NBA Insider Throws Cold Water on Jazz Hot Start

Brian Windhorst isn’t sold on the Utah Jazz being a threat to sneak into the playoffs after an unexpectedly hot start. On Tuesday, ESPN's NBA insider shared his thoughts on the Brian Windhorst & The Hoops Collective podcast.

“I don’t think it’s so much that the Jazz are not going to let this team win. They're going to lose plenty of games," Windhorst said. “If you’re going to win in the early part of the season you’re going to engage your fan base. You’re going to build up your head coach. You’re going to give your players an opportunity to see that what your head coach is doing is working, and you’re going to build the value of your players. That’s what you should be doing.”

Windhorst also feels Jordan Clarkson would garner the biggest return if Utah were to part ways with the former Sixth Man of the Year.

“If you’re looking at tradable assets, you're definitely looking at Jordan Clarkson," Windhorst said.

If Windhorst is correct, this doesn't bode well for the portion of the Jazz fan base that wants to go all in this year. It felt like a forgone conclusion that Utah was headed to tank the 2022-23 season. Potentially sneaking into the playoffs was never in the cards.

But not so fast… Utah is not only winning games, but it appears some players acquired in the summer are much better than advertised. Small forward Lauri Markkanen averaged 14.8 ppg last year, but this year, he's looked like an All-Star averaging a very efficient 21 ppg.

Jazz rookie center Walker Kessler was thought of as a development project, but he's NBA-ready and is contributing out of the gates. Center Kelly Olynyk is playing better than what was anticipated and brings experience at that position that the Jazz were searching for since moving on from Rudy Gobert.

Meanwhile, Clarkson is showing that he can thrive in a starter's role and is much more than just a scorer. In his first four contests, Clarkson is averaging 5.2 assists a game.

There are a lot of moving parts, but it would be interesting to hear what conversations are taking place behind closed doors at Jazz HQ.

The next Jazz game is at home vs. the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night, with a tip-off at 7:00 pm MDT.

Follow Patrick on Twitter @pbyrnesNBA.

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