s Island of Misfit Toys failed to cooperate and began making a run for a playoff spot.
So no one can blame Hardy for following orders and overseeing the Jazz’s decline — 37-45 in his first season, 31-51 in his second season, 17-65 this season.
But six years? How about two? Three, at most. This guy might be a good coach — he might be great — but how does anyone know? He might be able to win games, but so far all he’s been asked to do is develop young players and let the losses come.
Even from Hardy’s perspective this doesn’t make much sense. Why did he want to re-up for six more years of this at the age of 37? He’s not going to have much to show on his resume. Sorry, Coach, I think we’re more interested in someone who, you know, wins games, as opposed to losing.
Even Hardy was moved to note, sarcastically, “It’s a good time for us; we’re doing great.”
That’s life with the Utah Jazz in the Era of Ainge.
So far the current strategy has produced no signs of improvement, now or in the future. So much of the plan depends on the Jazz winning the No. 1 overall pick for next month’s draft — also known as Cooper Flagg. But they have only a 14% chance of winning it, so …
As for all those draft picks they collected, none looks like the Jazz discovered any future stars. They made deals that will reap more first-round picks over the next few years, but the problem is they made those deals with solid teams that will finish high in the standings and therefore won’t provide lottery picks.
They own Minnesota’s first-round pick in this year’s draft. The Timberwolves are a playoff team. The pick will be no better than 21st overall. The Jazz also own second-round picks via trades with the Mavericks and Clippers that are 43rd and 53rd overall, respectively. Everything depends on the Jazz winning the draw for the first pick courtesy of their last-place finish.
The Jazz own a first-round swap with the Cavaliers and Timberwolves in 2026, giving them the choice of taking the best pick of the group. Once again, the Cavaliers and Timberwolves are playoff teams — the Cavs had the second highest win total in the league at 64 and the T-Wolves won 49. They’re likely to be playoff teams next season, as well, resulting in a draft pick later in the first round.
The Jazz own a protected pick via the Lakers in 2027. If the Lakers’ pick falls within the top four of that year’s draft, Los Angeles keeps the pick. If the pick is outside the top four, the Jazz get it.
The Jazz own a first-round swap with the Cavaliers in 2028, which means they will have the option of taking the highest pick of the two. Again, the Cavaliers are a solid team and it’s unlikely this will give the Jazz a high pick, and they have a pick swap from either the Cavs or Timberwolves in 2029.
The Jazz own the Suns’ first-round pick in 2031. The Suns had a losing record this season, but who knows where they will stand in six years.
This is what the Jazz and Hardy signed up for this week.
