Prior to the start of the regular season our CBS Sports staff selected the Utah Jazz to finish 15th in the Western Conference. That wasn't abnormal thinking around the league, given the Jazz traded their two franchise cornerstones in Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert this past offseason in an effort to press reset on the franchise's future.
While the Jazz could very well still finish the season toward the bottom of the conference, through the first week of games they've gotten out to a surprising 3-0 start. It started with a blowout win against a finally healthy Denver Nuggets team, followed by a statement road win against Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Then came Utah's most impressive win of the season so far, a 122-121 overtime win over a New Orleans Pelicans team that previously bulldozed the Brooklyn Nets on opening night. It was Kelly Olynyk's scoop layup at the end of overtime that sealed the win for the Jazz, making them just one of five remaining unbeaten teams in the league.
Though the score suggests a back-and-forth contest, it wasn't particularly close until the fourth quarter, as Utah worked up to a 17-point lead at one point in the game. However, it is worth mentioning that Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram exited the game in the first quarter after colliding with Naji Marshall and didn't return as he was being evaluated for a concussion. Zion Williamson also did not play most of the fourth quarter after taking a hard fall on a dunk attempt. Williamson was later diagnosed with a hip contusion after the game.
Those two caveats aside, though, no one could've expected that the Jazz would be 3-0 to start the season. It's a spirited start for a franchise that waved the white flag on the Mitchell-Gobert partnership this past summer.
But at the same time, this start is rather confusing given that most teams who intend on rebuilding try and better their lottery odds for the upcoming draft. Especially with this year's crop of talent highlighted by international prospect Victor Wembanyama, who is already being heralded as a once-in-a-generation type of player. You would think that the Jazz would try to better position themselves to land someone like Wembanyama, or G League Ignite prospect Scoot Henderson. Although the lottery odds have been flattened so that the team with the worst record isn't always guaranteed to land the No. 1 overall pick, getting in that top 3 so you have a 14 percent chance at the top spot should be in Utah's plans.
Perhaps NBA commissioner Adam Silver's recent comments on tanking, where he said the league has "put teams on notice" and will pay "particular attention" to tanking, have scared teams like Utah away from "unintentionally" losing games. Or perhaps the Jazz's plan is to go all out until the All-Star Game -- which they're hosting in Salt Lake City -- and then hit the tank button the rest of the way. Or maybe, just maybe, Danny Ainge and the rest of Utah's front office don't actually want to tank and are trying to make a run at a play-in spot. Given the Jazz's 3-0 start, any of those options are a possibility. And while things can change very quickly in this league, and Utah could very well lose the next five straight games, absolutely no one could've predicted this start to the season for them.
