{"id":729595,"date":"2026-05-09T07:24:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/729595\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T07:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T07:24:19","slug":"the-nba-is-not-ready-for-the-jazz-if-they-win-the-nba-lottery-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/729595\/","title":{"rendered":"The NBA is not ready for the Jazz if they win the NBA lottery"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Mother\u2019s Day is probably the most consequential Mother\u2019s Day in Utah Jazz<\/a> history (I haven\u2019t checked, I\u2019m guessing, okay). The thing the NBA doesn\u2019t realize is that it\u2019s going to be consequential for the entire league, as well.<\/p>\n

Utah, even if they somehow lost their pick this year, would still be a playoff contender. While the league was punishing the Jazz for doing things everyone else was doing, the Jazz were doing something only Jazz fans saw: playing winning basketball.<\/p>\n

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Utah started the season with a blowout win over the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> and went on to post some impressive wins throughout the season. Here are some playoff teams Utah won against: Clippers, Suns, Celtics<\/a>, Rockets, Pistons<\/a>, Spurs, Cavaliers, Timberwolves<\/a>, Heat, and Warriors<\/a>. Each one of these drove me crazy throughout the season, by the way. And the reason they had to start tanking earlier than the apparent unspoken rules allow was that the Jazz had a breakout season from Keyonte George<\/a> and improved play across the roster. Utah had Cody Williams<\/a> looking like a rotation player, they found a real player in Blake Hinson<\/a>, they revived Jusuf Nurkic<\/a>, and even had games where Kevin Love<\/a> shot the lights out and turned needed losses into wins. Nothing this season was predictable, but the one thing that was consistent was the level of effort demanded by Will Hardy, along with an offense that consistently set players up to succeed.<\/p>\n

The biggest question is the defense, but adding Jaren Jackson Jr.<\/a>, who will play alongside Walker Kessler<\/a> (potentially), and that should, at the very least, create an identity of rim protection and size if they\u2019re combined with Lauri Markkanen<\/a> as well. There\u2019s a very reasonable expectation that Utah\u2019s defense should at least be top-15 with the personnel on the floor. Can Will Hardy lead them to that? Utah\u2019s size will go a long way to making that happen.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s some real upside with this roster that makes next year fascinating. What if Keyonte George takes another leap? What if Walker Kessler signs a contract he and the Jazz are happy with and plays at an all-defense level? What if the defense is better than expected and is in the top-10?<\/p>\n

Those are the questions we\u2019re asking before we even get to the lottery, which brings up the biggest question of all.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

What if the Jazz win the lottery?<\/p>\n

You add a star to this core, and you have a team set for far more than just the playoffs. The Jazz go from playoff team to borderline contender, maybe more. They may not be quite ready to win the finals, but that\u2019s not out of the question. And that\u2019s the thing that makes this lottery so important. The variable is crazy here, and the NBA is not ready for just how good the Jazz will be.<\/p>\n

The question for you is, how good do you think the Jazz will be if they win the lottery?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This Mother\u2019s Day is probably the most consequential Mother\u2019s Day in Utah Jazz history (I haven\u2019t checked, I\u2019m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,28760,3294,46,10846,1082,496,423,5088,1678,955,976,135,8687,6,297,5592,308,422,427,3972,1405,255],"class_list":["post-729595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-utah-jazz","tag-basketball","tag-blake-hinson","tag-byu-cougars","tag-celtics","tag-cincinnati-bearcats","tag-cody-williams","tag-jaren-jackson-jr","tag-jazz","tag-jusuf-nurkic","tag-kevin-love","tag-keyonte-george","tag-lauri-markkanen","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-mothers-day","tag-nba","tag-pistons","tag-the-jazz","tag-timberwolves","tag-utah","tag-utah-jazz","tag-utahjazz","tag-walker-kessler","tag-warriors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116543426946296034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}