The Utah Jazz will take on the Sacramento Kings in a surprisingly important matchup. Utah and Sacramento are currently tied with 5 wins in the lottery standings and a loss tonight would be huge for both teams in positioning.
Speaking of positioning, it’s something the Jazz should really consider worrying about. The Jazz owe their current pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder unless they are in the bottom-8 of the lottery. Where do the Jazz currently sit? #9. I don’t know if Ryan Smith cares too much about as he should, but he absolutely should.
On top of the fact that the Jazz are not a winning franchise currently (literally true with their 5-12 record) but the Jazz have already proven that caring about the lottery pays off big time. Utah got the 5th pick in the draft last year and had they not been in that position, they would not have ended up with Ace Bailey. That is inarguable proof that the tanking 100% worked last year. And that, in the end, is the sign of success for tanking. Were you able to add high level talent to your team in the draft? For the Jazz, yes, they did. The two seasons before that were half ….. effort tanks and didn’t provide what the Jazz needed, talent. To not learn from those three seasons and to see what strategy works would be incredibly dumb. let’s hope the Jazz start making headway towards more talent in generational draft. Although tonights injury report makes you think they might not have learned anything.
See More:
* [Jazz Game Preview](/jazz-game-previews)
* [Utah Jazz Game Coverage](/utah-jazz-game-coverage)