Utah Jazz proprietor Ryan Smith, left, and new Jazz head coach Will Hardy, middle, take heed to Utah Jazz CEO Danny Ainge communicate throughout a press convention to introduce Hardy at Vivint Area in Salt Lake Metropolis on Tuesday, July 5, 2022. The Jazz have traded away two All-Stars this offseason, and now have a plethora of draft picks. Kristin Murphy, Deseret Information
Two-and-a-half months in the past, the Utah Jazz have been one of the draft asset poor groups within the NBA, as they solely had one second-round choose incoming from one other staff (the Memphis Grizzlies in 2026) and 7 picks outgoing, together with two first-rounders.
This case left it very robust for the Jazz’s entrance workplace to improve a staff that had been eradicated within the first spherical of the playoffs, as gamers on the roster turned the one vital belongings they might commerce.
With the trades of Rudy Gobert and Royce O’Neale in June and the commerce of Donovan Mitchell final week, Jazz administration has utterly flipped that round, because the staff will personal 14 first-round picks (that features six of their very own) and two choose swaps between 2023 and 2029.
That was sufficient for ESPN’s Bobby Marks to rank the Jazz on the prime of the NBA by way of draft belongings shifting ahead in an inventory revealed on Wednesday.
Marks wrote “The Jazz are an instance of how fast issues can change within the NBA,” noting that that they had signed each Gobert and Mitchell to contract extensions within the winter of 2020 after which had one of the best document within the NBA within the 2020-21 season however are actually getting into a rebuild.
Along with rookies Walker Kessler and Ochai Agbaji, whom are a part of the offers for Gobert and Mitchell, Marks noticed that six of the Jazz’s incoming picks are unprotected, probably the most out of any staff within the league.
Additionally, Marks famous that the picks the Cleveland Cavaliers will owe the Jazz start in 2025, the summer season when Mitchell may develop into a free agent and depart Cleveland.
In all, Marks ranked the eight groups that personal 85 of the 210 first-round picks over the subsequent seven years. The remainder of the rankings are as follows:
2. Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder.
3. San Antonio Spurs.
4. New Orleans Pelicans.
5. Houston Rockets.
6. New York Knicks.
7. Orlando Magic.
8. Indiana Pacers.