The Jazz are 1-1 and ninth in the West after a 120-119 win over the Pelicans on October 23. Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 15 points and Lauri Markkanen added 14. Through October 24 the standings still showed Utah at 0-1 and 15th. The win moved them up six spots. The October 24 power rankings had the team at 16th, up from 27th a week earlier.
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The win came two days after a hard night in Memphis. The Grizzlies beat Utah 123-103 on October 21. Keyonte George scored 8 points and Svi Mykhailiuk scored 6. Before that, Utah had beaten the Spurs 119-109 on October 12 and the Suns 119-116 on October 16.
The roster reports from October 17 are partly settled. Tony Bradley joined the Jazz on October 18, which confirms the waiver claim. Jonas Aidoo and Tamar Bates left the same day, which fits the report that Utah cut two players. Harrison Ingram is still on the roster, but the two-way conversion has not shown up as a transaction. A new report from October 21 says Utah will sign Kobe Bufkin to a two-way contract. He is not on the roster yet.
Blake Hinson left the Jazz on October 21. That was the day his status went from out to cleared, after the hamstring issue first listed October 17. The frontcourt that churned through mid-October now looks different. Bradley went out October 20 with a left quadriceps issue. He was day-to-day the next day and was cleared October 23. Kyle Filipowski moved from day-to-day to cleared on October 20, his first update since the October 10 report that he was still recovering from offseason back surgery.
Jusuf Nurkić is the one big man still missing. He was listed out October 16 with a right foot and leg issue, and nothing has changed since. Trey Alexander has gone back and forth on his left knee. He was out October 20, day-to-day October 21, out October 22, day-to-day again October 24 and out again the same day. He is listed out now.
Two older items have not moved. George's five-year extension, signed September 18, still has no public salary or structure numbers. A October 22 report on Jazz notes touched on Jackson, Ace Bailey, Darryn Peterson and the team's financial future. Those were the topics it covered, and nothing in it changes the roster.
The roster is now Jaxson Hayes, Bailey, Bradley, Jackson, Peterson, Isaiah Collier, Josh Green, Filipowski, George, Mykhailiuk, Josh Okogie, Markkanen, Alexander, Nurkić, Mo Bamba, Ingram and Brice Sensabaugh.
Open storylines
as of Sun, Oct 25Nurkić has been listed out with a right foot and leg issue since October 16, and no return date has been given.
Alexander's left knee issue went from out to day-to-day and back to out between October 20 and October 24.
Ingram's two-way conversion is still unconfirmed, and a report says Utah will sign Bufkin to a two-way deal.
Filipowski was listed as cleared October 20, but there has been no word on his recovery from offseason back surgery.
The five-year deal signed September 18 still has no public salary or structure numbers.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on Lauri Markkanen (7.4 wins without him), Kyle Filipowski (1.9 wins without him), Jusuf Nurkic (0.2 wins without him) and Josh Okogie (0.1 wins without him): on/off from 2026-27, details under Injuries. Computed Sun, Oct 25; the method is on the methods page.
The race
Western Conference · 79 games leftNext 5: vs Grizzlies100%vs Spurs33%vs Trail Blazers100%at Spurs33%at Pelicans0%opponents win 53% of their games on average
Standings and games back are from the official table; the pace is the current record carried over 82 games, nothing more.
Day by day
32 days on the recordEarlier on the record28 more days · back to Fri, Sep 18
The franchise
Every season since the start →Public record →Nowupdated 2026-10-19
Will Hardy enters his fourth season as head coach of a Jazz team built around forward Lauri Markkanen, 29, guard Keyonte George, 22, and forward-center Jaren Jackson Jr., 27, who arrived February 3, 2026 in a trade with Memphis that sent out Walter Clayton Jr., Kyle Anderson, Taylor Hendricks, Georges Niang and three first-round picks in exchange for Jackson, John Konchar, Jock Landale and Vince Williams Jr. George broke out into a 20-point scorer alongside Markkanen and rookie Ace Bailey. Last season the Jazz went 22-60, with an offense that ranked 22nd of 30, a defense that ranked 29th of 30, and a net rating of -8.2 that sat 27th leaguewide. Utah sits over the salary cap but under the luxury tax, carrying $181.9 million in payroll across 15 contracts, led by Jackson's $49.0 million deal and Markkanen's $46.1 million. In the 2026 draft the Jazz took Kansas guard Darryn Peterson with the No. 2 overall pick, the franchise's highest draft slot since 1980. This summer, Utah traded center Walker Kessler to the Lakers for unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 and pick swaps in 2028 and 2030, after Kessler turned down a five-year, roughly $140 million extension to stay.
