August 14, 2025 • 8 mins
The Utah Jazz have made their moves — now it’s time to set expectations for the 2025–26 season. Host Zach Quinn breaks down the roster from top to bottom, highlighting the big names, fresh rookie talent, and how this offseason’s trades and signings could shape the year ahead. We’ll talk win/loss predictions, whether the Jazz could sneak into the in-season tournament, and what it might mean if they find themselves in the draft lottery again. From realistic goals to bold possibilities, this is everything Jazz fans need to know heading into the new season.
Follow us on X, TikTok, and Instagram @lifeinthestands for more Utah sports coverage, live postgame reactions, and street interviews. If you enjoy the show, please rate and review — it really helps us grow.
Follow us on X, TikTok, and Instagram @lifeinthestands for more Utah sports coverage, live postgame reactions, and street interviews. If you enjoy the show, please rate and review — it really helps us grow.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The jazz Is offseason brought some new faces, a couple
of big trades, and some long term bets on youth.
But the big question is what's actually realistic for this
team in year three of the Will Hardy era. We're
talking stars, rookies, a win loss prediction, and of course
whether we should be quietly googling next year's NBA Draft
lottery odds all the way back in October. We'll even
(00:21):
have some fun predicting how Utah might fare in this
year's end season tournament. Let's go, all right. The first
stop on our breakdown of the Jazz's expectations this year
(00:43):
is the veterans. Ish. I guess there are some veterans
on this team, but we'll talk in a little bit
about why some of them might be buyout candidates. And
the veterans or at least most tenured players on the
team that other players might be looking towards, are not
necessarily the quote unquote vets like you would see around
the rest of the NBA. We have to talk about
(01:05):
Lowry markin in first. He's still the centerpiece and quietly
one of the most reliable scorers in the league. We
know he's gonna give you somewhere between twenty three and
twenty six points at night. He has a lead efficiency.
But the storyline this year is going to be whether
or not the Jazz front office actually keep him long term.
He is extension eligible, and if Utah decides this rebuild
(01:25):
is going to take a few more years, his name
could start swirling in trade rumors by February around the
trade deadline. I'd prefer to see him stay here and
continue to build around him, but that'll be up to
the front office. Walker Kessler is in year three and
he is the most tenured member of the Utah Jazz now,
so I think he'd be considered a VET for this
(01:46):
team's standards. He's a defensive anchor. His sophomore season was
a little uneven, partly due to injuries and partly because
the team's perimeter defense gave him way too much to
clean up. But I expect the Jazz to double down
on his rim protection while asking to stretch his offensive
game just a little bit more so it's easier to
keep him on the floor as it gets into crunch time.
(02:07):
Speaking of the big guys, they also brought in use
of Nurkic. That was obviously a new arrival from Charlotte
in the Colin Sexton trade, but he's thirty one. Hardy
could use him to anchor some bench units. He could
even pair him with Walker Kessler if they really wanted
to go into a double big lineup and bully teams
on the glass. But I'm a little concerned about Nurkic
(02:29):
because his coach from the Bosnian national team recently called
him out for being out of shape and barely able
to run. So for someone who you'd like to be
a good vet presence on this team, it's a little
concerning to hear all of those things called out. On
the other end of the spectrum, we have Georgia Niang,
and Niang is one of the best locker room guys
(02:50):
you could possibly have. You add to that that he's
a shooter, and that's exactly what you want to have
around these young, playmaking, shot creating types of players. Didn't
make the Jazz give up r J. Lewis Junior, so
they gave up some youth in order to bring back
the Minivan. But I think overall this is a good move,
even though they could end up regretting trading away r J.
(03:11):
Lewis Junior in the future. The other last couple of events
that I feel like I should mention are Kevin Love
and Kyle Anderson. I mean, these guys, they have championship experience,
they have high a Q playmaking, they're great wing guys,
they're great glue guys. They're gonna be great in the
locker room, all that good stuff. But you know, probably
a couple of buyout candidates. I would assume Kevin Love
(03:34):
doesn't really make it to the trade deadline, and I
think the same probably could be said for Kyle Anderson.
