The results are in, and the Utah Jazz had some bad luck in the lottery.
Utah started at the 8-spot pre-lottery, but the lottery balls can be unforgiving, and they were absolutely brutal tonight.
The Atlanta Hawks, who won the entire lottery, and the Houston Rockets both jumped the Utah Jazz, leaving Utah in the 10-spot.
If it’s any consolation for the Jazz, this draft has no clear star.
Alex Sarr would have been nice, and a chance to get Stephon Castle would have been great, but those players are not likely to be franchise-altering guys like Danny Ainge has talked about.
This means that Utah has to do their homework to get the best possible player at 10, and there’s always a chance a player could drop.
But it could also mean the Jazz need to make some moves with their other picks in this draft.
If Stephone Castle is there at 7 or 8, do the Jazz combine their #10 pick with a pick later in the draft to try to move up? Will another team want their Wolves pick next year?
This gives Utah a few extra questions coming into the draft, but it’s not going to hurt as much as others.
Imagine being the Pistons this year dropping to 5 and the Raptors, who tanked harder than anyone out there to get to 6, only to watch the Spurs get that pick regardless.
Chin up, Jazz fans. It’s a tough outcome, but the Jazz will still come out of this with a top-ten pick, and the player will likely still be a nice player going forward.
