The NBA fined the Utah Jazz $500K for benching its starters in the fourth quarter of games. Since then, they’ve announced season-ending surgeries for two starters.
One week after Jaren Jackson, Jr. went under the knife to remove a growth in his left knee, center Jusuf Nurkic will have a surgical procedure on his nose that will end his 2025-26 season. These may be necessary procedures, but they’ll also help the Jazz’s tanking efforts.
Utah Jazz desperately want to have a bottom-four record
The Jazz have been tanking to various degrees since 2022, when they traded All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. They haven’t had a lot of luck with the draft lottery despite poor records, landing at No. 9, No. 10 and No. 5 in the three drafts since those deals.
This season, the Jazz have even more urgency to lose games thanks to a 2021 trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder, where the Jazz dumped the contract of center Derrick Favors. They surrendered a 2024 first-round pick, which was protected for picks 1-10 the last two seasons and from 1-8 in 2026. If the pick doesn’t convey this June, the obligation disappears.
That’s why the Jazz need to have one of the NBA’s four worst records to guarantee that they drop no lower than No. 8 in the draft. For that purpose, they’d been sitting Lauri Markkanen and the newly-acquired Jackson at the end of games, which the NBA answered with a massive fine. Now, they can’t be disciplined for sitting out two-thirds of their frontcourt because of medical procedures.
Jaren Jackson and Jusuf Nurkic had non-urgent surgeries
According to insider Chris Haynes, who broke the story, Nurkic is having the procedure on Tuesday because of a broken nose suffered years ago.