But in the meantime, it does give coach Hardy a
couple of glue guy forwards to test the waters with
and help you mentors for guys like Ace Bailey. That's
a fantastic segue into who we want to talk about next,
(03:54):
which are the rookies. And the rookies are gonna have
a real, you know, significant piece of this team here.
They're going to be expected to do a lot. The
front office clearly believes in Ace Bailey, who's the number
five overall pick in this last year's NBA draft. He's
got plenty of athleticism to be a two way star
but it normally takes rookies a couple of years before
(04:15):
they're truly efficient, especially for someone like Ace Bailey, who
can have some fantastic highlights, you know, maybe even a
couple of thirty and forty point nights. But there's also
going to be a lot of welcome to the NBA
shooting slumps. You know, we saw that in Summer League
even too, just as he gets comfortable. I also really
love Walter Clayton Junior. You talk about shooting slums. I
expect the opposite from Walter Clinton Junior. I think he
(04:37):
can come off the bench or get some starters minutes
and really play on or off the ball, which is
really exciting. You know, Utah really hasn't had like a
true guard prospect like him in a while, and he
had that fantastic March Madness run which was super fun
to watch. If you like the content so far, please
consider engaging with us on social media at Life in
(04:59):
the Stands on x, Instagram and TikTok, and ratings and
reviews are the most helpful. We'll be holding street interviews
and have live postgame reactions once the season starts that
you won't want to miss and right now. We actually
have a breakdown of the highest scoring Utah Jazz games
in history on socials, so go check those out. But
now back to the show. Let's be real about where
(05:20):
this team is competitiveness wise. The roster is not built
to contend right now. The West is super loaded, Utah
still figuring it out, and young players are gonna have
to kind of float to the top in terms of
who's actually going to be a part of that next
playoff team. If everything breaks right this year, market In
stays healthy, Bailly hits faster than expected, the bets all click.
(05:42):
Maybe we're looking at a thirty plus win season thirty
thirty five wins, but if the injuries pile up or
the defense doesn't improve, this could be another very bad season.
I know they only won seventeen games last year. I
do think that either way, the team will win more
games than that, But I'm going to predict. I'm gonna
predict about twenty five wins here, so that would be
(06:06):
enough to show some progress in spurts, but they're still
near the bottom of the West. Obviously. That brings us
to the draft lottery, though, because if Utah does end
up in that twenty five ish win range. They'll be
right back in the mix for a top five pick
in the twenty twenty six NBA Draft. And this next
class is heavy on point guards and wings, two spots
(06:27):
that the Jazz would love to find long term answers at.
So I wouldn't be shocked for the front office leans
into development minutes for the rookies and younger guys down
the stretch, especially after the All Star break if the
playoffs are out of reach, and I would also expect
the front office to let a couple of these veteran
presences go in order to acquire picks on the cheap.
(06:48):
At the end of the day. Ajd Bantsa, who we
covered in a previous episode on BYU's recruiting class, is
going to be right down the road and is probably
going to enter the draft next year. So that would
just be a storybook kind of picture there if aj
Davanta could go to BUYU, have a fantastic freshman season
in college, and then go right up the road and
(07:09):
play at the Delta Center for his pro career. Lastly,
we'll talk about the n Season Tournament. I'm not expecting
a ton out of the Jazz for the N Season
Tournament there maybe win one or two. I'd be surprised
if they win two of their round robin games, probably
one of their round robin games. But I mean, the
(07:30):
N Season Tournament is a little bit of a learning
curve for younger teams. It is nice because it gives
them sort of like almost playoff basketball esque minutes because
it's highly competitive and teams take it very seriously. So
for a young team that doesn't get to go have
that sort of playoff experience, the N Season Tournament does
do a nice job of kind of ramping up the
stakes a bit and showing us who can live under
(07:54):
the pressure of the bright lights on the team. But
here's where we're at. The Jazz have a mix of
fun veterans and high ceiling rookies, but the realistic goal
is growth and not a deep playoff run this year.
