SALT LAKE CITY — Another Utah Jazz season is here.
The Jazz open the 2025-26 campaign Wednesday night at home against the Los Angeles Clippers, kicking off another year of development, speculation, and hopefully just enough chaos to keep things compelling.
Here are 10 things that will — or absolutely won’t — happen this season.
Lauri Markkanen will still be on the team next summer
Few players in the NBA have been mentioned in trade rumors as much as Lauri Markkanen — and for good reason. He’s a former All-Star entering his prime, and playing for a team that hasn’t exactly been pushing to win.
But he’s also genuinely happy in Utah. And with the Jazz seemingly just one season away from actually trying to field a competitive team again, the team will keep him around for the next step of the rebuild.
“Lauri is awesome,” president of basketball operations Austin Ainge said. “He’s really good. Lauri could — and hopefully is — part of our next team when we’re going up. Part of the greatness of Lauri is he fits with anyone. He is so versatile at his size; however we can build this thing. He can fit, literally, on any team.”
Ace Bailey will lead all rookies in scoring
Ace Bailey scored 25 points in his first preseason game — and those types of games won’t be too uncommon for the skilled rookie in his first season.
The Jazz will feature the rookie heavily in off-ball actions, and his combination of athleticism, size, and shot-making will lead to several breakout performances. He’ll pace all rookies in scoring and quickly become a fan favorite.
Bailey will finish 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting
As good as Bailey will be, he won’t quite catch No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg in the Rookie of the Year race. It’ll be close — a battle that’ll feel a bit like Donovan Mitchell’s rookie campaign against Ben Simmons.
Also like Mitchell, Bailey will make an appearance at All-Star Weekend in the dunk contest.
There will be some handwringing from some fans after a 4-2 start
The Jazz start the season with a light schedule — and will shock some people by collecting four wins in their first six games.
But don’t worry, #TankNote fans, things will even out (and then some) soon after.
Walter Clayton Jr. will start at point guard before the end of the year
For the third season in a row, a Jazz rookie will take over the starting point guard position.
Clayton’s controlled game and defensive intensity will push him into the starting five before the the calendar turns to 2026.
Utah will trade at least one of its young players at the deadline
The Jazz currently have nine players 24 or younger on standard contracts. Not all of them are long-term pieces.
Expect at least one of them to be moved before the February trade deadline as Utah starts to shape its core for the next phase of the rebuild.
That player won’t be Walker Kessler
Kessler admitted he was frustrated about not receiving a contract extension this offseason, but that’s not reflective of how the organization views him.
The lack of a deal was a business move, not a basketball one. By waiting, the Jazz can preserve cap flexibility and still re-sign Kessler next summer. He’s the only young player on the roster who has solidified himself as a true NBA starter — not the type of guy you move on from.
The sellout steak will end
The 2024-25 season was the worst in Jazz history — and, yet, the team still kept its lengthy sellout streak intact.
A fourth straight losing season will finally be too much for some fans, and the team will see its first non-sellout game since the 2017-18 season.
Jazz will, once again, finish with the league’s worst record
The Jazz are bad. But, for now, they are fine with that.
As the only team in the Western Conference not actively pushing for the playoffs, the Jazz will face a daunting schedule — a schedule that will ultimately finish with them at the bottom of the standings.
Utah will get the No. 3 pick in the 2026 draft
The ping pong balls will finally bounce Utah’s way. Sort of.
The Jazz will secure the No. 3 pick in the 2026 draft, positioning themselves to select one of the top-tier prospects: BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, or Duke’s Cam Boozer.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
