Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images The Utah Jazz are likely going to re-negotiate Lauri Markkanen’s contract. What will that look like? On this lastest Hoops Nerd podcast I was joined by Ken Clayton of Salt City Hoops. Ken is fantastic with his knowledge of the NBA cap/contracts/cba and how it correlates to the Jazz. I wanted to ask Ken about the different options for the Utah Jazz this offseason with Lauri Markkanen’s contract and he went through exactly what they can do, and the dates they can do it. We also talked about the big game hunting the Jazz could potentially do this offseason. If ..read more

Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images The Utah Jazz could get a nice deal done with the Los Angeles Lakers On the latest Mind the Game podcast, LeBron James and JJ Redick discussed different players in the league, and JJ Redick brought up Lauri Markkanen. LeBron immediately made a point of telling Redick how much he loves Markkanen. “One of my favorites.. he’s been a LeBron supporter for a long time, I love that guy he’s so good” - LeBron on Lauri Markkanen Via - @mindthegamepod pic.twitter.com/h2nUPUwU8o — ²³ (@SpeakContext) May 1, 2024 LeBron says, “One of my favorites ... he ..read more

Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images Who is the Utah Jazz’s Defensive Player of the Year? How do you give out a Defensive Player of the Year award to the team that had the worst defensive rating in the league? Well defense is a team sport and SLC Dunk writes what we want to write so get over it. The Jazz defense was simply abysmal, it wasn’t close to what it needed to be this season. With that said, there’s still time to highlight players who did special things and especially recognize good things are happening. 2023-2024 Utah Jazz Defensive Player of the Year: Walker Kessler The best defe ..read more

Photo by Jeff Bottari/NBAE via Getty Images All the different rumors about Utah Jazz trades and free agency here The Utah Jazz are going to be very active in the trade market and possibly in free agency. We’ll keep every trade rumor and transaction here as the Jazz continue their rebuild. Make sure to bookmark this page because I’ll be updating it regularly with each rumor and the corresponding article. Utah Jazz Trade Rumors Utah Jazz expected to be aggressive in trades ..read more

Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski/NBAE via Getty Images The Utah Jazz are going to be aggressive in trades according to Kevin O’Connor According to Kevin O’Connor, the Utah Jazz are expected to be aggressive in trades this summer. The Jazz and Pelicans are two teams expected to be aggressive on the trade market this offseason utilizing their rich supply of draft capital, per @KevinOConnorNBA (https://t.co/E7NHhkhrbi). Utah owns 15 first-round picks over the next five years. New Orleans could potentially… pic.twitter.com/VM52Su5wos — Evan Sidery (@esidery) April 30, 2024 While talking about the L ..read more

Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports Comparing Smith’s early tenure to other new NBA owners The state of Utah and the Jazz fanbase had quite the shock back in 2020. The Jazz were turning the corner in their rebuild and had a promising future. Suddenly, after 35 years of ownership, the Larry H. and Gail Miller family decided to move on and sell the team to Utah native Ryan Smith. This was sure to dramatically change the trajectory of the Utah Jazz franchise, for better or worse. I wanted to take a minute to express appreciation for Ryan Smith’s first few years on the job. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t a ..read more

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images The more X’s and O’s I learn the more I love the game For the past few weeks, I’ve been watching Lebron James and JJ Redick’s new podcast Mind the Game. This podcast is chuck full of X’s and O’s with a lot of fascinating discussion between two incredible basketball minds. The more I watch, the more I get excited about different schemes I see while watching playoff basketball. This got me thinking about the Jazz and their current scheme. Will Hardy seems to be an X’s and O’s genius when it comes to offensive schemes. With that said, I would love to see the Jazz r ..read more

Photo by David Becker/NBAE via Getty Images Does Ron Holland have all-star potential in a draft lacking top end talent? The 2024 NBA draft is reported as having limited to no superstar prospects. Despite this, Ron Holland of the G-League Ignite has the playstyle and body of a potential NBA star wing. A year ago, Ron Holland was getting frequent number 1 pick buzz but due to a perceived underperformance in the G-League, Holland’s draft pick positioning is much more fluid than before. The Ignites were embarrassingly bad last season (2-32, the program is being shut down). Playing on such a poor t ..read more

Dalton Knecht reacts to his Tennessee squad blazing through the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament | Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images The Utah Jazz had three bites at the draft apple last year. They’ll have another three chances this coming draft. The team found position size at the respective positions and is likely to follow that same trend come June. Though this draft class doesn’t promise the high ceiling talent franchises would like to see, there’s a dearth of rotational talent and no one better fits the mold than Dalton Knecht. Dalton Knecht is currently mocked throughout by truste ..read more

Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images The Utah Jazz had three solid rookies, who was the best of the three? The Utah Jazz came into the 2024 NBA season with three promising rookies and each showed great flashes. What’s interesting about each rookie was the elements of their game that differed from the others. Taylor Hendricks was touted as a great defensive prospect who could shoot. That panned out post trade deadline when he finally got steady minutes on the floor. Keyonte George came into the season with the expectation that he could be a scorer for the Jazz, and he showed just that. Br ..read more