The Utah Jazz will have more access to players than originally thought

The Utah Jazz were hoping for higher than No. 10. They were hoping for at least the 8th spot in the 2024 NBA Draft, if not higher, like the 4th pick. While that didn't happen, we seem to find bright spots in the draft process that we didn't otherwise think or know of. While the 10th spot may not be great if you're trying to draft Zion Williamson or Victor Wembanayama, the 10th spot seems to be great if you're not sure about the crop of rookies.

According to Bart Taylor VP of Player Personnel for the Utah Jazz, you seem to get access to more players the further from number one you get. Granted, there's probably a point of diminishing returns the further you go, but in a draft that doesn't have any expected order, and at least 10 different players who could go number one overall, landing at No. 10 may not be the worst thing in the world

Taylor goes on to decscribe this very thing to KSL.com, saying;

""As you move higher up in the draft, you get access to less players, because people don't believe that they're actually (going to be considered). The agents do their work to see where their guys will go. And so I think by falling to 10, we actually are going to have more access to guys. Maybe the guys who are going to go 14, 15, 16, we can convince them to come in for No. 10. So it may actually in a weird way, give us more access to players.""

This is potentially a great thing for the Jazz. With so many options out there and the likelihood that a player falls to them at No. 10, it's far better to know what kind of player is available at the spot than reaching for a guy you're not too sure of because he didn't come in for an interview.

I don't subscribe to the "reaching" theory when it comes to the draft. If you think the 12th highest-rated player is the best player available, don't play games, just take him. This methodology becomes harder to implement when you can't get access to predraft interviews with the player. So making him the pick isn't as likely in that scenario.

Since so many people fail at drafting players every year, you want to make sure you find your guy, regardless of where the experts expect him. Since you have picks at 10, 29, and 32, you can cover a far range of talents that other teams may not have the option to do so otherwise.

So it's not great that the Jazz fell to 10th, but it has its own share of advantages that wouldn't be there if you were much higher.