The 2025 NBA Offseason is pretty young, and yet it feels like the Utah Jazz have probably made all of their moves. Certain moves could occur in the coming months, such as trading John Collins or Lauri Markkanen, but it's unclear if Utah will pull the trigger on those. Until then, it's time to grade the Jazz's offseason thus far, and it's hard to see much upside
1. Extending Will Hardy
This might be cheating a bit, as this happened back in May. However, the Jazz's offseason started in April, and they took absolutely no time to extend Hardy three years into his tenure as coach. It's honestly not that surprising that they extended Hardy the first chance they got, as he's been impressive since taking over for Quin Snyder. In fact, a little too impressive.
His abilities as coach played a role in why Utah surprised everyone when they started this new era. So much so that they've had to trade guys to effectively ensure they would get a lottery pick. Hardy has definitely proven his talent so there shouldn't be any questions about extending him.
The real questions lie in what happens when he has a team with playoff expectations. The Jazz won't know how good he is as coach until Utah has grand expectations again. That may not be for a while, but for now, everyone should be cautiously optimistic about Hardy long-term. Plus, it was smart to keep him before anyone had the chance to sway him elsewhere.
Grade: A
2. Trading Collin Sexton for Jusuf Nurkic
This one's tough to grade because A. only Jusuf Nurkic?!! and B. they had to attach a draft asset too?! But at the same time, A. players like Sexton aren't valued that much in the NBA anymore, and B., the Jazz had to move Sexton right away with all of the young guards on the roster.
What is commonly agreed on is that the Jazz got no value in this deal, as they didn't even get the best player in it. Nurkic sounds like he's very happy to be in Utah, but that doesn't change the fact that he will be their backup, and it remains to be seen if he will even be on the team come February.
Utah deserves props for ensuring they will tank without drawing suspicion to themselves, but man, it's a shame it turned out like this in the end because Sexton, who was a good soldier and embraced his role on the team, should have been traded much sooner and should have fetched a little more in return for him.
Grade: D+
3. Keeping Svi Mykhailiuk
This was also pretty surprising, as Mykhailiuk didn't light the world on fire in Utah. Many anticipated that he was the most likely of the Jazz's non-guaranteed players to be cut from the team, but the team felt otherwise.
The reasoning behind this could be that Mykhailiuk probably won't take much issue being an emergency rotation player in case one of the Jazz's youngsters can't play, which might not have been the case with some of their other young players. Pending any surprises, the Jazz will be the first team Mykhailiuk will have started the season with the same team as the one he ended with since he played with the Detroit Pistons.
Grade: B-
4. Waiving Johnny Juzang
This was also very surprising because many thought Juzang would have been their preference to keep over Mykhailiuk. Waiving him may have had less to do with what he can do and more to with making room for some of their other young wings like Ace Bailey, Cody Williams, and Brice Sensabaugh.
It is still odd that Utah couldn't find a trade for him because Juzang has proven he can shoot. He was pretty solid in the role the Jazz put him in throughout the season, as he's carved out his niche as a floor-spacing wing. Really, he had a much better season than Mykhailiuk, as the Jazz depended on Juzang more.
This is only speculation, but perhaps the Jazz approached both Mykhailiuk and Juzang, asking if either would be willing to play only when the team is undermanned, and only Mykhailiuk answered yes. It's not like getting rid of Juzang will go down as an all-time Jazz blunder, but it's a shame Utah decided not to see through what they had in him after two years of a classic individual underdog story.
Juzang proved he belonged in the NBA, but his ceiling is very limited. Hopefully, he can catch on with another team and continue his impressive story.
Grade: C-
5. Waiving Jordan Clarkson
Even though their pathways ended differently, Clarkson is put under the same umbrella as Sexton. He's a player that the NBA simply doesn't believe has much trade value these days. When it turned out Clarkson didn't have any trade value, outside of maybe acquiring a worse deal, Utah didn't even bother keeping him, as they set him free to go join the New York Knicks.
As bad as the Sexton ordeal turned out, Clarkson's was worse because extending him looks quite foolish in hindsight. The Jazz had their reasons back in 2023, but it still didn't make much sense then, and it looks even worse now. Even if he hasn't fallen out of his prime, Clarkson was on the team two years longer than he should have been, plain and simple.
The one upside is that it could be so much worse for the Jazz when compared to some of the other players who have been waived. Damian Lillard will be paid over $100 million total for the next five years to play against the Milwaukee Bucks. Bradley Beal will make around the same money as the Phoenix Suns apparently plan to do the same with him.
While waiving Clarkson made sense just like trading Sexton, keeping him is the one move in the past three years Utah would absolutely love to have a do-over if given the chance.
Grade: F