With draft looming, Utah Jazz in somewhat of a ‘panic’

With the NBA Draft quickly approaching, the Utah Jazz are doing everything in their power to ensure they make the right selection out of a deep pool of prospects.

The Utah Jazz recently held an important pre-draft workout that featured compelling prospects such as Landry Shamet, Josh Okogie and Jerome Robinson. In preparation for said workout, I was quick to mention that it was exciting to see the Jazz continue to bring in so many promising options so close to the draft.

Following that particular workout, however, Jazz VP of Player Personnel Walt Perrin had some pretty revealing things to say about where the organization is at in preparation for the draft. He bluntly stated, “There’s panic going on right now.”

He later followed that statement up by saying, “I’m joking a little bit, but I’m not. We’re putting in some pretty long hours.” There certainly was a bit of sarcasm in what he said, but I also don’t believe that the word ‘panic’ is far from the truth. As Perrin continued to touch on, this is an extremely deep draft with multiple options that could ideally immediately impact the Jazz. Their job is to dig deep and discover who would be the absolute best fit.

And that’s absolutely no easy task whatsoever. Personally, I’d love to see the Jazz draft Khyri Thomas, Donte DiVincenzo, Kevin Huerter, Josh Okogie and possibly a few others. They can figure out a way to make all that work, right?

Of course, I’m being facetious, but even that shortlist gives you some idea of what the Jazz are trying to do in terms of narrowing down their best option. Here’s what Perrin had to say about this year’s draft prospects that’s making the process so much more challenging and inciting the aforementioned ‘panic’–

"“Normally, at this time of the year we’re probably down to maybe six or seven guys that we’re looking at, but we’re at double that so we’ve got a lot of work to do to try to get it down to who we really like and we like a lot. There are a lot of guys in our range so that’s the problem.”"

You see? I’m not the only one who likes a lot of guys that are very much viable options for the Jazz at No. 21. The organization itself has its head spinning trying to figure out who would be the best to nab.

Of course, some of those guys that they like will be picked off by other teams by the time the Jazz pick at No. 21, which could help the process of elimination somewhat as well. But then again, others that they’re intrigued by but presumed would be unavailable could slide, throwing a further wrench into the works.

https://twitter.com/utahjazz/status/1007741368435765248

With so many incredible options, the Jazz have the tough task of digging as deep as possible, just as they’ve been doing, between now and Thursday’s draft. Ideally, they’ll be able to narrow it down to their top guy, and he’ll ultimately fall right in their lap. If all their homework has been done perfectly, and of course if they get a little lucky, the Jazz could once again hit a home run in the draft, just like they did last year.

Unfortunately, there are so many factors that could affect the outcome of whoever they pick, that regardless of how well they’ve done their research, it’s nearly impossible to guarantee that they’ll find the best possible guy. Last season’s trade-up to draft Donovan Mitchell was a pretty rare instance of a team making the absolute perfect move.

And for that to happen in back-to-back years, even for a team with a good drafting track record under GM Dennis Lindsey, is quite the long-shot.

Still, I’m confident that the “long hours” that Perrin alluded to will pay off and that Utah will indeed land a player that was at least high on their list, if not at the top of it, among realistically attainable guys. Regardless of how it all pans out, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Jazz are doing everything in their power to find the right person.

That is further evidenced by the fact that the Jazz are holding yet another pre-draft workout today (Sunday) to look at even more prospects that could very well be in their range. It’s pretty incredible to see them scrambling four days before the draft to get more players in. I’m sure they’re more than confident in their abilities to make a good decision, but you can definitely see where that ‘panic’ may be setting in.

Jacob Evans and Dzanan Musa are two in particular that I have seen going No. 21 in various mock drafts. As the Jazz continue to look at more and more guys in their range that could potentially be good fits and significant impact players, it will only help them to ultimately make the best decision possible.

The draft is nearly upon us as it will get going on Thursday, June 21 at 5:00 PM MT. With so many intriguing options projected to go all around Utah’s range (not to mention, the possibility of them trading up to snag someone they end up being high on a la Donovan Mitchell last season), it’s going to be fascinating to see how things pan out.

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The Utah Jazz may be in somewhat of a panic right now, but I imagine that by Friday morning once the dust has settled, they’ll be feeling great about the work they put in leading up to the draft and the results that it produced.