If the first quarter of this NBA regular season has shown anything for the Utah Jazz, it’s that this team has some work to do before becoming a serious competitor in a tough Western Conference.

The Jazz have kicked this year off with a 5-19 record, rank in the bottom two of the West next to the New Orleans Pelicans, rank in the bottom ten of the NBA for both offensive and defensive rating, and are well in line to have a shot at securing Cooper Flagg or another top prospect come next offseason.

And that top prospect next summer may be exactly what the Jazz could use in their long-winded rebuild process. Utah now enters the third year of the post-Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert era, and many still look at this roster wondering where the cornerstones for the future are.

It’s exactly the topic Bleacher Report and Grant Hughes addressed as they sounded off on one “tough question” for each NBA team so far into this season. For the Jazz, their entry was simple: where’s the cornerstone?

“It’s a good thing the Utah Jazz have a dozen first-round picks and an additional swap coming to them in the next five drafts because it doesn’t look like any of their recent selections is capable of being a foundational piece,” Hughes said. “It’s early for recent first-rounders Keyonte George, Cody Williams and Taylor Hendricks (currently out for the year), but none of them has shown clear starter upside this season… Now into the third year after trading away Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert to trigger a rebuild, it’s not clear the Jazz have anything approaching a cornerstone.”

Over the past three offseasons, the Jazz have done a strong job of piling together future assets and young players to help bolster their rebuild following the blockbuster Mitchell and Gobert deals. The progress made is impressive, especially considering their past three drafts and the first-round picks to come.

Yet, besides Lauri Markkanen, none on the roster have proven to be elite, All-NBA caliber talents. The arrow is starting to point up around Walker Kessler in his third year, but guys like the mentioned Keyonte George, Cody Williams, and Taylor Hendricks have all had some inhibiting factors to truly reaching their advertised ceiling.

The guys brought in from this summer and the two before it still have a ton of room to grow and have time on their side, but when comparing the Jazz to some of the other youth movements around the NBA, the talent is still a few steps away from truly stacking up.

Even through the recent struggles the Jazz have seen in the standings, they haven’t emerged with a top-five pick to truly position themselves with a top prospect. Utah has done well with late lottery picks and selections deeper in the first (or second) round all things considered. Yet, another cornerstone to pair next to Markkanen would be a significant addition to this budding young core.

Thankfully for the Jazz, this upcoming 2025 draft class presents a perfect opportunity to strengthen their current core of young players. Whether it be Flagg or another top-end prospect like Dylan Harper or Ace Bailey, there are tons of reasons for optimism looking ahead to next summer.

Things might not be pretty for the Jazz in wins and losses in the meantime, but there’s a light shining at the end of the tunnel.

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Associated Press

Southern Utah Thunderbirds (8-3) at New Mexico State Aggies (4-6)

Las Cruces, New Mexico; Monday, 9 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: New Mexico State hosts Southern Utah after Christian Cook scored 22 points in New Mexico State’s 91-67 loss to the Texas Longhorns.

The Aggies have gone 2-1 in home games. New Mexico State has a 2-3 record in games decided by 10 or more points.

The Thunderbirds have gone 1-3 away from home. Southern Utah averages 78.3 points while outscoring opponents by 6.6 points per game.

New Mexico State is shooting 41.4% from the field this season, 0.7 percentage points higher than the 40.7% Southern Utah allows to opponents. Southern Utah has shot at a 45.5% rate from the field this season, 5.5 percentage points higher than the 40.0% shooting opponents of New Mexico State have averaged.

TOP PERFORMERS: Cook is scoring 14.1 points per game and averaging 2.3 rebounds for the Aggies.

Jamir Simpson is scoring 16.6 points per game and averaging 4.4 rebounds for the Thunderbirds.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

It’s been a busy day on the transfer portal front for Utah.

After receiving commitments from Missouri punter Orion Phillips and Garden City cornerback Jeremiah Caldwell, the Utes made moves to shore up their linebacker room.

Jaxson Jones, a freshman linebacker at Oregon who redshirted this season, announced his intentions to transfer to Utah on Saturday night.

The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Jones was a four-star recruit out of high school, and the Utes offered him back then, per his 247Sports page. The second time is the charm for the Utes, who needed depth in the linebacker room after Sione Fotu and Josh Calvert transferred out.

Jones is the son of Daniel Jones, who was a receiver at Utah from 1997-1998.

In his senior year at Yuma Catholic High in Arizona, Jaxson Jones recorded 46 tackles, nine sacks and forced two fumbles.