{"id":750602,"date":"2026-06-02T15:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T15:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/750602\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T15:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T15:15:13","slug":"western-notes-jazz-nurkic-dundon-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/750602\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Notes: Jazz, Nurkic, Dundon, Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rebuild is over for the Jazz, who appear poised to take a significant step forward in 2026\/27, writes Tony Jones of The Athletic<\/a>. As Jones details, Utah is excited to \u201cfinally take the shackles off\u201d Will Hardy, whom they feel can be one of the NBA\u2019s best head coaches, but who has been handcuffed by the team\u2019s tanking efforts in recent years.<\/p>\n

Hardy will be coaching a frontcourt that has the potential to be one of the league\u2019s best, with Lauri Markkanen<\/a>, Jaren Jackson Jr.<\/a>, and Walker Kessler<\/a> leading the way. The Jazz also have a rising star in the backcourt in Keyonte George<\/a> and could have one of the best young duos in the NBA, with this year\u2019s No. 2 overall pick joining last year\u2019s No. 5 selection Ace Bailey<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, as Jones points out, the Jazz won\u2019t be able to rest on their laurels going forward. Markkanen and Jackson are already on sizable contracts, with Kessler likely to get a lucrative new deal of his own in restricted free agency this offseason. George will also be eligible for a rookie scale extension in a matter of weeks and appears to be in line for a significant raise after increasing his scoring average to 23.6 points per game in his third season. In other words, the core of Utah\u2019s roster will get expensive soon, so the front office will have to continue making savvy moves to supplement that core with winning role players.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from around the Western Conference:<\/p>\n

Former Suns center Jusuf Nurkic<\/a> raised eyebrows during an appearance on the X&Os Chat with Edin Avdic (YouTube link<\/a>) when he discussed his relationship with former Suns head coach Mike Budenholzer and referred to him as an \u201calcohol addict\u201d who would schedule 1-on-1 meetings with his players \u201cjust to provoke\u201d them, as Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic<\/a> relays. Nurkic previously spoke about<\/a> his frosty relationship with Budenholzer back when both men were still in Phoenix, with reporting<\/a> at the end of the 2024\/25 season indicating that the coach told the big man he was a \u201cbad teammate.\u201d
\nThe criticism that Tom Dundon has faced for the way he has run the Trail Blazers since he took control of the team earlier this spring has come as a surprise to many in the hockey world, according to James Mirtle of The Athletic<\/a>, who says the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes is popular among his players and isn\u2019t described as \u201ccheap\u201d by those who have worked with him in the NHL. \u201cThe fact of the matter is, he doesn\u2019t always do things in traditional ways,\u201d NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said. \u201cI think in some ways he\u2019s a bit of a disruptor, but he\u2019s extraordinarily creative and effective. And the results in Carolina \u2014 they\u2019re both on and off the ice.\u201d
\nJustin Martinez of The Oklahoman<\/a> provides a roster primer for the Thunder as they head into a big offseason, while Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron<\/a> (Substack link) considers what sort of moves Oklahoma City could make this summer. Gozlan speculates that four years and $104MM would be the floor for Cason Wallace<\/a> on a rookie scale extension \u2014 that would put him in the range of Dyson Daniels<\/a> and Christian Braun<\/a>, both of whom received $25MM per year on their rookie scale extensions in 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rebuild is over for the Jazz, who appear poised to take a significant step forward in 2026\/27,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,205,423,5088,3358,6,39242,422,427,3972,4676],"class_list":["post-750602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-utah-jazz","tag-basketball","tag-cason-wallace","tag-jazz","tag-jusuf-nurkic","tag-mike-budenholzer","tag-nba","tag-tom-dundon","tag-utah","tag-utah-jazz","tag-utahjazz","tag-will-hardy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116681174114322476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750602","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=750602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}