Utah Jazz are an embarrassment
Maybe the four years of horrendous Utah Jazz basketball were just evidence that they were always going to be bad.
Key points
- But you don’t get infinite shots at this, and Ace Bailey and Darryn Peterson must be elite players if the Jazz want to be anything more than a mediocre home for 90-second, not-even-that-cool Lauri Markkanan/Keyonte George highlight videos.
- The 2026-27 Jazz have kicked off their first USDA-certified “not tanking” campaign by going 1-11 in their first 12 games.
- Maybe Hardy was just too good a coach; maybe this would be a mid-2010s Celtics situation with Brad Stevens and that weird Jeff Green and Avery Bradley team, when it became clear that they had to compete because tanking was just off the table.
There were conversations in NBA media — on podcasts, in blogs, in my college dining hall (NBA media is everywhere) — about if the Jazz would be able to tank properly, as they clearly had planned to coming into the season.
Additional details
- Their single win was a one-point home victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, a disasterclass in their own right, and have since ripped off 10 straight losses despite finally putting out a roster that looks like it could do something other than intentionally lose.
- Maybe Will Hardy, who coached zero winning seasons on his first contract but still signed a contract extension through 2031, will coach through all nine years of both contracts and maintain his illustrious.326 career winning percentage.
- Their main “hey we’re actually trying now” acquisition was Jaren Jackson Jr., who promptly tore his MCL and will be out 6-8 weeks from October 27, but the team isn’t bad enough on paper for that to fully explain what’s going on.
- Thus far, I have no clue if Keyonte George can put up numbers on any kind of good team, and top-10 picks Cody Williams and Taylor Hendricks never returned on their draft slots, the latter perhaps due to a horrific injury before his career ever got off the ground that wasn’t anybody’s fault.
- Their efficiency is horrendous, 28th in team shooting percentage, but look closer: they’re 29th in offensive rating, 29th in true shooting percentage and 29th in effective field goal percentage.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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