The last time I sent out the call for Utah Jazz mailbag questions, there were so many good responses that I had to come back and answer more.
This first one came in a private post from a reader named Sean. He asked:
“Despite [Austin Ainge’s] claim of not manipulating minutes, *if* the Jazz are doing good enough to possibly lose the 8th pick (e.g., finishing 5th worst vs 4th worst), do we see some deliberate tanking?”
When Ainge was first hired, he was asked at his introductory press conference what his feelings were about resting healthy players and manipulating minutes and lineups in order to change lottery odds. His answer was brief and blunt.
“You won’t see that this year,” Ainge said.
While I do believe that Ainge wants to untie head coach Will Hardy’s hands and allow him to coach hard to get the most possible out of the young players so that the front office can have some really meaningful evaluation, I think that can only go so far.
In addition to what’s been said publicly, privately there have been team sources who have said similar things. There is a general consensus that the Jazz will fully compete, but that the team is so young and raw that it will probably end up at the bottom of the standings no matter what.
As a reminder, the Jazz owe the Oklahoma City Thunder a top-8 protected pick. If the pick doesn’t convey to the Thunder in 2026, the obligation extinguishes. This is the last year the Jazz will be held hostage by that pick, and frankly, I just don’t buy that the Jazz are going to let the reigning NBA champions have a lottery pick.
If the Jazz look like they are in danger of winning too many games, I would be willing to bet that there will be some deliberate tanking that would happen. At this point in the rebuild, it would be negligent to win a handful of games that won’t matter and let the Thunder have the ninth pick when the Jazz could just guarantee another top pick in the draft.
What are the chances of Will experimenting with Ace as PG?
— Breeze38 (@breeze38.bsky.social) July 23, 2025 at 5:06 PM
There is going to be a lot of experimentation this season when it comes to lineups and positions. It will start in training camp and I would expect that it continues slowly throughout the season.
I think that the chances are pretty high for seeing Ace Bailey run some point guard. The most likely scenario is that Isaiah Collier and Walter Clayton Jr. get the bulk of point guard minutes to start and their performances will dictate who get’s the lion’s share between the two, but there will be plenty of time for someone else to start the offense.
A player like Bailey who likes having the ball in his hands but also has excellent length and height should be experimented with, and that’s exactly the sort of thing that Hardy is going to want to explore.
With that in mind, this next question comes from Bruno:
“Besides finishing top-5 in the lottery this season, what do the Jazz hope to accomplish? Development of youth comes to mind, but what does that entail specifically and what else is on the to-do list this upcoming season? What, as fans, should we focus on that aren’t wins and losses?”
This is going to be a big year for really deciding what the Jazz have in their young players. The Jazz are eventually going to have to make decisions on which young players they think will benefit them in the future. The group of Collier, Keyonte George, Brice Sensabaugh, Taylor Hendricks, Kyle Filipowski, Cody Williams, Bailey, Clayton and John Tonje are not all going to be a part of the next great Jazz team.
So the goal is to run them hard, experiment in a bunch of different ways, give them all the tools and opportunity they need to really show what they can do against the best NBA talent so that at the end of the season the front office can make some decisions.
So fans should look for trends with players and what they do — or don’t do — consistently. Focus on what feels sustainable and what feels like wishful thinking. What are the tangible and clear results, not from a wins and losses standpoint, but instead from a growth and efficiency standpoint.
Think about who would be able to plug into a playoff team, who seems like they have the potential to continue improvement. Pay attention to who makes impactful plays and good decisions, even when the team is losing, and pay attention to who either thrives or falters when there are lineup changes or position experimentation.
Kyle Filipowski dominated summer league. How do you think he'll do against NBA rotation players this year?
— jakmich.bsky.social (@jakmich.bsky.social) July 23, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Filipowski has a ton of upside and is the young player on the roster who has shown the most promise to this point. We still don’t know what the ceiling is on Hendricks, Bailey and others.
That being said, even Filipowski still has a long way to go. He has to get stronger to unlock a lot of his skill. He’ll have a lot more opportunity this season to showcase where he is and there is certainly a blueprint from summer league that shows what he’s capable of, but we also saw in Summer League that he still struggles against stronger players and has some weaknesses in the post.
Those weaknesses will likely be magnified when he’s playing against more established and older players, which is why strength is the biggest priority for Filipowski.