Utah
Reacting to Every Possible Utah Jazz Outcome in NBA Draft Lottery
The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery results will be revealed on Monday, May 12th, at 5 p.m. MT. As you all know, this will be a monumental evening for the Utah Jazz and what the future of Jazz basketball could look like.
Armed with the maximum 14% odds of getting the first pick, the Jazz are hoping for some serious luck. They’re one of the few teams that have never picked first in the draft, something they’re hoping changes soon.
The reality of the lottery is that the Jazz have a realistic chance of landing anywhere in the first five picks of this draft. So, just how big are the drop-offs between each pick? Let’s talk about it.
The Jazz getting the first overall pick in this draft would be one of the most exciting events in this franchise’s history. For those who have been living under a rock, Cooper Flagg is a terrific prospect. He’s truly one of the best basketball prospects to come through the ranks in the past twenty years.
Aside from the short-term excitement of landing Flagg, it would bring a lot of long-term hope to a Jazz team that needs it. While they’ve constantly been successful, the Jazz have lacked a guy capable of being the best player on a championship team since Karl Malone left. While there’s no guarantee Flagg becomes that guy, you’d at least have hope.
While Flagg is the grand prize, there are two consolation prizes in this draft class for me. Dylan Harper, the consensus number two overall pick, is certainly one of them. He’s a jumbo guard who can get to the rim at will and is continuing to develop as a playmaker and shooter. He’d give the Jazz a foundational guard to build their offense around for years to come.
Next, Ace Bailey, a polarizing eighteen-year-old prospect, is one of the most gifted shotmakers you’ll ever find. With excellent size and athleticism on the wing, Bailey would bring all the tools and unique scoring upside to be a perennial all-star if he hits his ceiling. With Will Hardy’s creative offensive schemes, the Jazz and Bailey seem like a great match.
Getting either of the Rutgers prospects would be a successful outcome to get this team rolling towards a bright future.
Every year, some prospects prove they should have gone earlier than they did. There is undoubtedly going to be talent on the board if the Jazz slide to fourth or fifth in the standings, but after the worst season in franchise history, it would be a disappointment.
VJ Edgecombe and Tre Johnson are the widely projected picks in this range. While they’re both shooting guards, they are vastly different players.
Edgecombe is an otherworldly athlete who defends and has a budding offensive game. Johnson is a pure scorer who can fill it up from the perimeter in bunches. While either would instantly become the best prospect on the team, neither projects to be a franchise-changing talent, something the Jazz desperately need.
While the Jazz will likely continue to be patient with their rebuild, sliding out of the top three will all but force the team to turn their eyes toward the 2026 NBA Draft in hopes of finding a foundational player then.
Here’s to hoping the odds are in our favor.
SALT LAKE CITY — A California man in Utah, as part of his duties with the National Guard, is accused of trying to solicit sex from a young teenager.
Joshua Ruben Rodriguez, 29, of Fresno, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with attempted rape of a child, a first-degree felony, and enticement of a minor, a second-degree felony.
The investigation began when an agent with the Utah State Bureau of Investigation posed as a 13-year-old girl on a “popular social media site … in an attempt to locate and apprehend adults attempting to have sexual contact with children,” according to charging documents.
On April 16, Rodriguez sent the agent a message — believing he was talking to a teen girl — that stated, “I’ll be direct with you, I would like to get to know you and (have sex with) your mind into a daze to where you feel like a woman,” according to charging documents.
When the “girl” asked if he had a problem with her age, Rodriguez replied, “I don’t have a problem with your age,” the charges state.
The agent told Rodriguez to meet at an apartment complex in Salt Lake County where the girl lived, claiming her mother would be gone. When Rodriguez arrived, he was taken into custody, the charges state.
“(Rodriguez) does not have ties to Utah. He is a resident of Fresno, California. (He) was in town as part of his military service with the California National Guard,” prosecutors stated in charging documents while requesting he be held without bail pending trial.
ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — One person was hospitalized at the St. George Regional Hospital after a car rolled and caught fire just south of the Utah-Arizona border.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department in Arizona said its crews responded to the crash near the Black Rock Road exit – roughly two miles south of the state border – on Sunday night.
Upon arrival, crews put out the car fire and found the driver had left the scene. A single occupant, who was able to get out of the car on their own, was transported to the hospital by a Beaver Dam ambulance.
MORE | Crashes
Their condition has not been publicly released.
Details on what led to the crash and the condition of the driver were not immediately available.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department said law enforcement investigated the scene.
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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz missed out on the NBA Playoffs, but still scored a big win thanks to a coin flip.
In Monday’s tiebreaker coin flip to determine who had the fourth-worst record in the league last season, the Jazz came out winners over the Sacramento Kings, who had the same 22-60 record.
Had the Jazz lost the coin flip, they would have been fifth in NBA Draft Lottery odds. Only the worst four teams are guaranteed to remain within the top eight of the lottery.
If Utah had fallen to fifth, there would have been the chance they could have dropped out of the top 8 teams in the lottery, and owed the draft pick to Oklahoma City, which was top-8 protected in a previous trade.
The Jazz now have an 11.5 percent chance to win the first overall pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, which is scheduled for Sunday, May 10.
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