With the 2025-26 season coming down the homestretch, more and more of the NBA's teams that would fit the label of tankers have suddenly had their guys go down for the rest of the season. The Utah Jazz have now gotten themselves into this, as Jusuf Nurkic will miss the rest of the season due to nose surgery.
Amazon Prime's Chris Haynes announced that Nurkic will not play for the remainder of the season due to his upcoming surgical procedure.
BREAKING: Utah Jazz starting center Jusuf Nurkić will undergo a surgical procedure on his nose Wednesday that will sideline him for the remainder of the season, league sources tell me. pic.twitter.com/MFYjY333GU
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 23, 2026
This is not news that should be swept under the rug, as Nurkic turned out to be better than many anticipated when the Jazz first acquired him. With him out, along with Jaren Jackson Jr., it badly limits the Jazz's frontcourt going forward.
Besides the fact that other teams are doing this - Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine are now magically out for the season - the Jazz have been pulling out all the stops to ensure they are bad enough to get a high lottery pick and keep it away from Oklahoma City.
This time, the league can't punish them for it because even if the motive is shady, this is legitimate. For what it's worth, it sounds like this has been a problem for Nurkic that needed to be rectified.
Nurk has experienced complications of breathing and sleeping since fracturing his nose a few years ago.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 23, 2026
But the timing will obviously make everyone roll their eyes. This couldn't have waited until April? Here's to hoping Nurkic makes a full recovery, and he'll be ready for next season, but it's downright impossible for the timing of this not to be suspect.
So what will the Jazz's frontcourt rotation look like now?
Again, the Jazz are now down Nurkic and JJJ on top of no Walker Kessler, meaning their frontcourt rotation will look like Lauri Markkanen, Kyle Filipowski, Kevin Love, and Oscar Tshiebwe. Not a whole lot to brag about, and don't be surprised if Markkanen is suddenly absent for long stretches.
However, this gives Love the opportunity to showcase himself a bit with two months left this season, even if his market won't be that strong regardless. This should also give the Jazz a better look at Ace Bailey, who has been exciting this season, but deserves a shot to show Utah just how good he can be.
Regardless, these next two months will get rough. It was already hard enough with the Jazz benching Nurkic and Markkanen for fourth quarters, so while they won't do that anymore this season, it's going to be rough watching the Jazz lose even more of their games with a severely depleted frontcourt.