It was a productive summer for the Utah Jazz during an offseason that added some young, attractive new talent while managing to retain All-Star Lauri Markkanen on a near-max contract to keep him in Salt Lake City for the long term.
However, there are still some glaring question marks for this team as it enters its third season of rebuilding, and faces a few more on the horizon.
While the Jazz have consistently managed to build a strong, young core over the past three summers, this team is still a few steps away from becoming a serious threat in a loaded Western Conference.
Utah is projected to post around 28.5 wins for the coming year, making them one of the lowest teams in the standings but also a veteran group with little chance of making the play-in.
Following the Jazz crossroads, Bleacher Report Grant Hughes have called their biggest question heading into next season “Will they stop everything again?”, effectively asking if this management will make further moves to dismantle the squad and drop to the bottom of the standings:
“The Utah Jazz have had two straight seasons in which their players played a little too well early, necessitating deliberate late-season slumps. Will they take that approach, which hurt their chances of landing the No. 1 pick in the last two drafts, for a third straight season? … Utah appears to want both. It has a ton of young players who need reps to develop, and it could be in a disastrous situation by giving George and others big roles from start to finish. But it also has plenty of capable veterans who have played well enough to keep the team in the playoff race.”
– Grant Hughes, Bleacher Report
The Jazz have a solid group of young players, but also have veterans who can contribute to wins, like former Sixth Man of the Year Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, John Collins and, of course, Lauri Markkanen.
Their mix of young talent and experience could inevitably give them a small boost in the record books for the coming year. And, as a result, hurt their chances in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. Utah could choose to try to sell veterans like Collins or Clarkson before the start of the year, but the market may not be in their favor to make a deal.
Instead, this roster may seem similarly constructed to previous years as a team capable of putting up good, but not playoff-worthy, numbers for half the season and then shipping some pieces at the deadline to bottom out for better lottery chances.
That may be the disappointing path the Jazz have taken over the past two seasons, but they appear to be preparing for a third without any drastic changes.
The Jazz’s goal moving forward should be to prioritize their young players and their development while aiming for high lottery odds to continue to build on an already attractive young core. Prospects like Keyonte George, Walker Kessler, Taylor Hendricks and the team’s three rookies can enter this season with significant roles up front and hopefully accelerate this rebuild to success.
The concept sounds good in theory, but we’ll see how feasible it is.
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