Jazz Mailbag: What Do Fans Have To Be Thankful For?
Nov 25, 2025, 3:07 PM
SALT LAKE CITY – Welcome to the Utah Jazz mailbag, where this Thanksgiving week, we look at what fans have to be thankful for.
Each week, we will send out a prompt on X and BlueSky asking for the questions you have about the Jazz.
Then, we’ll respond to as many as we can in that week’s Jazz mailbag in the Jazz Notes podcast.
Jazz Mailbag: What do fans have to be thankful for?
Going with the Holiday,
What is the biggest cool thing about this current team/Jazz season that you think Jazz fans should be thankful for and appreciate?— Jake The Lynx (@JakePenrod) November 24, 2025
Question: What is the biggest cool thing about this current team that you think Jazz fans should be thankful for and appreciate?
Answer: The Jazz head into Thanksgiving riding their longest losing streak of the season—four games—and facing a brutal stretch ahead. Soon, fans will find themselves tracking nightly scores around the league to see which fellow lottery teams have damaged their odds with an unexpected win.
Make no mistake: that’s not a fun way to be a fan. Every franchise aims to win games, compete for the playoffs, and eventually chase a championship. Right now, that’s not where the Jazz stand as an organization.
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So, what is there to be thankful for?
In a surprisingly drab season—marred by Walker Kessler’s injury and limited growth from some second- and third-year players—three concrete developments should give Jazz fans something to enjoy this weekend.
Keyonte George appears to be the real deal
After two seasons of wild highs and lows, Keyonte George has found the consistency that eluded him during his first 24 months in the NBA.
Aside from poor early-season shooting efficiency, the guard has been a revelation, averaging 23.4 points, 7.2 assists, and 4.1 rebounds while sharpening his defensive focus in year three.
George joins All-Stars Nikola Jokic, James Harden, Luka Doncic, Tyrese Maxey, Cade Cunningham, and breakout guard Austin Reaves as the only players to hit those averages so far in the 2025–26 season.
midrange makes it 🔑21🔑 in the first half#TakeNote | @keyonte1george pic.twitter.com/Q6j5bjtLlU
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 25, 2025
The NBA has never featured more talented backcourts, and for the past two seasons, the Jazz entered nearly every game expecting to lose the guard battle.
Now, thanks to George’s rapid development, that’s no longer true.
At 22, George has consistently ranked among the four best players on the floor most nights, and he seems to be improving. Over his last five games, he’s averaging 28.4 points and 7.4 assists while shooting nearly 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from three.
If George sustains this level, he projects as a multi-time All-Star and a cornerstone for the Jazz front office to build around.
Lauri Markkanen should be an All-Star this year
Since his first All-Star appearance in 2023, Lauri Markkanen’s game regressed, including a mediocre 2024–25 campaign with steep drops in averages across the board.
But after an impressive EuroBasket showing, Markkanen has opened this season playing the best basketball of his career. Barring injury, he has a strong case to be one of eight international players featured in the newly reformatted NBA All-Star Game.
that 3️⃣➡️2️⃣3️⃣ connection is 𝚂𝚃𝚁𝙾𝙽𝙶#TakeNote pic.twitter.com/uyM3QYGJZ9
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 24, 2025
Through 17 games, Markkanen is averaging 28.5 points and 6.1 rebounds while improving as an isolation creator and playmaker.
Questions about his fit on the Jazz’s timeline remain, but the current dilemma—whether to keep an All-Star in his prime or trade him for a treasure chest of young players and picks—is far better than what the team faced this summer.
Publicly, the Jazz insist they have no plans to trade the 28-year-old forward. With his recent play, they can sit back and enjoy the show.
Ace Bailey is the Jazz’s best prospect since… when?
The Jazz haven’t produced a Rookie of the Year since 1981 and have lacked flashy first-year players for most of the last five decades.
Donovan Mitchell’s rookie season might be the best in franchise history, but he didn’t explode out of the gate as some fans recall.
Through 17 games, Mitchell averaged 14.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.8 assists while shooting 38 percent from the field and 34 percent from three.
Tied a career-high scoring while filling up the rest of the stat sheet 📋#PlayerHighlights presented by @zionsbank pic.twitter.com/lG6LLea7GX
— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 25, 2025
In that same span, Bailey is averaging 9.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.7 assists while shooting 45 percent from the field and 33 percent from three.
Mitchell holds the edge, but he also landed on a far more complete roster built to give him offensive touches.
With Bailey’s size, rapid improvement, and flashes of brilliance on both ends, the 19-year-old has a legitimate argument as the highest-upside rookie in the franchise’s 50-plus-year history.
Time will tell how high Bailey climbs, but with a better-than-advertised basketball IQ and limitless tools, it’s hard to put a ceiling on the Tennessee native’s potential.
Overall, this hasn’t been a glamorous stretch for Jazz fans. With the season starting to feel like the last three, more tough days likely lie ahead.
Through the storm, three critical pieces—George, Markkanen, and Bailey—give fans something to be thankful for this holiday season.
Want to ask questions in next week’s Jazz mailbag? Follow us at @benshoops.
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Ben Anderson is the author of the Jazz Mailbag, a Utah Jazz insider for KSL Sports, the author of the Jazz Mailbag, and the co-host of Jake and Ben from 10-12p with Jake Scott on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone. Find Ben on Twitter at @BensHoops, on Instagram @BensHoops, or on BlueSky.
