2 years into their rebuild and the Utah Jazz lack elite young talent
The Utah Jazz finished the 2023-24 regular season with the eighth worst record in the NBA. And over the second half of said season, the Jazz were about as bad a team as you could find in the league, losers of 25 of their final 30 games.
It was all by design.
Since trading All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert in the summer of 2022, with additional trades involving former starters in Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanović and Royce O’Neale, among others, the Jazz have been in a major rebuild.
There have been some real bright spots during all the roster upheaval, such as the All-Star turn taken by forward Lauri Markkanen and strong rookie campaigns by Walker Kessler and Keyonte George in successive years.
But according to The Ringer’s annual ranking of the top 25 players in the NBA who are 25 years old or younger — the “next generation,” as they call it — the Jazz’s rebuild is off to a slow and disappointing start.
Utah doesn’t have a single player in The Ringer’s rankings, despite an 18-man roster that boasts 13 players aged 25 or younger, including the aforementioned George and Kessler, as well as Collin Sexton and 2023 lottery pick Taylor Hendricks.
(This is where it should be noted that Markkanen is 27 years old as of Wednesday. Most would say that he is now in the middle of his prime, no longer a promising up-and-comer.)
Meanwhile, 13 of the 25 players that made the list call the Western Conference home, including four of the top 5 overall.
The Northwest Division is home to 10 of the top 25, including Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder), Chet Holmgren (Oklahoma City Thunder), Jalen Williams (Oklahoma City Thunder), Ja Morant (Memphis Grizzlies), Alperen Sengun (Houston Rockets), Jaren Jackson Jr. (Memphis Grizzlies), Jalen Green (Houston Rockets), Desmond Bane (Memphis Grizzlies) and Jabari Smith Jr. (Houston Rockets).
Which means that 40% of the best players in the NBA who are 25 years old or younger — according to The Ringer — play in the same division as the Jazz.
Many were high lottery picks, something the Jazz have been unable to secure in each of the last two seasons, despite losing a combined 96 games.
Edwards was the No. 1 overall selection in the 2020 NBA draft. Holmgren, Morant, Green and Smith were all No. 2 selections, while Jackson was a No. 4 pick.
Those rising stars and/or established stars who weren’t high lottery picks — think Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Sengun and Bane, none of whom were selected higher than No. 11 — took years to develop, though all showed flashes early in their careers.
Each rebuild in the NBA is different, and you need look no further than the Detroit Pistons or Charlotte Hornets to see that selecting high in the lottery and landing potential star players like Cade Cunningham, LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller doesn’t guarantee success.
It is fair to say, though, that the Jazz’s rebuild hasn’t gotten off to a roaring start. At least not where young star-level talent is concerned.