So as they think of this year, they've got to
figure out who's in the long term picture and maybe
position themselves for one more big draft swing before the
(08:15):
windows starts to open in the next year or two. Subscribe,
review and follow us on socials at Life in the
Stands and ratings and reviews are the most helpful We've
got a lot more coming this season, from entery and
interviews to postgame reactions, and if you ever see us
outside of the Delta Center, come say hi. I'm your host,
zat Quinn and thanks for listening to Beehive Sports Report.
The jazz Is offseason brought some new faces, a couple
of big trades, and some long term bets on youth.
But the big question is what's actually realistic for this
team in year three of the Will Hardy era. We're
talking stars, rookies, a win loss prediction, and of course
whether we should be quietly googling next year's NBA Draft
lottery odds all the way back in October. We'll even
(00:21):
have some fun predicting how Utah might fare in this
year's end season tournament. Let's go, all right. The first
stop on our breakdown of the Jazz's expectations this year
(00:43):
is the veterans. Ish. I guess there are some veterans
on this team, but we'll talk in a little bit
about why some of them might be buyout candidates. And
the veterans or at least most tenured players on the
team that other players might be looking towards, are not
necessarily the quote unquote vets like you would see around
the rest of the NBA. We have to talk about
(01:05):
Lowry markin in first. He's still the centerpiece and quietly
one of the most reliable scorers in the league. We
know he's gonna give you somewhere between twenty three and
twenty six points at night. He has a lead efficiency.
But the storyline this year is going to be whether
or not the Jazz front office actually keep him long term.
He is extension eligible, and if Utah decides this rebuild
(01:25):
is going to take a few more years, his name
could start swirling in trade rumors by February around the
trade deadline. I'd prefer to see him stay here and
continue to build around him, but that'll be up to
the front office. Walker Kessler is in year three and
he is the most tenured member of the Utah Jazz now,
so I think he'd be considered a VET for this
(01:46):
team's standards. He's a defensive anchor. His sophomore season was
a little uneven, partly due to injuries and partly because
the team's perimeter defense gave him way too much to
clean up. But I expect the Jazz to double down
on his rim protection while asking to stretch his offensive
game just a little bit more so it's easier to
keep him on the floor as it gets into crunch time.
(02:07):
Speaking of the big guys, they also brought in use
of Nurkic. That was obviously a new arrival from Charlotte
in the Colin Sexton trade, but he's thirty one. Hardy
could use him to anchor some bench units. He could
even pair him with Walker Kessler if they really wanted
to go into a double big lineup and bully teams
on the glass. But I'm a little concerned about Nurkic
(02:29):
because his coach from the Bosnian national team recently called
him out for being out of shape and barely able
to run. So for someone who you'd like to be
a good vet presence on this team, it's a little
concerning to hear all of those things called out. On
the other end of the spectrum, we have Georgia Niang,
and Niang is one of the best locker room guys
(02:50):
you could possibly have. You add to that that he's
a shooter, and that's exactly what you want to have
around these young, playmaking, shot creating types of players. Didn't
make the Jazz give up r J. Lewis Junior, so
they gave up some youth in order to bring back
the Minivan. But I think overall this is a good move,
even though they could end up regretting trading away r J.
(03:11):
Lewis Junior in the future. The other last couple of events
that I feel like I should mention are Kevin Love
and Kyle Anderson. I mean, these guys, they have championship experience,
they have high a Q playmaking, they're great wing guys,
they're great glue guys. They're gonna be great in the
locker room, all that good stuff. But you know, probably
a couple of buyout candidates. I would assume Kevin Love
(03:34):
doesn't really make it to the trade deadline, and I
think the same probably could be said for Kyle Anderson.
But in the meantime, it does give coach Hardy a
couple of glue guy forwards to test the waters with
and help you mentors for guys like Ace Bailey. That's
a fantastic segue into who we want to talk about next,
(03:54):
which are the rookies. And the rookies are gonna have
a real, you know, significant piece of this team here.
