Latest news on Jazz organization is terrible news for fan base that already feels disrespected

After trading away Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell during the 2022 offseason, the Jazz won 37 games in 2022-23 and 31 in 2023-24. This season, they’re on pace for just 20 wins, which would be the lowest total in franchise history.

However, according to Sarah Todd of The Deseret News, the Jazz don’t view 2024-25 as the third year of their rebuild. Instead, they consider it part of their multiyear tear-down process. “In their eyes,” Todd writes, “the rebuild hasn’t started.”

As Todd points out, the Jazz still had several veterans on their roster after moving on from Gobert and Mitchell and have since traded many of those vets too, including Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley, Kelly Olynyk, Jarred Vanderbilt and Simone Fontecchio.

Additionally, although Utah has drafted in the lottery in each of the past two years, the team didn’t have a top-eight pick in either of those drafts, and none of its five first-round picks from 2023 or 2024 have established themselves as clear foundational pieces, Todd notes.

Given that context, it makes sense that the front office isn’t ready to pivot toward contending in 2025-26. Instead, hanging onto their 2026 first-rounder is a priority for the Jazz, according to Todd. That pick is top-eight protected and will be sent to Oklahoma City if it lands at No. 9 or lower. If that pick lands in the top eight, Utah would keep it and would no longer owe draft assets to the Thunder.

That means another tanking season in 2025-26 appears highly likely for the Jazz, Todd writes. Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune has heard the same thing.

Of course, there’s a scenario in which the Jazz land a player like Cooper Flagg in this year’s draft and find themselves with too much talent on their roster to be an obvious bottom-feeder next season. If that happens, Todd writes, the Jazz might be more inclined to trade a player like Lauri Markkanen or Walker Kessler to ensure they hang onto their 2026 pick.

While the Jazz may find marketing value in spinning the past three seasons as a “tear-down” instead of a “rebuild,” many fans in Utah might view the distinction as a semantic one and focus more on the fact that it has been a while since the organization has prioritized winning games.

As Larsen writes for The Salt Lake Tribune, several season-ticket holders are upset about an announcement from the team that the price of their tickets are going up 2025-26. Some fans reported that prices have risen by up to 8%, Larsen writes, but the Jazz claim that most increases are closer to 3% or less and that the highest is about 6%.

“It’s extremely frustrating that I’m paying more than I was when we were the No. 1 seed and that it is far more expensive to be a season-ticket holder than to just buy tickets from SeatGeek every game,” one season-ticket holder told Larsen.

“Paying full price to watch a team play G League players and lose on purpose is already so disrespectful to your fan base,” another season-ticket holder said, adding that he’s canceling his tickets for next season. “To then have the audacity to raise prices on season-ticket holders, after being dead last in the West, shows how little this organization cares about the fans.”