Jazz: the offseason so far
the record
The desk keeps a day-by-day record of everything that happens to the Utah Jazz: results with the players who decided them, injury changes, roster moves, reports, milestones and the schedule ahead. The story of the offseason is written from that record every week; the timeline below is the record itself, each line linked to the page that proves it.
Day by day
the record starts with the first news of the seasonThe franchise today
Updated 2026-09-09Now
Will Hardy leads a Jazz roster built almost entirely through trades rather than free agency. Lauri Markkanen arrived in the September 2022 deal that sent Donovan Mitchell to Cleveland, Jaren Jackson Jr. came over in a February 3, 2026 trade with Memphis that sent out Walter Clayton Jr., Kyle Anderson, Taylor Hendricks, Georges Niang and three first-round picks for Jackson Jr., John Konchar, Jock Landale and Vince Williams Jr., and Ace Bailey was the fifth pick of the 2025 draft. Keyonte George broke out as a 20-point scorer last season, while Isaiah Collier, Brice Sensabaugh and Jusuf Nurkić rounded out the regular rotation. The Jazz finished 22-60, 22nd on offense and 29th on defense, with a net rating of -8.2, 27th among 30 teams. Payroll sits at $181.9 million, over the $165.0 million cap but under the $200.4 million tax, led by Jackson Jr. at $49.0 million and Markkanen at $46.1 million. Utah's own first-round picks from 2027 through 2030 are tied up in swap agreements, and the Jazz owe second-round picks to Indiana in 2027 and Oklahoma City in 2028. The summer's biggest move sent Walker Kessler to the Lakers on July 1, after he turned down a five-year, roughly $140 million extension and signed a four-year, $130 million deal in Los Angeles instead. Utah also used the No. 2 pick in the 2026 draft on Kansas guard Darryn Peterson.
Identity and rivalries
The Jazz identify as a franchise that builds through trades and patience rather than star power, stacking draft capital instead of chasing quick fixes. That approach ties Utah's fate to the Los Angeles Lakers for years: in exchange for Kessler, the Jazz received unprotected Lakers first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 plus swap rights in 2028 and 2030, so every Lakers season now carries a direct stake for Utah's rebuild. The Rockets, Nuggets and Clippers remain measuring sticks from painful history: Houston eliminated the Jazz from the 2019 playoffs 4-1, Denver erased a 3-1 deficit to win Game 7 of the 2020 bubble series despite a 57-point game from Donovan Mitchell, and the Clippers came back from a 2-0 deficit to eliminate Utah in the 2021 conference semifinals.
Home, owners and numbers
The Jazz play at the Delta Center, their home since 1991. Before that, the franchise played at the Louisiana Superdome from 1975 to 1979, then moved to Utah in 1979 and played at the Salt Palace until 1991. Ryan Smith, the Oregon-born co-founder of Qualtrics, bought the team from the Miller family on October 28, 2020, agreeing to honor the legacy trust that keeps the Jazz in Utah. On April 16, 2021, Dwyane Wade bought a minority ownership stake and was expected to take a hands-on role in team operations. Jazz Bear, the mascot introduced to the league on November 4, 1994, still rides a motorbike onto the court at halftime.
What they are chasing
Right now the Jazz are chasing relevance rather than a title: climbing back toward the playoffs after finishing near the bottom of the league last season. They are also chasing development, hoping Markkanen, who played just 42 games last season, and rookie Darryn Peterson become part of a young core with George, Bailey, Collier and Jackson Jr. The front office is building through draft capital rather than chasing an immediate return to the postseason. The question fans argue over is whether this collection of picks and young talent turns into contention before the current core ages out.
The franchise
Public record →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.