The Utah Jazz had their reasons to trade Cody Williams. Straight up, it was going to be hard for him to play with how many players ahead of him on the depth chart. A necessary move for sure, but it's also another reminder of their missed opportunity to take Matas Buzelis when they had the chance.
This was harped on a while ago, but that decision has only continued to age like milk. The 2024 NBA Draft was not among the NBA's strongest, but Buzelis would have been quite nice. Not just because of how promising Buzelis, but because he would have been useful for a team whose defense remains questionably until further notice.
Matas Buzelis is one of the best rim protecting wings in the NBA...
— Basketball University (@UofBasketball) September 2, 2026
Impressive shot blocking instincts and uses his length to contest excellently. Great as the low man with a lot of weakside clean-up jobs. A lot of room left in his defensive ceiling. pic.twitter.com/lNCo7YAoD5
The Jazz are not completely devoid of defensive personnel. They have Jaren Jackson Jr., Josh Okogie, and Josh Green (who wouldn't be a Jazzman in the first place without Williams, but still). Buzelis would have been nice to have. The rim protection he would have provided, on top of his offensive abilities, would have been an asset.
Maybe it would have been difficult to fit him into the rotation, but with what he can do right now (and what Williams couldn't), it's hard not to see how good of a pick he would have been at No. 10 instead of Williams.
You can't win them all
Again, the 2024 NBA Draft was pretty weak. The fact that Chicago got him more shows that they were the lucky ones. Since Danny Ainge got hired by the Jazz, their draft history has been a bit unorthodox, but they have managed to land a few steals over the past four drafts.
There are always going to be players that teams miss out on. The Dante Exum era was a bit of a disaster for Utah, though it was because of injuries more than anything else. Hindsight is 20/20, but it hurts knowing the Jazz could have had Marcus Smart instead.
Plenty of teams are probably still kicking themselves over the fact that they didn't get Keyonte George when they had the chance. They probably still think it's dumb that Kyle Filipowski fell in the draft because of his controversial girlfriend situation with how NBA-ready he has appeared.
This more of an "Aw, shucks" situation more than anything else. Buzelis would have been part of the Jazz's promising youth movement, but it's not like anyone has a problem with Ace Bailey being their most promising wing. It just would have been nice to have two.
Add us as a preferred source on Google