Although the Utah Jazz won’t have a lottery pick this season, they still may find themselves impacted by the way the draft order shook out.
This year’s NBA Draft Lottery was a wild one. Despite the fact that the New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Phoenix Suns all had equal odds at landing the top pick in the draft, none of them came away with that coveted selection. In fact, only the Knicks landed in the top three. Instead it was the New Orleans Pelicans winning the lottery to pick first overall and the Memphis Grizzlies getting the second pick.
As Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert so aptly put on Twitter – this is great news for the anti-tanking crowd. Teams purposely putting forth less effort late in the year in hopes of getting a better draft selection may be a thing of the past as the new flattened lottery odds certainly seemed to do their job this season.
https://twitter.com/rudygobert27/status/1128465239681454080
Neither of Memphis nor New Orleans was expected to land in the top four yet they did. In other words, two teams that had bad seasons but never gave up or blatantly tanked were rewarded for their continued effort whereas the majority of the bottom-dwellers came away comparatively empty-handed.
Obviously, given that the Jazz didn’t own any other team’s first-round pick and that they weren’t in the lottery themselves, they weren’t directly affected in any way by the determined order. They’ll pick 23rd just as we’ve long known they would. However, depending on how certain things shake out this summer and how certain teams opt to move forward with their newly claimed lottery picks, Tuesday night’s results could very well go further for the Jazz than one might originally presume.
In short, in a summer in which the Jazz will likely look to make some massive improvements, the good fortune of the likes of Memphis and New Orleans could very well open some opportunities. As such, let’s dive into three ways these unlikely results could impact the Jazz this summer.