SLC Dunk

Last season, the Utah Jazz brought on Kevin Love as part of the John Collins three-team trade that helped continue the tank last season. Before the season started, it was rumored that Kevin Love might not be too interested in joining the Jazz once he got there. In fact, we’re almost exactly a year away from when it was rumored that Kevin Love wanted to be traded away from the Jazz. It’s probably good to take that into consideration with the latest rumors regarding Kevin Love from Dave McMenamin.

The Utah Jazz are going to have one of the most interesting seasons of any team this season. What makes it so interesting, besides the shift toward playoff contention, is how many different storylines there are to watch. Multiple players will be competing for different awards and accolades. Whether it’s Darryn Peterson, Keyonte George, Jaren Jackson Jr., or Ace Bailey, each has unique pathways to stardom. But what accomplishment is most possible for each of these players?

The best part of the upcoming season for the Utah Jazz is that there are many potentially great outcomes for multiple players. For Keyonte George, he has a chance to take another step in his development, and it’s exciting to think about what that means. Jaren Jackson Jr. gets to be on a winning basketball team again, and we’ll see if he can reach the same levels he was at when he won DPOY years ago.

Beside LeBron James choosing the 76ers, the Jazz trading Walker Kessler to the Lakers for a crazy amount of picks was probably the biggest surprise of the offseason. Utah received two future unprotected picks as well as two pick swaps from the Lakers. The pick swaps are in 2028 and 2030 while the PIcks are in 2031 and 2033. Those swaps may not deliver much to the Jazz unless something happens to Luka Doncic.

Darryn Peterson came into the NBA touted as the best shooter in the draft, with the potential to be more as a lead guard. That potential became very apparent in Peterson’s first game against the Washington Wizards when he showed off an incredible crossover that left Jamir Watkins stumbling. It turns out that crossover might have been more devastating than we thought. It turns out that this crossover actually tore Watkins’ ACL.

The Isaiah Collier discourse sure has subsided, hasn’t it? Nobody has anything to say about this first-round pick these days, but during an offseason filled with anxiety, I suppose no news is good news. Darryn Peterson struggled to whip the ball through the net against [blatantly illegal] aggressive 10-foul defensive schemes of the Las Vegas Summer League. Cody Williams continues to play chameleon no matter the level of his competition.

We are officially into the doldrums of the offseason - Summer League is behind us, free agency is all but over, and we still have months until we first see our new team take the floor. It is in these doldrums that one begins to ponder the real questions of the soul: am I leading my life correctly? should I be spending all this time on basketball? is Mario Hezonja worth all the hype given to his free agency decision? And, most importantly, who will be the Jazz’s backup shooting guard?

It’s been an active offseason for the Utah Jazz, and a really successful one. But more for the move they didn’t do than the ones they did. Recently, the Utah Jazz made what might have been the best move of the offseason that didn’t get celebrated as much as the splashiest moves. Utah deciding to take every asset the Lakers had for Walker Kessler, instead of re-signing him to a bad contract, was a sign of an elite front office.

The Utah Jazz are coming into the season as maybe the most unpredictable team in either conference. No one is sure what to make of this collection of talent. Will the players achieve a level of cohesion and become better than the sum of their parts? Or will they struggle with the blend of youth and veterans and underwhelm? That leads us to this week’s Utah Jazz Reacts survey. How will this season end when all is said and done?

The Utah Jazz came out of the 2026 NBA Draft on the verge of a breakout season. All that was left for the Jazz was to re-sign Walker Kessler. It felt like it was an inevitability until the news that the Lakers agreed to give the Jazz every asset they had to bring Walker Kessler to LA. That left the Jazz with a question mark at center that they probably didn’t expect. The question for the Jazz and Jazz fans became: what should they do about the center position?