Jazz Are Too Good to Be a Bottom-6 Lottery Team

The Utah Jazz aren't vying for lottery position and two players are a big reason for that.

In a race to the bottom, in what many call the most significant draft in NBA history, the San Antonio Spurs are fast approaching the worst record in the league. As the Utah Jazz topped the Spurs on Saturday night, San Antonio sits at 14-47 and is currently on a 16-game losing streak, and has won just two of the last 26 games. 

It's no secret that Victor Wembanyana and Scoot Henderson are two of the most hyped-up and sought-after prospects the NBA has ever seen. The hype is reinforced as several teams are positioning themselves into better odds at landing a top-2 spot in the upcoming 2023 NBA draft.

The current draft rules allow the bottom three records in the NBA to each be allotted a 14.00% chance at winning the lottery, and the possibility of winning said lottery gets smaller and smaller down the line of the 14 worst records. 

A stigma around ‘tanking’ or purposefully losing has been persistent since the implementation of the lottery system for the draft. But for many fan bases, the idea of getting even 1% more of a chance at landing Wembanyana is worth it.

Jazz Nation has also rallied around this call. Certainly not a unanimous rallying cry, but many have seen the current team’s efforts in winning just enough to reach the play-in-game as a negative output compared to a more significant chance at landing such a franchise-altering prospect.

The hard truth for this group of fans is that the Jazz are just too good to be a bottom-six team in the league. When stacked against the Spurs of the NBA, it shows the Jazz are ahead of them in almost every aspect of the game. 

The Jazz lucked out with the emergence of the current favorite for Most Improved Player of the Year, Lauri Markkanen. Even after Utah traded three rotation players for a future draft pick, the team is still playing .500 ball. 

The Jazz have one of the largest stockpiles of assets in the league and are sitting on a solid foundation of Markkanen and Walker Kessler. Jazz fans should see the silver lining and enjoy this group as they compete every night.

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