With Sunday night’s dramatic loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Utah Jazz reached the 20-game mark of the season, which means they are essentially a quarter of the way through their 82-game season.
Jazz management made it clear before the campaign began that they would be prioritizing the development of younger players this season. Of course they are never going to use the t word — tanking — but essentially that’s what happens when you focus on playing younger players.
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So, how is the tanking — the process of losing games to increase the chances of getting a high draft pick next summer — going for the Jazz?
Following Sunday night’s loss, the Jazz have a 4-16 record. It is the third-worst in the NBA, only better than the injury-plagued New Orleans Pelicans (4-17) and the league-worst Washington Wizards (2-16).
Aside from placement in the standings and wins and losses, winning percentage is an important thing to keep an eye on over the next 62 games to track how the Jazz are doing in the quest to land a top draft pick next summer.
With their 4-16 record, the Jazz’s winning percentage is a clean .200. Historically that has been bad enough to be right in the thick of having the best odds of getting the top pick in the draft (the lottery system, of course, doesn’t guarantee it).
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That means winning 16 or 17 games, as 16 wins in an 82-game season means a .195 winning percentage and 17 wins means a .207 winning percentage.
Here’s a look at the winning percentage of the teams that finished with the worst record in the NBA, dating back to the 2002-03 season (starting with that season and moving to the most recent):
Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets: .207
Portland Trail Blazers, .256
New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets, .146
Minnesota Timberwolves, .207
Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets), .106
Minnesota Timberwolves, .195
Golden State Warriors, .231
Clearly there is some variance from year to year, but a .268 winning percentage (22 wins) is the best a team has finished and still been the worst team in the NBA since the 2002-03 season.
The Jazz started this season 0-6 before winning three of their next five games, moving their record to 3-8 on the season (.272 winning percentage), but they’ve gone just 1-8 since then.
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Duke freshman Cooper Flagg has long been seen as the top prospect in the 2025 NBA Draft and that remains the case, although Rutgers freshmen Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey have gotten off to excellent starts in the college basketball season, as has BYU’s Egor Demin, among others.
Potentially helping in the Jazz’s efforts to be bad, multiple outlets have reported in recent days that while the NBA trade deadline is still over two months away, the team could make veterans such as John Collins, Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton available.