For Jazz, development — not wins — will define the 2025-26 season

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy had a message for his young players at the start of the summer.

"We're not waiting on somebody to come and save us," he told them. "We're not waiting for somebody to come and walk through the door and, 'Oh, now we're good.'"

The pipe dreams of past offseasons — remember "big game hunting"? — have given way to a more grounded approach. The Jazz, at long last, completed a years-long roster teardown, essentially clearing the deck to see what they have in their young players.

"A lot of our development has to come internally," president of basketball operations Austin Ainge said. "The salary cap dictates it, our market dictates it, everything. We have to improve with a lot of these young guys in that room."

Over the last three years, the Jazz have selected eight players through the draft they hope can be part of the next competitive Utah team: Keyonte George, Brice Sensabaugh, Taylor Hendricks, Isaiah Collier, Kyle Filipowski, Cody Williams, Walt Clayton Jr., and Ace Bailey.

Those players have been the rewards for one of the worst three-season stretches in Jazz history, with the team strategically resting and making in-season trades to ensure poor records.

Now, the cupboard is nearly void of true impact veterans. The 2025-26 Jazz will be Lauri Markkanen and the kids (with some good locker room vets mixed in).

"I think it's great for all of us to start now and be thrown in that fire," Filipowski said. "There's no time, really, to sit back and kind of flow into things. You've got to keep learning on the go, and I think it'll really bring out the best of ourselves this year."

So how good — or should we say how interesting — will Utah be? That depends on if any of those recent draftees pop.

"Every good player in our league has had a breakout year," Hardy said. "Some of them it's their first year, some it's their third years, some it's their fifth year. And there's nothing that says that somebody in our locker room can't have a breakout year this year."

They'll all have plenty of chances to break out, which will serve two purposes.

First, the Jazz will learn which young players can help when the team is ready to compete again. Second, it probably won't translate into many wins. And, for Utah's future, that's probably a good thing.

The protected first-round pick the Jazz owe Oklahoma City from the Derrick Favors salary dump trade back in 2021 will either be conveyed next draft (the pick is top eight protected) or the obligation will be extinguished. Utah will need to finish with at least the fourth-worst record to ensure they keep the pick on lottery night.

Considering where the Jazz are as a team — and how good the 2026 draft is shaping up to be — it would be ill-advised, if not downright irresponsible, to win too many games this season.

So the plan is let the youngsters take their lumps and develop; and then, come next summer, actually start trying to win again. But that doesn't mean they'll be throwing games, either.

"We know where we're at as a team, but we want to start establishing a culture, defensive identity, playing hard, playing together, playing the right way, improving every day," Ainge said when asked about keeping the pick. "So when we are ready to flip the switch and get there that we have those habits ready made."

In short, after three years of a roster tear down, the real rebuild can finally start.

"Where we are is really exciting, because we have the ability right now to actually form our own identity," Hardy said. "And I think growing with these young players is really exciting. I think our fan base should be really excited … because when we get where we want to get to, it's going to be that much more satisfying, because you saw the whole journey."

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