The Utah Jazz tanked for years to build this team. Now it’s time to see if it can win

Eleven months ago, the landscape of the Utah Jazz looked radically different. 

Keyonte George was a talented, mercurial, and imperfect young guard who hadn’t yet asserted himself as a star offensively. Walker Kessler was presumably a crucial member of the core aiming to restore winning ways in Utah. Jaren Jackson Jr. had never known an NBA home outside of the Memphis Grizzlies. Darryn Peterson was about to embark on his freshman campaign at Kansas and represented hope rather than a reality of the Jazz’s rebuild.

Just two months shy of the 2026-27 season, each of those storylines has shifted, embedding considerable intrigue and scrutiny into Utah’s imminent endeavors.

George enjoyed immense strides in year three, averaging 23.6 points (60.9 percent true shooting), 6.1 assists, and 3.7 rebounds per game to dazzle nightly with silky outside shooting, slippery downhill drives and nifty playmaking. Kessler missed most of 2025-26 with a torn labrum and was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers as a restricted free agent earlier this summer. As the Grizzlies pivoted toward a new era, Jackson was dealt to Utah in mid-February for three first-round picks and a smattering of players. Despite a tumultuous year at Kansas, Peterson’s game remained compelling enough for the Jazz to nab him second overall in June’s draft.

Those events leave Utah with a core composed of George, Peterson, Jackson, Lauri Markkanen, and Ace Bailey, the last of whom authored a commendable first NBA season to earn All-Rookie Second Team honors. 

The Jazz have endured four consecutive tank-tastic years. The haul of first-round picks they collected via the Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell trades is nearly empty. Jackson (27 years old on Sept. 15) and Markkanen (29) are squarely in their primes. George is entering year four. While 2026-27 does not have to be the pinnacle of their rebuild, it must signal a positive direction nearing or actualizing postseason and playoff basketball.

They’ve not eclipsed 31 wins since 2022-23, including a combined 39 victories over the past two seasons. That cannot remain the norm. This group has to compete and indicate the route the front office has chosen is prudent. 

George is a fabulous offensive talent but among the league’s most detrimental defenders, lacking physicality, lateral mobility, playmaking and screen navigation. Last season, his plus-2.7 Offensive Estimated Plus-Minus ranked 28th league-wide yet his minus-2.4 Defensive EPM was 530th among 535 eligible players. That gulf mitigated the majority of his offensive impact and rendered him a neutral-ish player (plus-0.3 EPM, 151st overall). Can he patch up some of his glaring defensive woes to be competently poor rather than catastrophically poor and approach the All-Star impact his box-score production suggests?

Another vital question: How will he and Peterson gel? Offensively, I’m quite optimistic. 

Both are adept passers, are comfortable toggling on or off the ball and tout versatile shooting credentials (off-screens, pull-ups, stationary). Last year, George canned 37.1 percent of his 9.5 triples per 100 possessions. Peterson knocked down 38.2 percent of his 13.9 attempts per 100 possessions. They have the makings of a devastating dribble-pass-shoot backcourt that could shepherd a tantalizing offensive unit together. 

George’s individual defensive constraints underline the Jazz’s collective struggles. They’ve finished 29th or 30th in defensive rating each of the past three seasons and recently traded away one of the league’s better rim protectors in Kessler. Given his new contract (four years, $129 million) and the picks the Lakers sent out (two firsts and two swaps), Utah moving on from Kessler was understandable. 

Yet those picks and keeping that contract off the books (not an egregious deal, just one I’d prefer not to pay) doesn’t immediately satiate the on-court questions now confronting this team, led by the dire need for defensive improvement and framework.

A George-Peterson-Bailey-Markkanen-Jackson quintet with head coach Will Hardy pulling the string oozes offensive potential behind malleable, high-level scoring, spacing and movement. Can Utah establish viable defensive infrastructure, namely more point-of-attack resistance (hello, Josh Okogie and Josh Green!) and turnover creation (19th, 30th, 29th and 27th in opponent turnover rate the past four years), to complement that offensive glimmer and justify parting ways with Kessler?

Much of the responsibility to stabilize the defense may disproportionately fall on Jackson’s shoulders and how the Jazz elect to deploy him. Will they rely on him primarily as a center or does Jusuf Nurkić join the starting group and relegate Bailey to a reserve gig? Does the size and fluidity intersection of Bailey, Markkanen and Jackson cover enough ground to buoy the defense above its expected class? We’ve seen Markkanen flourish defensively as a tall-ball wing during his lone year with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Nurkić provides premier screening and defensive rebounding while sprinkling in passing panache. Those are all areas in which Bailey, Markkanen and Jackson (mostly) fall flat. Sliding Jackson up to the 4 would simplify his defensive duties as a roaming rim protector and possibly counter some of his fouling problems (4.6 per 36 minutes for his career). Nurkic manning the 5 would also let Jackson overwhelm smaller defenders as a driver and face-up scorer, his preferred method of scoring off the bounce. 

However, Nurkić is not a traditional floor-spacer — although, his ability to operate as a slot playmaker partially masks that dilemma — or reliable interior play-finisher (Utah could generally use more of this throughout its front-court rolodex). Are his superlatives valuable enough to amplify the George-Peterson-Markkanen-Jackson quartet and limit how much Bailey shares the floor alongside the core four? Or, perhaps, can Bailey elevate his own game to demand more minutes in a winning environment? 

His off-ball movement, connective passing and audacious shooting headlined an encouraging rookie year. He’ll need to level up as a shotmaker (34.3 percent from deep, 36th percentile; 51.4 percent on 2s, 37th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass) and generate more takeaways (1.3 percent steal rate, 36th percentile) to maximize his imprint as a play-finishing wing with impressive defensive fluidity and scant self-creation. 

George, Peterson, Markkanen and Jackson can all excel off the ball and occupy defenders’ attention. The first three are very good shooters. Jackson is a serviceable shooter. There shouldn’t be much concern about the merging of their actual skill-sets. But they are highly involved players who touted gaudy usage rates a year ago: 29.3 percent for George, 24.5 percent for Markkanen, 23.8 percent for Jackson (with Memphis, excluding his three games in Utah), 33.5 percent for Peterson at Kansas. Those usage rates are not sustainable in conjunction. 

Utah’s offense was formerly built around feeding two mouths: George and Markkanen. Jackson and Peterson’s arrival reshapes the hierarchy and doubles the foundational pieces. An adjustment to harmonize their talents will be required. How that unfolds is integral in determining the extent to which the offense is successful and whether it can propel the Jazz back into Western Conference relevancy. Doing so is paramount for the prosperity of their four-year rebuilding efforts.