Utah Jazz’s Tricky First Round Pick Situation Taking Positive Turn

The Utah Jazz entered this NBA regular season forced to traverse the tricky situation that revolves around their top-eight protected first-round pick, currently in the hands of the reigning champion OKC Thunder.

Thanks to the Jazz's Derrick Favors trade with OKC from back in the summer of 2021, their 2026 first-round pick is top-eight protected, in possession of the Thunder––meaning that selection, if within slots one through eight, stays on with the Jazz, but anywhere outside of it, falls into the lap of the 2025 champs.

In a stacked draft class paired with where the Jazz stand in their long-winded rebuild situation, clinging onto this first-round pick however they can is undeniably critical for their future endeavors, and especially so as Utah attempts to piece together a competitive roster as soon as next season.

Without it, their summer aspirations and ceiling for next season become critically handicapped, and the reigning champions get another valuable pick to use at their disposal––an outcome no one around the NBA wants to see go down besides OKC themselves. So, it goes without saying the top-eight pick for Utah is vital for them to secure.

And now, based on the recent lay of the land around the NBA for current league standings following the first week of the new year, the Jazz are starting to trend in the right direction for those lottery hopes.

Utah Jazz Trending Up in NBA Draft Lottery Standings

Currently, the Jazz rank as the sixth-worst team in the NBA standings at 12-24, meaning they hold the sixth-best placement in current draft lottery odds, and make for some pretty good news revolving around their top-eight protected pick and the security they may have to retain it.

2026 NBA Draft Lottery odds (1.8.26), via Tankathon | Tankathon

The main goal for the Jazz, if focused solely on lottery hopes, will be to surge within the top-four teams in terms of odds by the end of this season. Doing so would allow for their worst-case scenario on draft lottery night to be falling to pick eight, thus preventing the Thunder from claiming the rights to their selection in any scenario, and providing a bit of breathing room for Utah and their first round pick.

Dropping to a top-four team in terms of lottery odds will require them to surpass not one, but two teams currently placed ahead of them in the process— and that could be easier said than done.

How Can Utah Get a Projected Top-4 Pick?

Obviously, Will Hardy won't be coaching to lose games down the stretch. That hasn't been the case one time during a game during his tenure in SLC since he's arrived in 2022.

However, there's a world where we start seeing a bit more Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George absences down the stretch than we typically do if the Jazz start flying too close to the sun for their top-eight protected pick, leaving his squad notably shorthanded in the second half of the season.

Having previously won 12 games on the season before the 2026 calendar year started off, eyebrows began to be raised about what those wins might mean for the big-picture implications of their first-round pick. Even reaching as high as the 10th seed for the Play-In Tournament, buzz started to generate of just how good this Jazz team could be as early as this season.

But it turns out, after five straight losses on the road to follow their win impressive against the San Antonio Spurs to now drop back to a sub-.350 record, Utah is slowly falling right where they'd like to be in this summer's lottery.

Dec 30, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy watches the team warm up before a game against the Boston Celtics at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

The Jazz sit more than five games back of the top-two teams in current lottery projections, those being the Indiana Pacers and the New Orleans Pelicans, and the third-ranked Sacramento Kings have currently lost six straight games themselves. Catching any of those three teams in a tank race will be a tall task for any team in the league, even Utah, especially when they've proven capable of posting a handful of early-season wins on the board.

Then, the Jazz are right within a pool of teams they'll likely be scrambling to secure a top-five projected pick with by year’s end, joining the Washington Wizards, Brooklyn Nets, and possibly the Charlotte Hornets.

The good news for the Jazz is that they could start to find a real edge in the tank race against any of those three. The The Wizards just got Trae Young on their team. The Nets have had one of the NBA's best defenses of the past month next to a red-hot Michael Porter Jr., and the Hornets currently sit above Utah in those standings, so they'll just have to sustain that lead further into the season.

Time will tell how far the Jazz finish in the standings, but once getting deeper and deeper into the season, the situation will only become more and more pertinent for the Utah front office to keep at the top of mind in order to keep this rebuild on the correct course. Right now, they're sitting a bit safer than they were a few weeks ago, but a ton of time remains between now and the end of their 82-game campaign.

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