1 Upside to the Jazz's near comeback loss against the Clippers

The Utah Jazz lost again to the Los Angeles Clippers. They certainly made things interesting towards the end, cutting the Clippers' 23-point lead to as few as seven in the closing minutes, but, thanks to old friend Kris Dunn, the Clippers pulled it out.

The loss puts the Jazz at 3-10, which only further solidifies their status as one of the NBA's bottom-dwellers. It's been talked about enough regarding the upside of being one of the NBA's worst teams - that ups their chances of getting a franchise cornerstone.

In the Jazz's case, there was actually a different upside from tonight, and really, it goes beyond that they almost came back against a team that still has the makings of a playoff team despite all that they lost coming into the season.

The Jazz have found their rhythm (even if they're still losing)

The Jazz are bad and will only continue to be bad, but this recent stretch of games, including this near-comeback against the Clippers, shows that they have found their rhythm. Even if the season itself won't lead to much outside of high lottery odds, the Jazz don't look like a completely helpless team out there like they did when the season first started.

Even though they have been and still are currently dealing with injuries, the Jazz have mixed and matched with their rotation, and it's starting to show some promise. Kyle Filipowski has quickly made a fantastic impression, John Collins has flipped the script on himself, and Lauri Markkanen is starting to look more like himself again.

It's not leading to many wins, but at least the Jazz are figuring out the best ways to make the rotation work. There are still some kinks to iron out, but some teams in a rebuild take years to figure out their best options going forward.

In the Jazz's case, it took them two years to figure out what direction to go in, but now that they picked rebuilding, they can stomach the losses as long as they can see what works and what doesn't.

Teams may mark the Jazz as an easy win for them on their calendar during the 2024-25 season, but Utah has sent a message that they won't roll over and die when they take the court. When rebuilding a contending team, the Jazz at least have the first step down. They won't have many wins going for them, but they will at least have that.