The Utah Jazz should not over-prioritize draft pick compensation

The Utah Jazz shouldn’t follow in recent trends that the Philadelphia 76ers and Oklahoma City Thunder have engaged in.

The Utah Jazz traded off Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, and Bojan Bogdanovic with the intention of doing a full rebuild in 2022. The only problem is that the Mitchell and Gobert trade gave the Jazz Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton, and Walker Kessler. Three players made the art of tanking very unlikely. Since then, the team only got better with the arrival of John Collins.

The foursome, including names like Jordan Clarkson, Kelly Olynyk, and a trio of rookies (Taler Hendricks, Keyonte George, and Brice Sensabaugh), are now a team that may very well have a winning record when it’s all said and done in the spring of 2024. Yet, many are still advocating for the Jazz to continue to sell their best assets and acquire more and more draft picks.

It’s a move we saw the Philadelphia 76ers engage in, where they would trade off every piece they could, good or not, just to land a few big names. They ended up getting a slew of Top 5 picks, including two first-overall draft picks and Joel Embiid.

Ultimately, it didn’t work for them. Embiid is closing in on 30 years old and may be leaving the club sooner or later, and many of the fans are dubbing The Process as a failure. The Oklahoma Thunder are a team that’s mirroring “The Process” to a degree but are in a much better position long-term, unlike the 76ers. With Sam Presti in charge of the club, the club has seen success, but the narrative around them is that they’re chasing draft picks and not players.

The team has a great duo of future stars in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey but the goal is to still cash in on the draft picks they have, while obtaining more. And that seems great but the Thunder feel like a team who’s unlikely to pull the proverbial trigger to make a deal to put them over the top.

The Thunder are a great team and their future is bright, but what’s the point of hoarding draft picks if your star players just keep losing games?

It’s great to have 17 first-round picks and nearly as many second-round picks, but what’s the point of hoarding draft picks if you’re not winning? It didn’t work for the 76ers and it’s likely not to work for the Thunder if they think pick-hoarding is going to net them a championship.

Sure, the Thunder are much better than the 76ers, and they are on a much healthier path to success, but the concern remains, as over-prioritizing draft picks aren’t exactly known to win titles.

You want to keep at least one first-round draft pick per year, maybe even two depending on your contract situation, but unless you have to fill a bench out through the draft because you don’t have the cap space, why do you need three, four or even more rookies per year?

The Jazz shouldn’t get rid of all of their draft picks in the pursuit of a star player to pair with Lauri Markkanen, as so many keep suggesting. They should be willing to get rid of some for the right running buddy. Moreover, the goal is to build the team out from what they have currently; not keep trading away parts in the hope of finding a one-star player worth having.

That’s another situation we keep seeing; people suggesting the Jazz trade Markkanen and others for draft picks, so that the Jazz can find young and talented players.

As if Markkanen somehow doesn’t fit that bill.

Find a balance. Don’t over-prioritize draft picks, as most won’t turn into a player worth having. Use them to upgrade the roster with young, financially prudent contracts, and keep just enough to replace a player or two per season should you need to.

Anything more than that and you just gorge yourself on draft picks, and in doing so, you end up wasting them.