After Ryan Smith bought Jazz from the Miller family in October 2020, he said he would build on Larry and Gail’s legacy. He not only wanted to win championships, but he intended to put his team in a position to do so.
“We’re all here for one thing,” he told the crowd. “We want a parade in this town. That’s it.”
Later, he also said with great seriousness, “We want to win.”
No one reading this needs to be told it didn’t happen. But just to be sure…
It didn’t happen.
Not even close. Not even respectable. Not really.
It’s to the point where fans and cheerleaders have to get excited and console themselves with close losses like last night’s home setback against Orlando. The Jazz fell…but, hey, Keyonte George lit it up with 27 points on 8-for-22 shooting, Svi Mykhailiuk went for 23, Kevin Love had 16 and 16. Ace Bailey scored 14. And the Jazz dropped to 10-17 on the season, with people forced to reach for what that record might have been, Mark, how optimism would be lost if Walker Kessler didn’t get hurt.
Come on, it’s been five years. What will it be…seven years? … 10? …15? …20? At what point does practical patience turn to anger, or worse, apathy? At least the Millers, even if they never lifted the Larry O’Brien trophy, gave people consistently competitive teams to be proud of. What are Jazz now?
Look, I like Ryan Smith. He’s a good dude. He’s a smart guy. He is a rich guy. But so does my brother-in-law, Allen. And no way on God’s green earth would I want him running the Utah Jazz.
Five years into Smith’s ownership, the Jazz sport a combined regular season record of 196-233. And that includes the initial few seasons in which Smith had the players and coach of the previous regime before he decided to sign and blow the whole thing up for any number of reasons, chief among them being that this version of the Jazz reportedly didn’t have the talent or unity to win a title, nor did it allow for the financial flexibility necessary to add to what was already in place.
Flexibility, it was thought somewhat arrogantly and naively, would bring triumphs and trophies. And lots of, as Smith said, “fun.”
After deciding to trade All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert before the 2022-23 season, the Jazz’s record was a miserable 95-180. This is also Smith’s record. And it should be kept and noted, just as a trainer’s record is kept and recorded, the size of a prized pig at the county fair.
The Jazz were in trouble but didn’t win any blue ribbons.
After being seriously overhauled, the team was burping and twitching, and worse, had no set path under Smith, Danny Ainge, Justin Zanik and Austin Ainge. The Jazz have amassed a litany of strategies that have included a litany of trying really hard with what they have, not trying really hard, “hunting in big games,” outright tanking, getting fined by the league for not putting players on the floor who can play, and generally tinkering and tinkering under the guise of developing young players.
It goes on and on. Competitive incompetence. Loss.
Now, in December 2025, they have them fighting or not fighting, depending on how you see it, for a play-in spot for the final slot in the Western Conference playoff field. That, in turn, would give them the privilege of being swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team that would laugh out loud at the Jazz when they were eaten alive like an alligator on a goose.
Some say that the Jazz were treated badly by Lady Luck because last year’s lottery took them fifth despite having the NBA’s worst record. They deserved the top pick because they worked – damn – hard to earn it. They lost and lost and lost. And luck slapped them right in the lips for it. They got Bailey instead of Cooper Flagg.
And so it went, so it goes.
But look at other Jazz pickups by design in this range. Taylor Hendricks, George, Brice Sensabaugh, Cody Williams, Isaiah Collier, Kyle Filipowski, Walter Clayton and more. George has shown flashes, he’s been hot lately, and decisions await some of those other guys, but where is the real gold in that group? Where is the value of what they lost for what they gained in return? Where’s the slam-dunk progress?
The Mitchell deal netted them Markkanen, as well as players no longer with the club, a first-round pick they already spent and traded, a first-round pick in 2027 and 2029, and two trades of first-round picks in 2026 and 2028. The Gobert deal got them a bunch of players no longer on the roster, along with a pick who became another eligible player, Kess, which was the right choice. traded, swapping first-round picks in 2026 and first-round picks in 2027 and the first protected top-five pick in 2029.
But you already knew all that.
You also know the Jazz are jeopardizing their own 2026 first-round pick — if it doesn’t fall in the top eight — to Oklahoma City, of all teams.
The Jazz still have draft backlogs remaining, though based on what they’ve done with their past drafts, there is some question as to what those assets are or will be worth.
Meanwhile, they’re trudging through abysmal to subpar seasons with results that make the Mitchell-Gobert years seem downright sparkling. Remember when the Jazz finished with the best regular season record in the league? They were eliminated in the playoffs, but at least the regular season wasn’t an inevitable disappointment.
After the next few seasons, the Jazz are stuck in a worse place than they were when Smith bought the team. Stuck in the NBA’s dreaded No Man’s Land, a place where it’s impossible to win a championship from, it’s also reasonable to hope that they quickly gather the talent necessary to make them a title contender. Not without a hug and a kiss instead of a left hook and a straight jab from Lady Luck, something along the lines of finding and drafting a remarkable but lesser-discovered player like Nikola Jokic at a distance. Maybe they will refuel and refuel and keep refueling.
Jazz fans were mostly tolerant and patient. Everyone around here is – in some way – still clinging to a distant hope. Everyone is trying. But for how long? What would Larry Miller think? I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure he’d bang his fist on the table and do something about it.
The lady made no effort to bypass Jazz in this manner. All of which leaves the Jazz in the most precarious of positions for any shot at a championship anytime soon — requiring them to either rely on their own brilliance, their own smarts, or depend on the omniscient assistance of a higher power.
Is Ryan Smith the higher power?
Man, man.
God help the Utah Jazz.
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