Jazz Leaped In Lottery By Two Teams They Tried To Out-Tank
May 12, 2024, 2:56 PM | Updated: 3:04 pm
Dejounte Murray #5 of the Atlanta Hawks drives against Keyonte George #3 of the Utah Jazz(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY – Call it irony, call it karma, the Utah Jazz had just about the worst possible outcome in Sunday’s NBA Draft Lottery.
After a 5-25 close to the season, designed in part to leap both the Atlanta Hawks and the Brooklyn Nets in the lottery standings, the Jazz saw both the Hawks and the Nets strike gold by moving into the top four picks of this year’s draft.
The Jazz will select 10th despite their best efforts to climb in the draft, the Nets pick (which belongs to the Houston Rockets) jumped to third, while the Hawks will make the top overall pick.
So the Jazz’s 5-25 finish to the season was designed to leap both Brooklyn and Atlanta in the lottery rankings, only to see both Brooklyn and Atlanta jump them into the top four.
Talk about twisting the knife.
— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) May 12, 2024
Odds Work Against Jazz In Lottery
The Jazz entered the lottery with a 26.2 percent chance of moving into one of the top four picks, a 34.5 percent chance of selecting eight, a 32.1 percent chance of picking ninth, and just a 6.7 percent chance of selecting 10th.
Bad luck struck as NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum revealed the selections showing the Jazz had slipped from eighth in the draft to tenth, one of the least likely outcomes heading into the lottery.
Watch the 2024 #NBADraftLottery Presented By State Farm pic.twitter.com/yyG3Ms8v23
— NBA (@NBA) May 12, 2024
Meanwhile, the Nets had a 5.2 percent chance of moving up to the third pick, and the Hawks had only a 3.0 percent chance of landing the top overall pick.
It’s a cruel twist of fate for Jazz fans who had to watch the team drop 25 of their final 30 games, despite opening the year with a 26-26 record.
Jazz Frustrated By Drop In Lottery
After learning that they’d slipped in the draft, Jazz Vice President of Player Personnel Bart Taylor discussed what it meant for the team.
“Obviously we’re not happy about it, we’d rather stay at eight or move up,” Taylor said. “But we’ve been studying the draft already for the eighth pick and there’s still a lot of players that we like, and I think we’ll still get a good player at 10, so not too worried about it.”
Related: Listen To KSL Sports Lottery Reaction Show
The 2024 class is considered one of the more wide-open drafts in recent memory, and one that will foster more surprises on draft night than in previous years.
“Half the guys we have in the top 10 are probably in everybody’s top 10, right?” Taylor said. “But I don’t know which half that is, I think it gets interesting around six, seven.”
The Jazz also own the 29th and the 32nd overall picks in the 2024 draft.
The NBA Draft will be held on June 26 and 27 in New York.
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Ben Anderson is the Utah Jazz insider for KSL Sports and the co-host of Jake and Ben from 10-12p with Jake Scott on 97.5 The KSL Sports Zone. Find Ben on Twitter at @BensHoops or on Instagram @BensHoops.