Identity and rivalries139 words
The Jazz have always been a program built from the inside out — stars discovered and developed rather than bought, from Stockton and Malone to Hayward and Gobert to the Mitchell years to Markkanen and George today. The franchise's biggest trades have scattered former Jazz players across the teams it keeps running into: Rudy Gobert went to Minnesota in 2022, Donovan Mitchell went to Cleveland that same summer, and Walker Kessler left for the Lakers this summer. Every game against Minnesota, Cleveland or Los Angeles now carries the shadow of the deal that sent a onetime Jazz cornerstone there, and of the draft picks Utah received in return. Utah also measures itself against Denver and the Clippers, playoff opponents from its contending seasons in 2020 and 2021 that still define what the franchise is chasing to get back to.
Home, owners and numbers120 words
The Jazz play home games at the Delta Center, their arena since 1991, after earlier stops at the Salt Palace, the Louisiana Superdome, Municipal Auditorium and Loyola Field House during the franchise's years in New Orleans. Ryan Smith, the Qualtrics co-founder, bought the team from the Miller family on October 28, 2020, agreeing to honor a trust provision that keeps the Jazz in Utah. Dwyane Wade purchased a minority ownership stake on April 16, 2021. Jazz Bear, introduced to the league on November 4, 1994, works the crowd at halftime, often riding onto the court on a motorbike. The arena has also hosted the NBA All-Star Game, most recently in 2023, the second time Utah held the event after 1993.
What they are chasing123 words
The Jazz are chasing a return to the playoffs after finishing 22-60 last season with the league's 29th-ranked defense, and chasing clarity on what this core is now that Jackson Jr. has arrived to pair with Markkanen and George. Utah holds few of its own future first-round picks outright — most through 2030 are only swaps, and the 2027 and 2028 second-rounders are already owed to Indiana and Oklahoma City. Fans argue over two things: what George's five-year extension, signed September 18, actually pays him, since no numbers have been released, and whether letting Kessler leave for the Lakers was worth the picks Utah got back. Nurkić's foot and leg injury and Filipowski's back recovery leave the frontcourt thin to start the year.
The long view473 words
The franchise was admitted to the NBA on June 7, 1974, as the New Orleans Jazz, named for jazz music's roots in that city, in team colors purple, gold, and green. The first big move was trading two first-round picks, three second-round picks, and a third-rounder to Atlanta for Pete Maravich, out of LSU. New Orleans never worked: the team bounced between the Municipal Auditorium, Loyola Field House, and the Louisiana Superdome, faced an 11% amusement tax, and lost a month each year to Mardi Gras road trips. Owner Sam Battistone moved the team to Salt Lake City on June 8, 1979, keeping the Jazz name even though there was no local jazz scene and no time to seek a change before the season.
Early Utah years were rough — ten seasons before the first playoff berth, in 1984. Tom Nissalke gave way to Frank Layden during 1981–82, and in 1983 the Jazz went 45–37 to win the Midwest Division, their first winning season, behind Adrian Dantley, Thurl Bailey, Mark Eaton, Rich Kelley, Rickey Green, and Darrell Griffith. Auto dealer Larry H. Miller bought half the team from Battistone for $8 million in April 1985, then bought the rest for $14 million in 1986 to block a sale to Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner, who wanted to move the club to Minneapolis (they later founded the Timberwolves instead).
The Jazz drafted John Stockton in 1984, booed on draft night, and Karl Malone out of Louisiana Tech in 1985. Mark Eaton set the NBA's single-season blocks record at 5.6 per game in 1984–85 and won Defensive Player of the Year twice. Frank Layden stepped down 17 games into 1988–89 and Jerry Sloan took over as head coach. Stockton and Malone became the league's signature pick-and-roll pair, with Jeff Hornacek added in a 1993–94 trade for Jeff Malone. The Jazz reached their first Western Conference Finals in 1991–92 after moving into the 19,911-seat Delta Center, then reached back-to-back NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998, losing both to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.
Stockton and Malone both left in 2003, and the Jazz missed the playoffs three straight years before point guard Deron Williams brought the team back into contention. Sloan retired and Williams was traded partway through the 2010–11 season, starting a rebuild. Quin Snyder was hired as head coach in June 2014, and Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell developed into All-Stars, leading the Jazz to the NBA's best regular-season record in 2020–21.
Early playoff exits in 2021 and 2022 led the front office to trade Mitchell and Gobert in the 2022 offseason, bringing in Lauri Markkanen through the Mitchell deal and opening a new rebuilding era. The Delta Center remains the team's home, shared today with the Utah Mammoth of the NHL, and the club now plays in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference.