Jazz big man Kelly Olynyk will be sidelined for at least one week due to a left ankle sprain, tweets Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune. Olynyk will receive treatment on his injured ankle and will be reevaluated next Wednesday.
After missing four games as a result of a sprained left ankle last month, Olynyk had been back for seven contests before re-injuring the same ankle on Sunday. He sat out Utah’s win over Cleveland on Tuesday and the timeline announced by the team means he’ll also be unavailable for games on Friday (vs. Orlando), Saturday (vs. Philadelphia), and Monday (at Minnesota) before being reassessed.
Here’s more on the Jazz:
- A hamstring issue has kept reserve guard Collin Sexton on the shelf for Utah’s last five games, but he appears to be nearing a return. According to Walden (Twitter link), Sexton is set to participate fully in Thursday’s practice before the team determines his status for Friday’s game.
- Donovan Mitchell‘s 46 points weren’t enough to get the Cavaliers a win in Utah on Tuesday, but the former Jazz star still enjoyed his return to Salt Lake City, where he spent the first five years of his NBA career. Mitchell said it “was great to be back” and expressed relief to hear cheers instead of jeers from the fans in Utah, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “I was prepared for both,” said Mitchell said, who made comments in a recent interview about the racial dynamic in Utah. “I had plenty of time to think about it. But when you get that, that’s what made it feel comfortable. When you hear your name introduced, you hear the fans screaming it, you see everybody courtside, wearing your jerseys, screaming your name, that’s what allows you to feel comfortable and it is a sigh of relief.”
- The Jazz have slipped in the standings following a hot start, but their 21-23 record still puts them in a play-in spot. How the next few weeks play out will likely go a long way toward determining how their trade deadline plays out, according to Sarah Todd of The Deseret News, who notes that it would be harder to justify selling off assets if the club has another hot streak before February 9.
DeMar Derozan & Coby White to Utah for Malik Beasley, Talen Horton-Tucker, Rudy Gay, BK’s 2023 1st & Cle’s 2025 1st
Why on Earth would the very clearly rebuilding Jazz A.) sell role players without draft compensation, B.) trade their current draft picks they are stock piling and, C.) trade for an aging DeMar whos window is probably 2-3 seasons of real impact on a contenting team
Jazz are playing well above their talent level. Their hot start made them look much better than they are. Utah could easily flip Beasley, THT, and Rudy in multiple packages and get 2 more first round picks AT MINIMUM.
This rebuild is happening, much like it will for your poverty Hawks
Lol poverty Hawks? What does that even mean?.. a.) what? b. & c.) a prime benefit of having a bunch of extra future draft picks is that you can use then to get better quicker in trades. Adding a guy in Derozan who is locked up for at least a couple more yrs & is an elite scoring wing (something they could definitely use) for a couple of their least attractive future 1sts is almost a no brainer tbh. They become a dangerous team, especially if Coby can contribute off the bench for them. They’d still have 2 or 3 1sts this yr, 2 or 3 in 2025 & bc of all the extra 1sts they have they don’t have to tank & waste seasons like rn when they had an impressive 1st 3rd of the season & have put themselves in position to be in the playoffs. They alr have a bunch of 1sts, what’s the point of adding more? Especially when you have a chance to contend rn
Utah has no chance to contend right now. They got off to a great start for the 1st 18-20 games but they’ve fallen off a cliff since.
If a team led by Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert can’t contend then you aren’t going to win anything meaningful led by DeMar DeRozan and Lauri Markkanen.
If they wanted to entertain the idea of contending why would they trade Beasley for a redundant piece like White when they already have Sexton? Especially since both are younger versions of Clarkson.
The Jazz definitely found a keeper in Vanderbilt and perhaps another in Markkanen to help support whatever star(s) they hope to draft with all their picks. When they find those star players then you trade the extra picks to consolidate and create a supporting cast around them.