Jazz Mailbag: How Can Jazz Land Cooper Flagg?

SALT LAKE CITY – Welcome to the Utah Jazz mailbag where this week we look at the best way to land Cooper Flagg in next year’s draft.

Each week we will send out a prompt on X asking for your questions about the Jazz.

Then, we’ll respond to as many as we can in that week’s mailbag.

Mailbag: How Can Jazz Position Themselves For Cooper Flagg?

What’s the best path that leads us to #capturetheflagg?

— KenyonJohn 🥸 (@KenyonJohn) August 20, 2024

Question: What’s the best path that leads us to landing Cooper Flagg?

Answer: After last week’s schedule release, I was stunned at how difficult the first quarter of the season was for the Jazz.

Over their first 21 games, 16 came against teams who made the Play-In Tournament or better last season, and four of the remaining five came against Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs.

The Jazz could realistically be hovering around five wins heading into December, which would set the tone for the rest of the season.

The full @utahjazz 2024-25 season schedule.

15 back-to-backs, three holiday games, and the All-Star weekend beginning on Valentine’s Day. #takenote | @kslsports pic.twitter.com/swcGEWKhZ4

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) August 15, 2024

Here’s the problem, the Jazz only had six wins heading into December last season, and still managed to claw out 25 more victories to close the season.

Furthermore, the Jazz are likely to lose to those playoff-contending teams regardless of when they face them, so racking up a bunch of expected losses in November, rather than in March and April probably doesn’t do much to change the team’s lottery odds.

If the Jazz want to finish with a worse record than their 31-51 performance last season, they’ll have to lose more games to their fellow cellar-dwellers when they meet them over the final 61 games of the year.

Last season, the Jazz’s best stretch of basketball came between December 13 and January 27 when they went 17-7 over a 24-game stretch.

The @utahjazz revealed their full 2024-25 schedule yesterday, but these three dates will tell you everything you need to know about the team next season. #TakeNote https://t.co/T4YGSxFQVq

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) August 16, 2024

Within those 17 wins, nine came against teams who missed the playoffs in the Portland Trail Blazers, Brooklyn Nets, Detroit Pistons (2x), Toronto Raptors (2x), Washington Wizards, the Spurs, and the Charlotte Hornets.

Nine wins last season was the difference between the fifth-best odds of landing a top-four pick (42.1 percent), and the eighth-best odds (26.2 percent).

The question then becomes how do the Jazz lose more games against the NBA’s worst teams which not only helps the Jazz in the loss column, but hurts other lottery teams by adding wins to their total?

As fans probably remember, the Jazz have been a decent team when they’ve trying to win games over the last two seasons, and absolutely atrocious when they’re not.

The Jazz had a 35-36 record to begin the 22-23 season before dropping nine of their final 11 games.

The team was 26-26 last season at the trade deadline before finishing the year 5-25 over the final two months.

Related: Will Keeping Markkanen Win Jazz Too Many Games?

Thus, the best-case scenario for the Jazz may be to play the worst teams in the NBA after the trade deadline when they’ve handed the ball over to their youngest players, and have stopped maximizing wins after trading away or resting their best veterans.

This is where the Jazz got a little bit of scheduling luck.

Of the 32 games the Jazz play after the February 6 trade deadline, 11 come against teams that missed the playoffs last season (excluding the injury-depleted Memphis Grizzlies) and seven come against the cellar-dwellers mentioned above (not counting the Chicago Bulls who made the Play-In Tournament).

While those may have been expected wins had they been played earlier in the season, they likely all become a coin toss with what should be a full-blown youth movement to close the schedule.

Though the Jazz certainly won’t drop all of their games against the league’s worst teams, their odds of falling short of last season’s 16-11 record against fellow lottery teams should increase.

Do you think there is any chance of Taylor or Brice playing in the GLeague again this season? Or have they 100% graduated?

— CrunchFactor (@thegreatbambis) August 20, 2024

Question: Do you think there is any chance of Taylor Hendricks or Brice Sensabaugh playing in the G League again this season? Or have they 100% graduated?

Answer: Even before his finger injury during summer league I expected Sensabaugh to earn some minutes of the G League as he continues to round out his game.

Sensabaugh had some truly strong performances last season after the trade deadline, but still found himself in an extended shooting funk, and needs to mature physically before he’s a regular rotation player.

Related: Will All Three Rookies Play Next Season?

Hendricks also needs to get stronger, but as a former lottery pick with some NBA chops as a shooter and rebounder, he may be a safer bet to stick with the team for the duration of the season.

However, if the second-year forward finds himself in a shooting slump, or seems worn down by the rigors of the 82 games season, the Jazz could opt to stash Hendricks in the G League in spot situations to help him maintain a rhythm.

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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.

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