Going into last season, many outsiders predicted that the Utah Jazz would be one of the worst teams in the league and that they lacked a solid collection of talent. However, for most of last year, they were inside the playoff race. They drastically outperformed expectations, and only didn’t make the play-in tournament because they backed off for a higher draft pick. It was a season that saw Lauri Markkanen blossom into an all-star starter, and late first rounder Walker Kessler finish third in rookie of the year voting. However, it doesn’t feel as if they want to miss the playoffs again. Yesterday they traded for Hawks forward John Collins, in a deal that was essentially a salary dump for Atlanta. The Jazz can now be consistently big in the frontcourt with a starting trio of Markkanen, Kessler, and Collins. This came after the team had arguably the best NBA Draft of anyone this year, landing Taylor Hendricks at 9, Keyonte George at 16, and Brice Sensabaugh at number 28. They will still have a pretty sizeable amount of cap space as well to pursue free agents, although the Collins deal did cut into it. This team overperformed last season, but with their offseason so far, next season will come with real expectations. And Utah is ready for it. The Jazz are making an aggressive playoff push. Now let’s take a deeper look at what the Collins deal means for Utah.
Think about subbing, I’m on the road to 9k!!!
#utahjazz #johncollins #laurimarkkanen
2 Comments
Damm I wish Collins was moved to the Knicks ….
Utah gonna be dangerous