The Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers will meet in a season opener for both at Salt Lake City on Wednesday with different targets and trajectories for the road ahead.
While the future looks bright for Utah, the future is here for Los Angeles. That is especially the case as the average age on the Jazz roster is about 25 years compared to the Clippers’ average age of 33.2 years.
Along with star veterans Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, the Clippers feature new All-Star additions in Bradley Beal and Chris Paul, along with the likes of Ivica Zubac, Derrick Jones Jr., Nicolas Batum, Brook Lopez, John Collins, Kris Dunn and Bogdan Bogdanovic.
“It’s going to take us 15 to 20 games into the season to really understand our rotations, our chemistry, how we want to play, who fits,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said, according to the Los Angeles Times.
L.A. should have a diverse, experienced squad that has contender potential.
“It feels good to have a lot of different options, combinations,” Lue said. “Every night could be different, every night is going to be different. But we have time. We just got to keep getting better.”
The Clippers finished last season with a 50-32 record after winning 18 of their final 21 games. They bowed out in the first round of the playoffs, falling to the Denver Nuggets in a seven-game series.
Leonard enters this season with a clean bill of health. He only played 37 games last year because of knee issues.
Harden had an outstanding season for the Clippers after the 11-time All-Star averaged 22.8 points, 8.7 assists and 5.8 rebounds.
The Jazz struggled last season, earning a high draft pick after they finished 17-65. Though they dropped in the draft lottery, falling to the fifth pick even with the NBA’s worst record, Utah has high hopes for No. 5 pick Ace Bailey. He showed his promise in the preseason and could have a major role in the team’s roster overhaul.
Young guys like Walker Kessler, Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks, Kyle Filipowski, Isaiah Collier, Brice Sensebaugh, Cody Williams and 2025 first-round pick Walter Clayton Jr. will all have ample opportunities to secure spots in the Jazz’s future plans.
“A lot of our development has to come internally,” Jazz president of basketball operations Austin Ainge said. “The salary cap dictates it, our market dictates it, everything. We have to improve with a lot of these young guys in that room.”
Utah returns the steady Lauri Markkanen and snagged veterans Kevin Love and Jusuf Nurkic, while Georges Niang returns to Utah. But this season will be about the team’s youth.
“I think it’s great for all of us to start now and be thrown in that fire,” Filipowski said. “There’s no time, really, to sit back and kind of flow into things. You’ve got to keep learning on the go, and I think it’ll really bring out the best of ourselves this year.”
Jazz coach Will Hardy pointed out that every good player in the NBA has a breakout season at some point, and that opportunity is there for much of Utah’s roster.
“Some of them it’s their first year, some it’s their third years, some it’s their fifth year,” Hardy said. “And there’s nothing that says that somebody in our locker room can’t have a breakout year this year. … Where we are is really exciting, because we have the ability right now to actually form our own identity.”
