Utah Draft To Provide Initiatory Pick’s For The Jazz

Year #3 of rebuilding has arrived, and the Utah Jazz are very much in the thick of it.

A fraction of that treasure trove of draft capital is beginning to come to fruition and the Jazz are hoping, like 29 other teams, to select an impact player from this year’s NBA draft.

If your like me, you've simply been tuning out the rumblings that this draft is weak, devoid of a franchise altering player, and put full trust in the Jazz scouting department.

This is that kind of year.

The year in which the effectiveness of a scouting department plays a larger role than per usual because everything is so up in the air with question marks abounding.

I am well aware that outside of the promising start of the 2023 draft class (Hendricks, George, Sensabaugh) that the Jazz haven't had the draft results to prove they can solve this years riddle of a draft class.

Excluding the 2023 class, the last 6 years of Jazz draft selections dating back to 2018 have been practically non existent.

In this stated time frame, there have been 7 draft selections by Utah, 4 of which have been traded away on draft night. The other three (Udoka Azubuike, Grayson Allen and Justin Wright-Foreman are no longer in Utah, Wright-Foreman is out of the association.

These 7 players combined for 194 total game appearances last year, with Grayson Allen accounting for 75 of those, and Santi Aldama (traded to Memphis in 2021) covering another chunk with 65 games.

That's 139/194 games, or roughly 72 percent between two of the picks, neither in Utah.

This means that Utah’s isn't only struggling to select an impact player for themselves, but for the NBA as a whole, as most selections are out of rotations or out of the league.

In all fairness, not a single of these picks is greater than the 21^st overall selection.

Nothing close to the 10th pick they possess this year or the 9^th and 16^th they had last year.

The type of selections Utah has been making prior to 2023 are notorious for being used on project type players, not immediate rotation guys.

Yet, with all the uncertainty and middle tier talent across the board in this years draft, the 10^th pick might as well feel like the 21^st pick.

The scouts have their work cut out from them, and Jazz fans after sitting through two tanking seasons are praying for a hit.

For those of you hoping for a bit of a draft luck shakeup, the Jazz will do something they have never previously done on draft night this June 26^th.

That is, make a selection with the 10^th overall pick.

The 10^th pick, awarded to the Jazz for slipping in the draft lottery, has never been Utah’s to claim.

James Hardy was taken with the 11^th pick in 1978.

The 12^th pick has seen the likes of Trey Lyles, Alec Burks, and Taurean Prince (traded to Atlanta on draft night) selected by Utah.

But never have we seen the first double digit selection belong to the Jazz.

Next to the 10^th selection, the Jazz are also set to snag someone with the 29^th overall pick at the tail end of the first round.

While not brand new, the 29^th pick is not a familiar face to the Jazz.

Only once, in 1998, did the Jazz have the rights to #29.

It was used on Nazr Mohammed, who was immediately sent to Philadelphia that night.

Utah’s 3^rd selection, the 2^nd overall pick of the 2^nd round, AKA the 32^nd overall pick repeats the trend of the 10^th pick.

Never have the Jazz made a choice at 32^nd overall.

Two of the three selections are entirely new territory to the Jazz, and if your of the superstitious variety, maybe that means the shedding of Utah’s rough draft history as of late.

One can only hope, and lets be honest, even if the pick ends up being legitimate, it wont stop us from being upset about it on draft night anyway.

The draft will be held June 26^th (First Round) and June 27^th (2^nd Round) at 6:00 Utah time.