The [Utah Jazz](https://www.slcdunk.com) have a big day tomorrow, and I’m up late thinking about the different rumors and trade possibilities going on. There are a lot of things that it takes to get to the top. Probably the biggest one is luck. It takes luck to win the lottery, even with the worst record in the league. It takes luck to find players later in the draft who become more than anyone expected. It takes luck to trade for a castoff rookie that develops into an MVP.
Utah needs luck tomorrow. They need things to shake out in a way that gets them a player who could potentially become a star. Who knows exactly who that player is outside of Cooper Flagg? No one knows for sure; otherwise, the draft would be clear-cut without any questions from the three-pick on.
But there’s one other element this team needs to hold onto that all great teams have.
Grit.
It’s going to take time to win a title, but it can happen. The Thunder and Pacers proved that with smart moves and patience to build your core, you can make it happen over the big-market teams. Both the Thunder and Pacers had a lot of luck, but they also had the patience and grit to stay the course even when things didn’t work out perfectly.
The grit and patience Utah needs will show up in their continued course of drafting talent. It doesn’t mean Utah doesn’t make trades of players that don’t pan out like they hope, but it does mean not making rash, win-now moves for short-term feel-good wins, which eventually lead to long-term disappointment. Each top pick they make will be an accumulation that ultimately leads to contention, but this doesn’t work if Utah cuts things short.
The question for Ryan, Austin, Danny, Justin, and the whole front office is: Do you believe in this thing or not? Do you actually believe the Jazz can win a title? If you do, then it’s going to take grit, patience, and hard work. And maybe they already are doing it. Maybe their firing two scouts who made bad choices was them doubling down on their plan. I hope so. I can’t help but think of this scene from Moneyball. It’s after Billy Bean has chosen a radical course of going all in on OBP, and things that he had initially planned didn’t work perfectly. But he doubled down on the plan he believed in.
Stay the course, Jazz. It’s the right one. We haven’t had a lot of luck recently, but it’s bound to happen soon. Let’s hope that luck shows up tomorrow. But there’s one thing you can do, and that’s show grit and determination. Stay the course and make the tough moves necessary. And if you hear some boos along the way, remember that Jazz fans booed John Stockton when he was drafted, and we know how that worked out.