Analysis: Jazz and Magic are two teams with bright futures, a look at the ROY race, plus Collin Sexton’s bench activity

ORLANDO — Although beating the Orlando Magic, the team with the fifth-worst record in the NBA, is not something that is going to get any national attention, and is not the win that will give any team any amount of bragging rights, it is the kind of game the Utah Jazz can use to boost morale and keep some positive perspective.

The Jazz had lost four straight prior to Thursday night’s 131-124 win over the Magic and they’d started out their six-game road trip 0-3. Despite a competitive game against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, the Jazz were starting to feel the weight of their losing streak.

“It gives us a little bit of extra energy,” Lauri Markkanen said after beating the Magic. “Even though we dropped three straight on the road, we’ve got a six-game road trip and we still got a chance to go .500 on the trip. We really needed the win and I think it’s good for the team mentally to just stop the losing streak.”

While Thursday’s game was one with incredibly low stakes, between two teams that are more than likely headed toward a lottery position, it was really fun and competitive all the way to the end.

Young teams with bright futures

The Jazz and the Magic are two of the teams in the league that are right on the cusp of becoming exciting, fun, legitimately competitive teams with a young core of really talented players who are going to have very long NBA careers.

Those of you reading this are probably very familiar with the Jazz’s building blocks — Markkanen, Walker Kessler, Ochai Agbaji and Collin Sexton with a boatload of draft capital (15 picks over seven years) and cap space on the horizon.

The Magic are in a similar boat. Although not contending for anything real this season, they have a lot to be excited about when looking at their young foundation of Paulo Bachero, Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner and eight first round picks over the next six years, plus a ton of cap flexibility.

The thing I like the most about where the Magic and Jazz are in their building process is that even though they’re in the midst of a losing season, they have players that care and haven’t stopped playing hard. Will Hardy and Jamahl Mosley deserve a ton of credit for being able to keep that fire alive even when it’s clear where things are headed. It’s going to make the next few years even more interesting.

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Walker Kessler vs. Paulo Banchero

A fun little subplot on Thursday was seeing Kessler and Banchero, two of the best rookies in the league, on the floor at the same time.

Banchero is currently leading the way in the Rookie of the Year race by a pretty wide margin, and I think that’s fair after watching the Jazz play the Magic.

That’s not to say that Kessler is anything short of fantastic — he’s an unbelievable talent that the Jazz are going to have for a very long time and he’s going to be very good. But Banchero is the type of player that you can build around and he’s clearly the focal point and best player on this Magic team. I think we often forget how rare it is to have a rookie player that has the body and the skills to be a star right away, and Banchero has it all.

Kessler and Banchero had a couple of fun moments going against each other on Thursday — Kessler blocked Banchero in the opening minutes and midway through the first quarter Banchero put the boosters on, stepped around Kessler and got to the basket with ease before Kessler realized what happened.

Even though Kessler will probably not win ROY over Banchero, here’s what Jazz fans should be happy about. When asked about the ROY race and playing against Banchero, Kessler said that he wasn’t really concerned with any of it.

“I see it, but in the past, in high school and stuff, whenever I got sidetracked with the rankings and stuff, I always played worse,” Kessler said. “So for me, it’s always just about trying to impact the game as much as I can and trying to win the game at the end of the day. The rest of it kind of takes care of itself.”

Collin Sexton’s engagement

We would all be lucky to find something that we care about as much as Collin Sexton cares about basketball.

Sexton has been sidelined for seven games with a hamstring strain and through every single one of those games, Sexton has been the first one off the bench cheering for his teammates. He’s talking with the officials during timeouts, he’s calling out plays like he’s a coach, he’s active in the timeout huddles.

“Colin loves basketball, Colin loves being on a team, he has one of the purest elements of joy to him, like there’s still part of him that’s just a kid playing basketball with his friends,” Hardy said. “He works really hard, he’s very diligent, he’s fired up for his teammates, he’s engaged in the locker room … I’ve had to tell him to sit down multiple times because the new rule where you can’t stand in the corner and I’ve had multiple officials say ‘hey, you got to tell Sexton to sit down.’ And I’m like, ‘hey, I’m trying but I can’t really control him.’ That’s how he is. That’s just who Colin is.”