They're going to be expected to do a lot. The
front office clearly believes in Ace Bailey, who's the number
five overall pick in this last year's NBA draft. He's
got plenty of athleticism to be a two way star
but it normally takes rookies a couple of years before
(04:15):
they're truly efficient, especially for someone like Ace Bailey, who
can have some fantastic highlights, you know, maybe even a
couple of thirty and forty point nights. But there's also
going to be a lot of welcome to the NBA
shooting slumps. You know, we saw that in Summer League
even too, just as he gets comfortable. I also really
love Walter Clayton Junior. You talk about shooting slums. I
expect the opposite from Walter Clinton Junior. I think he
(04:37):
can come off the bench or get some starters minutes
and really play on or off the ball, which is
really exciting. You know, Utah really hasn't had like a
true guard prospect like him in a while, and he
had that fantastic March Madness run which was super fun
to watch. If you like the content so far, please
consider engaging with us on social media at Life in
(04:59):
the Stands on x, Instagram and TikTok, and ratings and
reviews are the most helpful. We'll be holding street interviews
and have live postgame reactions once the season starts that
you won't want to miss and right now. We actually
have a breakdown of the highest scoring Utah Jazz games
in history on socials, so go check those out. But
now back to the show. Let's be real about where
(05:20):
this team is competitiveness wise. The roster is not built
to contend right now. The West is super loaded, Utah
still figuring it out, and young players are gonna have
to kind of float to the top in terms of
who's actually going to be a part of that next
playoff team. If everything breaks right this year, market In
stays healthy, Bailly hits faster than expected, the bets all click.
(05:42):
Maybe we're looking at a thirty plus win season thirty
thirty five wins, but if the injuries pile up or
the defense doesn't improve, this could be another very bad season.
I know they only won seventeen games last year. I
do think that either way, the team will win more
games than that, But I'm going to predict. I'm gonna
predict about twenty five wins here, so that would be
(06:06):
enough to show some progress in spurts, but they're still
near the bottom of the West. Obviously. That brings us
to the draft lottery, though, because if Utah does end
up in that twenty five ish win range. They'll be
right back in the mix for a top five pick
in the twenty twenty six NBA Draft. And this next
class is heavy on point guards and wings, two spots
(06:27):
that the Jazz would love to find long term answers at.
So I wouldn't be shocked for the front office leans
into development minutes for the rookies and younger guys down
the stretch, especially after the All Star break if the
playoffs are out of reach, and I would also expect
the front office to let a couple of these veteran
presences go in order to acquire picks on the cheap.
(06:48):
At the end of the day. Ajd Bantsa, who we
covered in a previous episode on BYU's recruiting class, is
going to be right down the road and is probably
going to enter the draft next year. So that would
just be a storybook kind of picture there if aj
Davanta could go to BUYU, have a fantastic freshman season
in college, and then go right up the road and
(07:09):
play at the Delta Center for his pro career. Lastly,
we'll talk about the n Season Tournament. I'm not expecting
a ton out of the Jazz for the N Season
Tournament there maybe win one or two. I'd be surprised
if they win two of their round robin games, probably
one of their round robin games. But I mean, the
(07:30):
N Season Tournament is a little bit of a learning
curve for younger teams. It is nice because it gives
them sort of like almost playoff basketball esque minutes because
it's highly competitive and teams take it very seriously. So
for a young team that doesn't get to go have
that sort of playoff experience, the N Season Tournament does
do a nice job of kind of ramping up the
stakes a bit and showing us who can live under
(07:54):
the pressure of the bright lights on the team. But
here's where we're at. The Jazz have a mix of
fun veterans and high ceiling rookies, but the realistic goal
is growth and not a deep playoff run this year.
So as they think of this year, they've got to
figure out who's in the long term picture and maybe
position themselves for one more big draft swing before the
(08:15):
windows starts to open in the next year or two. Subscribe,
review and follow us on socials at Life in the
Stands and ratings and reviews are the most helpful We've
got a lot more coming this season, from entery and
interviews to postgame reactions, and if you ever see us
outside of the Delta Center, come say hi. I'm your host,
zat Quinn and thanks for listening to Beehive Sports Report.
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