Utah Jazz: Biggest questions ahead of 2026-27 season
Oct 19, 2026, 4:32 PM
Head coach Will Hardy of the Utah Jazz talks with Jaren Jackson Jr. #20 (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Jazz will open the 2026-27 season with high expectations, but will have to answer several major questions to reach their ceiling.
KSL Sports insiders Ben Anderson and Chandler Holt discuss those issues ahead of Wednesday’s season opener against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Related: Utah Jazz wrap up preseason in Phoenix, look forward to opener
Utah Jazz 2026-27 Biggest Questions
How much better will the team be?
Ben: The Jazz should improve significantly this season based on the fact that they are no longer tanking for draft position. That change alone could create an opportunity to add nearly 10 wins, even under the league’s new lottery format.
While fewer teams are likely to tank their way to the bottom of the standings, enough organizations will still be aiming to finish with the NBA’s fourth to 10th-worst records, prioritizing ping-pong balls over wins as they position themselves for the 2027 draft.
Even then, the Jazz would be sitting on roughly 32 wins, and that won’t be nearly enough to reach the playoffs in the Western Conference. They’ll probably need to find an additional 10 wins to guarantee themselves a spot in the play-in tournament.
To get those wins, the Jazz must make substantial gains on both ends of the floor after finishing last season with the league’s 22nd-ranked offense and 29th-ranked defense.
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Most analysts expect the Jazz to take a major step forward offensively, but a closer look at the offensive and defensive ratings tells an interesting story.
If the Jazz had improved their offensive rating by 5.0 points last season, they would have jumped from 22nd in the league to seventh. That would have placed them ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who entered the playoffs as the championship favorite before losing Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.
That feels like a massive leap to me.
A 5.0-point improvement in defensive rating would have seen the Jazz climb from 29th to 21st in defensive rating, landing between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets, neither of whom were viewed as strong defensive teams.
It’s easier for me to wrap my head around the idea of the Jazz raising their defensive level to that of the Nuggets than it is to improve their offense to match the Thunder.
I wonder if there is more room for growth on the defensive end than we’ve discussed this summer, and whether the combination of Jaren Jackson Jr., Josh Okogie and a greater commitment to winning could help the Jazz make a larger improvement in defensive rating than in offensive rating.
Chandler: After what is tied for the worst four-year stretch in franchise history, it really might be only up from here for the Jazz.
Not to say injuries or lateral movement defensively couldn’t, at least minorly, derail the season, but the Jazz are fully prepped to put together a competitive season.
I have said this before, but I expect Utah to make major strides on the defensive end. With Jaren Jackson Jr. as the keystone, a leap of 10 or more places is possible. With the offensive firepower supplied by Lauri Markkanen, Keyonte George, and the young core, a top-15 offense is an even more likely possibility.
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Since the 2019-20 season, teams that have a top-10 offense and a defense between 15th and 20th have an average win percentage of 60 percent and typically finish between fourth and sixth in the conference.
That would be a welcome outcome for this team.
NBA general managers voted Utah as one of the toughest teams to predict in terms of its level of success. But it’s an easy bet to say they will be much improved and vying for a playoff appearance for the first time since the 2021-2022 season.
Is youth development of greater importance than expected?
Ben: I was surprised to see how much Darryn Peterson played in the preseason, seemingly locking up a starting spot as a rookie, something we haven’t seen Will Hardy commit to when opening a season during his tenure in Utah.
While we’ve discussed an expected playoff push for the Jazz, maybe developing Peterson and Ace Bailey remains more important internally than simply qualifying for the play-in tournament.
🤝 https://t.co/INVTDU0f8s
— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) October 17, 2026
In fact, against the San Antonio Spurs in the Jazz’s third preseason game, we didn’t even see Okogie or Josh Green take the floor until the second half. Both Peterson and Bailey played over 14 minutes, while Svi Mykhailiuk, Brice Sensabaugh, and Isaiah Collier ate up the rest of the backcourt minutes.
