Utah Jazz are picked to be the sixth seed in the NBA’s Western Conference
The Utah Jazz are believed to be a top-six team in the West by Gordie Chiesa.
The Utah Jazz have a long season ahead of them, but thankfully for the fans of the Salt Lake City-based franchise, the Utah Jazz are expected by many in the know to be a good team to watch. Former Utah Jazz assistant coach Gordie Chiesa recently went on the Bill Riley on ESPN Radio’s 92.1 in Salt Lake and talked about how he expects the Jazz to do.
The Jazz shouldn’t be seen as a championship team, at least at this juncture and Chiesa’s prediction seems to echo that sentiment. The Jazz were picked by the former coach to finish 44-38 this season, which has them finishing 6th in the West.
While that’s good enough to avoid the Play-In Tournament, the Jazz is expected to be leagues behind the top four teams in the West with the Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets, Sacramento Kings, and Los Angeles Lakers respectively.
What’s interesting is that the Golden State Warriors were picked to finish not that far ahead of the Jazz.
- Lakers (52-30)
- Kings (51-31)
- Nuggets (49-33)
- Suns (47-35)
- Warriors (45-37)
- Jazz (44-38)
- Grizzlies (43-39)
- Mavericks (42-40)
- Thunder (41-41)
- LA Clippers (40-42)
This seems about right, considering the NBA landscape at the time. The Memphis Grizzlies are going to be without Ja Morant for the foreseeable future and while the Dallas Mavericks overhauled their roster, Kyrie Irving doesn’t play defense and the team is going to be largely untested.
The Los Angeles Clippers are an old team and just getting older. The Oklahoma City Thunder could be leaps and bounds better than their predicted .500 season would suggest, but that depends on the talent around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey. Namely Chet Holmgren. Is he going to be the different maker were led to believe?
With so many lingering questions, it’s hard to know for sure how this will play out but its fair to say that anything short of a winning record for the Jazz during the 2023-2024 season is going to be a disappointment.
