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Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert (27) goes up for a shot as Utah Jazz forward Kyle Filipowski, right, defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) | Abbie Parr
MINNEAPOLIS — Was it worth it?
That’s the question every Utah Jazz fan will be asking between now and May 12, the night of the NBA draft lottery.
The tanking, the dubious injury reports, the nights healthy players sat on the bench, the times 23-year-old Walker Kessler was “resting” rather than playing, the lineups that consisted of mostly rookies, replacement-level players and two-way guys, the extended time Lauri Markkanen spent off the court, the wear and tear on the patience of the fan base — was all of it worth it?
On Sunday afternoon at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis, the Jazz completed the final assignment of the 2024-25 season, losing 116-105 to the Minnesota Timberwolves, finishing with a 17-65 record, the worst in the league, guaranteeing that they will not only have the best possible odds (14% chance) at the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 draft, but also guaranteeing that they will select no lower than No. 5.
The Jazz were helped along the way Sunday in their journey to the bottom of the standings. Shortly before the game in Minnesota tipped off, the Washington Wizards, who went into the day with the same record as the Jazz, picked up a buzzer-beating win against the Miami Heat.
Had the Wizards lost, the Jazz and Wizards would have tied for worst record and a coin flip would have decided who would be guaranteed a top five pick and who could potentially fall to sixth on lottery night.
So, by the time the Jazz’s final game of the season tipped off, all they had to do was lose to the Timberwolves — a team that was desperate for a win to guarantee a playoff spot rather than falling into the dreaded play-in tournament.
It was fitting for Minnesota to be the team to hand the Jazz this final loss. After the buzzer sounded and the game was over, the Jazz’s ragtag team of slowly developing youngsters and non-guaranteed players shook the hands of Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, Joe Ingles and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, all former Jazzmen and all casualties of the Jazz’s down-to-the-studs rebuild.
The ultimate prize for the Jazz at the end of all of this would be Cooper Flagg, the 18-year-old Duke product who has been coveted by everyone in the basketball world for years.
But, the Jazz are not guaranteed the No. 1 pick. The best they could do this season was ensure best odds and get the worst record so they could go into the offseason knowing that they will get a top five pick.
Control what you can control, right?
Now begins a month of hope.
In case you were wondering, the game between the Wizards and Heat was watched by just about everyone in the Jazz front office and even a number of players on the Jazz roster.
The Jazz brass is now done with guess work and manipulating. They now sit back and hope that the ping pong balls fall in their favor.
The Jazz players are also heavily invested in what happens on lottery night. They want the tides to turn in Utah. The players who truly feel like they can be a part of the future of this team also want the No. 1 pick.
They want to feel like they are close to being able to win games. They want more out of their careers, they want more exposure and they want more talent on the court.
They’re hopeful that all their own sacrifices will pay off. They talk about it amongst themselves after games, they think about it before they go to sleep, they dream up trade scenarios and what it could mean for their own careers if the Jazz get the No. 1 pick or if they fall to No. 5.
They don’t want to imagine a world where everything was not worth it.
Jazz head coach Will Hardy hopes he’s made all the right choices and that those choices will pay off. Make no mistake, Hardy wants to win games, but he has dutifully followed the directives handed down from the front office.
He has played less than ideal lineups and has invested all of his time and emotion into developing players who could very well not be a part of the future of this team.
He’s been given a roster and told he isn’t able to utilize every weapon on it, coaching with one hand tied behind his back.
“The situation that we’re in is is one that I’m excited about,” Hardy said. “I try to just maintain a little bit of perspective, and even on the days when it does feel hard, or the weight is a little bit heavy, that this is a good thing, and ultimately it’s going to be worth it for our program.”
Well, that’s the hope.
It’s been strange for everyone involved to try to strike the right emotional balance this season, and there is a world in which the Jazz go into next season with a plan that very much resembles the one that played out over the last seven months — more losses, more sacrifice, more questions.
The hope is that the Jazz will get a player in the 2025 draft who is an obvious building block, that chaos around the league allows for some blockbuster moves to be made.
The Jazz have done all they can to position themselves to select that type of pick and make those kinds of moves, but so much of it rests on what happens on May 12, and the hope that something wonderful can happen on lottery night.
So, on April 13, the Jazz played an eight-man roster (that turned into seven when Jaden Springer left the game with his back spasming), they played Keyonte George 48 minutes and did not let healthy Collin Sexton touch the floor.
They did the right thing and lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
And now, we wait.
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