Utah Jazz Have Multitude of Options in 2023 NBA Draft

The Utah Jazz were a surprisingly consistent team in the 2022-23 regular season.

They got off to a white-hot start, quickly grabbing the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. But even after tapering off, they still continued to beat high-level teams at a relatively consistent level. At least more than initially thought prior to the season.

The Jazz’ middling talent pool, which earned them the ninth overall pick in the upcoming draft, makes them a hard team to gauge, as they have endless options in the lottery, middle and end of the first round.

Last season, All-Star Lauri Markkanen emerged as Utah’s focal point. And rookie Walker Kessler perhaps out-performed every one of his rookie peers relative to preseason expectations. Outside of those two, Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson and Ochai Agbaji are the more relevant pieces moving forward.

While that core is good enough to win games here and there, they’re a tough nut to crack in terms of roster construction. And especially so without knowing what timeline the team will be leaning into: win-now or prepping for the distant future.

And that’s where Utah’s options enter. With the ninth pick, they could look to potential two-way guards in Arkansas Anthony Black and Cason Wallace. Upside swings in Cam Whitmore and Ausar Thompson, should they fall enough. And the project to end all projects: French forward Bilal Coulibaly, who on Saturday officially measured in at 6-foot-8 in shoes with a 7-foot-2 wingspan.

The sixteenth pick is even more wide open. Hyper scorers in Ohio State’s Brice Sensabaugh, Michigan’s Jett Howard and Baylor’s Keyonte George could be on the board. Solid jumbo point guard options in Jalen Hood-Schifino and Kobe Bufkin could be available, and if not the Jazz have been reportedly considering both at No. 9.

Pick No. 28 offers too many to note, although there’s a wide variety of win-now pieces, upside swings and everything in between.

And if that isn’t enough, the team is doing its due diligence in packaging to try and move even further up at each spot, meaning they could pick with other selections altogether on Thursday. Regardless, the Jazz are sure to be active on draft night 2023.

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