A Preview of the 2022-23 Utah Jazz

September 9^th, 2022

The Utah Jazz will rely on Jordan Clarkson, Bojan Bogdanovic, and former All-Star point guard Mike Conley to lead their team into the 2022-23 NBA season.
(Photo: Justin Ford/Getty Images, via Fansided’s Valley of the Suns)

The Utah Jazz essentially pulled the plug on the Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert experiment, as they had continually reached the playoffs, but had fallen short of the Western Conference Finals or the NBA championship each time under then head coach Quin Snyder. Now with all three of them having departed the organization, the Utah Jazz have signaled to go full steam ahead into rebuilding mode.

They will certainly miss the presence of Mitchell and Gobert, but they have mainstays from last year’s team such as Mike Conley, Jordan Clarkson, and Bojan Bogdanovic, and they will also be getting numerous players, one of whom will be Collin Sexton, a speedy scoring combo guard that they landed in a trade from Cleveland that could be Utah’s newest rising star.

Star Players:
None

With the Utah Jazz having traded both Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert respectively to Cleveland and Minnesota, the Utah Jazz are opting for a full scale rebuild.

That said, they still do have a good set of role players in which they dealt for guard Collin Sexton who will provide most of the scoring, they also have a veteran playmaking point guard in Mike Conley, who has made one NBA All-Star team, and Jordan Clarkson is a former Sixth Man of the Year award winner.

Additions:
G Collin Sexton, F Lauri Markkanen, F Jarred Vanderbilt, C Walker Kessler, G-F Ochai Agbaji, G Malik Beasley, G Talen Horton-Tucker, F Stanley Johnson, F Simone Fontecchio, and G-F Leandro Bolmaro

The Utah Jazz were able to get numerous players through trades, the draft, and free agent signings, but landing Collin Sexton in a sign-and-trade may be the biggest one. They finally were able to get him out of the purgatory that was restricted free agency, and after having traded for him, signed him to a 4-year, $72-million deal, so they were able to get a key player for their future.

Subtractions:
G Donovan Mitchell, C Rudy Gobert, G-F Danuel House Jr., C Hassan Whiteside, F Eric Paschall, and G Trent Forrest

Obviously, losing Mitchell and Gobert will hurt their team a lot, especially in the short term, and it’s expected that trading them away will effectively take the Jazz out of playoff contention. What’s surprising though, is that no team has signed free agent center Hassan Whiteside, whose shot blocking skills and efficient scoring has made him a mainstay in the NBA in previous years.

Rookies:
C Walker Kessler, G-F Ochai Agbaji, F Simone Fontecchio, and G-F Johnny Juzang

Walker Kessler is a strong, energetic rim-protecting center that has great shot blocking skills, and he will give them great size and will provide an interior presence to help the Jazz right away. He may be one of the most polished players in the draft, and he could be an immediate contributor for them this year. Also, he was named the 2021-22 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year last season in college basketball.

Ochai Agbaji is an athletic, skilled sharpshooting swingman that can shoot and score the basketball. He is a very good spot-up shooter that can also get out on the break to score, and he could be a solid role player for the Jazz both this season and for the long haul. He helped Kansas win the 2022 NCAA Tournament, and he was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

Simone Fontecchio is a sharpshooting forward that can knock down threes and can throw down dunks above the rim, but he will need to prove that he can shoot and defend at the NBA level to be able to regularly see the floor this season.

Johnny Juzang is an athletic, skilled swingman that also can shoot and score the basketball. He wasn’t drafted, but he helped UCLA reach the Final Four in 2021, and he may be a very underrated acquisition for this squad.

Expected Rotation: