The Utah Jazz are expected to be among the very worst teams in the NBA, and if they live up to that billing, they could be in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. However, while they may be ways away from a playoff birth, based on their roster talent and their last two seasons, they may not get the chance to draft Flagg.
In the middle of their third straight preseason victory against the Dallas Mavericks, The Athletic's Tony Jones expressed his doubts that the Jazz will come up with Flagg via his X account.
Idk Jazz fans…..kinda feels like yall can say bye bye to cooper flagg…..
— Tony Jones (@Tjonesonthenba) October 11, 2024
There's already been speculation that the Jazz may not be all in on the tank. If these three preseason games prove to be indicative of the Jazz's direction, Flagg may not be in the cards. However, there's reason to not really read too much into it.
It's preseason. Enough said.
The Jazz have actually been pretty entertaining to watch during this preseason. Their performances have included a pretty impressive comeback win against the Rockets, followed by their beating the Western Conference Champions, the Mavericks.
For the record, they should be happy about the results even if they don't count. Seeing promising young talent translate that talent into results is promising to watch, even if those results may not translate into regular season success right away. The fact remains that no matter how things have turned out, it doesn't count.
Preseason is all about figuring out who should make the team and who should be in the rotation. The Jazz are getting good looks at where their young players currently stand and how they mesh with one another.
That will factor into who Will Hardy decides to play on a nightly basis, but even if the talent looks promising, no one will know if what's happened thus far in the preseason will actually mean anything for the 2024-25 season.
Flagg could be in play no matter where the Jazz finish
The beauty of the NBA's current lottery system is that it's designed to ensure those who tank the worst aren't guaranteed to have those efforts rewarded. While the league can't stop teams from tanking, they have evened the odds so that the very worst team in the league can separate itself
By extension, the odds have been more spread out among the teams who enter the lottery. A good example of the new system changing everything is the fact that the Atlanta Hawks, who made the play-in in 2024, then won the lottery.
There surely is a sizable portion of the fanbase who want the Jazz to all-in for Flagg. Hence, the point is, the NBA's new lottery odds make it so that the Jazz could have their cake and eat it. The Hawks did last year, and they weren't even trying to.