August is the quietest month of the NBA calendar. Players, coaches and executives go on vacations, get married, check off bucket list items, attend charity events and do all of the things there isn’t time for during the season.
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But that leaves the most rabid NBA fans without much discourse for the upcoming season. So, we’ve opened up the mailbag!
Today, we start with a question about the Utah Jazz that is literally impossible to answer!
I’ve seen predictions from the 3rd seed, to a solid play-in team. What is a realistic goal so we don’t get burned this season?
— Richard (@lucerovski.bsky.social) August 3, 2026 at 6:30 PM
You’ve probably seen a wide range of win predictions for the Jazz, and that’s because no one really knows what to expect from the Jazz.
The best Jazz players from the previous handful of seasons have been held back or have been holding back from what they are truly capable of. Lauri Markkanen spent huge portions of previous seasons trying out new stuff during regular season games and experimenting while also being guarded by up to three defenders.
The tanking has helped to build this team, but it has also kept us from fully understanding what the pieces will look like together. We don’t have much of an idea what it will look like when Jusuf Nurkić is regularly working dribble handoffs with Markkanen as Jaren Jackson Jr. threatens from the corner, while Ace Bailey and Keyonte George are requiring other defensive attention. And we have no idea what it will look like with Darryn Peterson added to the mix.
What we know is that when you look at those names and think about what you believe these players are capable of, it seems pretty exciting. We know that the Jazz had to really work to lose games, which means that when they are are trying to win, they should easily eclipse their previous win totals.
That’s where the expectations of this team start to take shape. This should — ‘should’ being a really important word — be a team that, at the very least, takes a play-in spot in the standings. But because we don’t know what this team will look like at full strength, the upper echelon of predictions can vary wildly.
Realistically, it’s probably smart to stay with the lower expectation and be happily surprised about anything above that.
This Jazz team should make the play-in tournament, which will probably require around 38 wins in the 2026-27 season. If they do better than that, it wouldn’t be a shock, it would just confirm that we didn’t know how good they can be, and we can readjust expectations from there.
Should the Jazz be superstar hunting with these Lakers picks + top players? Who would you pursue? I’d go after Jokic for JJJ, Bailey, and the picks…
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— Keith Haney (@billyconard.bsky.social) August 3, 2026 at 8:20 PM
Acquiring Jaren Jackson Jr. was the result of a superstar hunt. As explained above, we don’t even know what this is capable of when Bailey and JJJ are playing together and with all of the other Jazz pieces.
This season is going to be one of discovery. We’ll learn what all the Jazz players look like together, where the gaps are on the roster or even what might not work as well in practice as was thought in theory.
Should the Jazz be superstar hunting? Well, the hope is that they’ve drafted a couple of players that could turn into superstars such as Bailey and Peterson. The Jazz, like every team, should always have their ear to the ground, and they do. But they also need to find out what they currently have.
Who will initiate the offense most often next season?
— Brett Darrington (@brettdarrington.bsky.social) August 3, 2026 at 6:15 PM
If I had to guess, I would say George. But there’s going to be a huge mix of offensive initiation. There are going to be times when it’s Markkanen and Nurkić and Peterson. Will Hardy’s offensive style doesn’t really lend itself to a single offensive initiator, there’s a lot more motion and variance.
But George has the most experience on this team as an initiator at this point and that’s what the Jazz have been building him toward, so I would expect that.
When it come to the assistants and support staff, do you have any standout moments from last season? Who are the people on staff that absolutely kill it for the team in their role?
— Tristan Gray (@tombkingtristan.bsky.social) August 3, 2026 at 5:31 PM
All of the support staff and the assistants for the Jazz are well-liked and highly regarded by all of the players.
The assistants often work individually with specific players or with a small group of players, so depending on what player you ask, they would have a different answer for who has been most impactful. One player might say that Chris Jones has been the best, while another will say Chad Forcier, or Sean Sheldon, or Andrew Warren, or Jason Terry or Scott Morrison … or any number of other assistants and development coaches.
Then there are the trainers and medical staff, the nutrition and diet staff, and this list could go on and on. The point is that there’s not one specific standout moment.
What I can say with certainty is that I’ve been around other NBA teams that have staff members that are not liked by the players, and this is not one of those teams. That’s a really good sign for what Hardy is building.
At least we’ll have the schedule to talk about whenever it gets released.
— Bob Aagard (@bobaagard.bsky.social) August 3, 2026 at 6:14 PM
The NBA schedule is usually released around mid-August, and believe me, I’m counting down the days just as much as the next person.
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