24. Utah Jazz
After being a pleasant surprise during the first half of last season, the Utah Jazz fell back to reality a bit. However, it was encouraging to see Walker Kessler play so well during his rookie season and Lauri Markkanen make his first All-Star appearance. Those are certainly two things that the Jazz will be able to build around this season, even more so considering they just added three first-round picks in this past year’s NBA Draft.
The Jazz still has some figuring out to do when it comes to finding their established foundation post-Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, but this is a team that is certainly headed in the right direction. There is clear talent on this roster and this season will all be about finding cornerstone pieces to keep alongside Markkenen and Kessler.
In a deep Western Conference, I don’t think it’s fair to expect the Jazz to take a huge step forward this season. In fact, you can make the argument that this team may end up taking a bit of a step back this season due to the hills and valleys that come in the early stages of a rebuild.