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Oct 13, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) plans his next move against Dallas Mavericks forward Cooper Flagg (32) during the second half at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Peter Creveling-Imagn Images Peter Creveling-Imagn Images

Utah Jazz's Biggest Concern Isn't What You'd Expect

Originally posted on Utah Jazz on SI | By Jared Koch | Last updated Oct 20, 2025 3:37 PM ET

Heading into the 2025-26 NBA season, the expectations for the Utah Jazz aren't exactly too hot.

They shipped off multiple contributing veterans to get younger, added more budding young pieces, but also inexperienced pieces, and coming off a 17-win season in a daunting Western Conference, their win-loss record could look relatively similar to what they put together across their most recent campaign.

But outside of those roster changes and the stout surrounding competition in the West, there might be one other concern that the Jazz might be faced with across this year that hasn't been mentioned quite as prevelantly: injuries.

During ESPN's NBA season preview, each team around the league had one respective concern that each could be faced with over the course of the year to come. For the Jazz, their concern leaned upon the potential injury troubles.

"Injuries are already starting to pile up with Collier (hamstring), Filipowski (lower back), Walker Kessler (left shoulder), Lauri Markkanen (left wrist) and Georges Niang (left foot)," ESPN's Michael C. Wright wrote. "Markkanen is Utah's top player and is coming off a season in which he played a career-low 47 games. He has averaged just 56.3 games per season during his eight-year career."

Do the Jazz Have Injury Concerns to Worry About?

Christopher Creveling-Imagn Images

It's certainly an interesting point to bring up, as the Jazz roster hasn't been 100% available across last season, and even stretching into this year's preseason late.

Last season, the Jazz's lottery ambitions also might've played a role in that lack of availability, as they'd eventually be fined $100K for resting Lauri Markkanen against the Washington Wizards––a guy who did face a bit of ups and downs in terms of his health, but maybe missed a few more games than ultimately necessary.

So will that same trend continue into this year? Probably not as drastically as last year.

The Jazz won't need to blatantly tank and rest veterans as they did during their previous campaign thanks to their offseason moves around the edges. Markkanen and the rest of the crew seem likely to be available throughout the year, and not susceptible to six-figure fines, as long as Utah holds onto their top-eight protected pick in the hands of the OKC Thunder.

But that's not to say that injuries to Utah's young pieces won't transpire throughout the year, as they do every season.

So far through the Jazz's preseason, everyone outside of Isaiah Collier and Georges Niang has gotten some in-game reps. Collier might even be ready to go by the time their regular season kicks off later this week. Taylor Hendricks, Utah's 2023 lottery pick, made his return from his season-ending injury of his sophomore campaign.

If anything, the Jazz's injury luck might be swinging in another direction. And if this budding young core is readily available while showcasing signs of development, seeing a 20-to-25-plus win season might be in play, which from Utah's perspective, would be a nice turn of events to show this group is gradually putting the pieces together to be a competitive crew.

Maybe that bad luck lingers for this roster into the regular season, but on the surface, Utah's injury concerns don't seem to be any more troublesome than any other young, rebuilding team around the league.