There’s no guarantee that this will be Hardy’s rotation on opening night, and Okogie did get minutes in the first half of the Jazz’s final preseason game, but it appears the team was comfortable going with a very young lineup outside of Jackson Jr., Jaxson Hayes, and Lauri Markkanen.
If that’s the plan to start the season, I would expect to see a lower win total than anticipated.
Chandler: As talented as Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. are, I still believe that a contending Jazz championship squad would be with Darryn Peterson, Ace Bailey, and Keyonte George as its best players.
Not to say that those first two guys won’t be around anymore. I just feel that any combination of Peterson, Bailey, and George hitting their ceilings would vault the team into the upper echelon of the association.
All of that said, I was surprised to see Peterson starting in each of the first three preseason games. Not that he doesn’t have the talent. Simply because Hardy has been slow to start rookies during his time as Utah’s head coach.
Preseason rotations may be fool’s gold. But I do wonder if development will be a bigger focus for the Jazz this season than some may have thought.
What will hold the Utah Jazz back the most this season?
Ben: While the Jazz have the talent to compete with other playoff teams, there is a lack of chemistry on the roster that may cost the team some early-season wins, especially with Jusuf Nurkic out of the lineup.
We’ve already seen some sluggishness in the preseason with the starting lineup trying to figure out exactly who should get shots and when, and I don’t know if that will be fixed with just a handful of reps.
Will Hardy on the future of the Jazz:
“I’m optimistic on where we’re going. I do believe that this is the beginning of a really good era in Utah.”
#TakeNote | @kslsports
— Chandler Holt (@CHoltSports) October 18, 2026
The Jazz will get there, and navigating this much talent is a good problem to have, but it will take some time to find a healthy balance.
Unfortunately, the rest of the league won’t wait for the Jazz to gel, and until they do, there might be some uneven performances.
Chandler: My answer is the simple answer: Defense.
The Jazz have been a bottom-two defense in the league in each of the last three seasons. One season 180s are not unprecedented, but they are extremely rare. It often takes teams multiple seasons to go from bad to above average.
It isn’t lost on me that Utah is adding a former Defensive Player of the Year and one of the 25-best defenders in the sport to the mix.
But Jackson Jr. is not Victor Wembanyama or Rudy Gobert. It is still absolutely possible that the Jazz finish with a bottom-five defense.
On the other side of the stat I previously used, two teams have finished with a bottom-five defense and made the postseason since the 2019-20 season. Neither of them advanced past the first round.
I look at the center rotation as more of a question mark, rather than a concern. I would guess that defense would lose the Jazz more games than a missing interior presence. Although there is some overlap with those two.
What would be a best-case scenario for the Jazz this season?
Ben: Even with the Jazz’s chemistry issues, Keyonte George, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Lauri Markkanen are an extremely competent trio, and should give the Jazz a puncher’s chance most nights.
If George makes another significant jump, he could compete for a spot on the All-Star team, which would allow Jackson Jr. and Markkanen to settle into more familiar roles on the roster, without being overburdened.
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That would also allow the rest of the rotation, namely Peterson and Bailey, to develop at a natural pace, where they can be useful in spot minutes.
If that happens, mixed with a few other teams failing to hit their ceiling (looking at you Lakers and Timberwolves), the Jazz could steal a top-six playoff seed in the West.
Chandler: I currently pin the Jazz as a play-in team. Though I agree with the sentiment that it is hard to predict this team’s level of success.
They have a massive range. I wouldn’t be blown away if they missed the playoffs or if they secured a top-six seed.
That said, my pick for the best-case scenario is the fifth seed and a few wins in the first round of the playoffs. I would be pretty shocked if they won a playoff series.
Finishing fifth means that you got more regular-season wins than two of San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Denver, Minnesota, Houston, and Los Angeles. Not an easy task, but it’s also fair to predict that not all of those teams will have picture-perfect seasons.
Next Utah Jazz Broadcast
The Utah Jazz will travel to face the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday at 6 p.m. MST. The game will be televised on KJZZ, streamed on Jazz+, and heard on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone.
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