After a surprising win in Boston, our Utah Jazz (3-4, 11th in the West) continue the road trip in Detroit, facing off against a surprisingly potent Detroit Pistons team (5-2, 4th in the East). And this
comes in the wake of surprising injury news…Walker Kessler has been lost for the season after opting for surgery on his shoulder.
This is not the news that we Jazz fans expected so early on in this season. So does this change the trajectory of the season or do the Jazz continue trying to win games? On the 4th game of this road trip, Utah will be taking on an upstart and strong Detroit Pistons team, one that is seeing All-Star level play from young stars Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren. They’ve also been receiving strong contributions from 3rd year player Ausar Thompson, 2nd year player Ron Holland, and a mix of strong veterans (i.e. Isaiah Stewart, Tobias Harris, Caris Levert, Duncan Robinson). This game should prove a challenging one for the young Jazzmen.
Early in the season, we have seen strong contributions from Keyonte George and Lauri Markkanen. Keyonte, specifically, seems to have a taken a leap and Lauri is back to his All-Star level play. The rest of the roster has been fairly inconsistent and playing exactly like young players should. We’ve seen sparks of brilliance from Brice Sensabaugh, Kyle Filipowski, and Walter Clayton Jr. We have yet to see much from Taylor Hendricks, Cody Williams, or (sadly) Ace Bailey. The defense has been porous and losing Walker could prove damning for this season as a whole.
On a positive note, the Jazz may have to officially commit to the tank for the season, especially now that NCAA Basketball has started and there seem to be historic freshman dominating for next year’s draft. First games for Darryn Petersen, Cam Boozer, AJ Dybantsa, Koa Peat, Mekeel Thomas, and more were promising and the Jazz could finally find their ace in this upcoming draft.
Expect tonight’s match to be a tough for one for Utah, but should still a funny and competitive one nonetheless.
