The Utah Jazz are a team on the rise led by Lauri Markkanen and head coach Will Hardy.
Aside from those two, the Jazz have several intriguing young pieces on the roster to feasibly make another run at a playoff spot during the 2023-24 NBA season.
However, Utah could find it much tougher this time around as the Western Conference is as deep as it ever has been after the flurry of moves in the offseason.
The Denver Nuggets retained their core players from the championship team, while the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers signed several free agents to bolster their own title odds.
In the Eastern Conference, the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics appear to be the favorites as they swung deals for Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday respectively.
Holiday had a robust trade market given his defensive prowess and it sounds like Utah did more than kick the tires on adding the All-Star guard via Zach Lowe of ESPN.
REPORT: The Utah Jazz were in the running to land Jrue Holiday in a trade before he ended up in Boston, per @ZachLowe_NBA pic.twitter.com/jI9rhPDNX4
— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) October 3, 2023
Utah’s interest in Holiday is interesting given that they’re at least a couple of years away from seriously competing, but perhaps they felt his experience would help jumpstart their rebuild and give their young players a solid veteran to look to.
The Jazz are filled with assets and could have made a significant offer to land Holiday, but ultimately the players and picks the Portland Trail Blazers got back from the Celtics was enough to get a deal done.
Holiday’s move to Boston once again shifts the NBA power balance to their side and it’ll be exciting to see how far they can go.
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