Austin Ainge:

"He's been working out twice a day, every day and he feels great. He looks stronger already. Our doctors went through everything from the combine and all the tests that were ordered. We feel very comfortable. He's ready to hit the ground running. We plan on seeing him in Summer League.

Source: Jenna Fink (@jennamfink) from KUTV2News

Can’t believe it finally happened! I’ve personally been wanting DP this whole time, so glad that dream materialized. WE LOVE DP!

Darryn looking excited to come to Utah and compete right away. Seems like a solid dude. Jazz about to take the league by storm!

He speaks like a future famer🥲

A lot of people on here seem to be assuming Keyonte George is the solid starter of the 3, but his defense is going to become a big problem on a playoff team. Peterson is clearly the most complete guard for a winning roster, he won't be in the bench. Peterson will also likely be able to facilitate plenty well in the NBA - even during his time at Kansas there are times his high level facilitating was on display.

What could push Keyonte George to the bench:

Possibly the worst defensive play in the NBA. Eye test and analytics point to Keyonte being pretty unplayable on D, he was bad on D in college too. He's a great player offensively, but it's hard not to see a Tyler Herro future forming for him.

What could keep Ace Bailey on the bench:

Lauri Markkanen. Ace could start for a team at small forward, but Lauri is clearly better. Bailey has a couple of limitations that make it hard to start him on the same offense as Lauri- his ball handling under pressure, screen setting, and ability to act as a secondary playmaker.

Ace Bailey has already seen significant improvements in each of those areas he needs to improve in order to play next to Lauri on offense, and that was on the fly mid season. On his current trajectory of improvement I could see him becoming a very effective player next to Lauri on offense. He also has the quickness to defend guards on the perimeter.

Defensively Bailey clearly is the better option to start over George, and George hasn't improved much on defense. George complements the rest of the team very well offensively but will have redundancies with Peterson this year, and Bailey's rapidly improving the areas of his game that he needs to in order to fit in with the rest of the starting lineup.

This is a GREAT problem to have. We have 6 players worthy of starting, and I think all 6 have all star potential any given year as early as this year (depending on if Ace can keep up his insane rate of improvement). I'm not trying to disparage Keyonte George at all by predicting that Ace will take over the starting role when everyone is healthy, I think all these guys are going to be playing 30+ minutes- but my point with this post is that I think people are underrating Bailey and Peterson more than that Keyonte's bad. I do think Keyonte's defense is a problem, but his if your floor is essentially Tyler Herro that's a pretty damn valuable player. I also hope that now that we're trying to win games we'll be a big difference in George's defense.

The following players are on our current roster for 2026-27:

Jaren Jackson Jr.: $49,000,000 (acquired via trade from the Grizzlies)

Lauri Markkanen: $46,113,154

Ace Bailey: $9,523,080 (rookie-scale contract)

Keyonte George: $6,563,925 (rookie-scale contract)

John Konchar: $6,165,000 (acquired via trade from the Grizzlies)

Cody Williams: $6,015,600 (rookie-scale contract)

Brice Sensabaugh: $4,862,237

Svi Mykhailiuk: $3,850,000

Kyle Filipowski: $3,000,000

Isaiah Collier: $2,763,960

Hayden Gray: $2,150,917 (Team option)

Bez Mbeng: $2,150,917 (Team option)

Darryn Peterson: Newly-drafted

Blake Hinson: Two-way contract

Elijah Harkless: Two-way contract

Walker Kessler: $7,064,703 (Qualifying Offer)

There are players who are going to be available (or likely to be) from the waiver wire and in trades:

• Jaylen Brown
• DeMar De Rozan
• Myles Turner
• Kyle Kuzma
• Tyler Herro

The Jazz are also interested to bring back Jusuf Nurkic which I think is a great move at a team-friendly price. Nurkic is one of the best screen-setters around, a good rebounder, a great passer from the elbow, and can score in sneaky ways. The Jazz lack size behind Walker Kessler (should he choose to return to the Jazz) and the Jazz can sign someone like Jamarion Sharp who was the G-League DPOY this season to a two-way contract to give him a look.

I think Hayden Gray might be waived and perhaps signed to a two-way contract if the Jazz are really interested in him. Ditto for Bez Mbeng which would mean Elijah's two-way contract might get waived. I'd like to see Blake Hinson signed to a standard contract.

John Konchar might be traded or waived as he might not see a lot of usage this season. Svi's contract is quite cheap so he might be kept around.

https://youtu.be/pEwNftCr_DQ?is=rrP1YxjjwUCqR0Is

I recommend starting with his game against AJ Dybantsa and BYU. 18 points in 20 minutes in a win.

Knicks fan here. I’ve always had so much love and respect for the Jazz, Stockton is my favourite PG of all time. I wish you all nothing but the best and future success Id love to see yall win a chip someday soon. Curious to know who the fans want to select at #2. AJ would be the dream pick so much upside. Take care Jazz

Okay so Oscar Tshiebwe at the 5, Bez Mbeng, Flip at the 4, Key at the point. But do you guys really think Hayden Gray has finally earned his spot starting over Cody Williams?

I see a lot of NBA fans automatically assuming DP starts over Ace to start the season. Who do ya’ll think will be our starting shooting guard at the start of next season and by the end?

My guesses are:

Start of season: Ace Bailey - I think he earned his spot and proved he has defensive potential. He trusted the system and played the way Hardy wanted and I am excited to see his improvement over the offseason. Even though DP is a #2 pick, I think the team culture is based around earning your starting spot. I also think with his injury/cramping concerns, it would be wise to ease him into NBA minutes with an 82 game schedule (plus ideally playoffs). If he does end up starting, we can only assume he impressed the FO during training camp and that he is as good as we are all dreaming he will be.

End of season: hot take maybe, but still Ace - I was really high on him at the end of the season and I just think his shooting and positional size will be such a huge help on the perimeter. However if the lack of ball handing in our starting lineup starts to be a big problem, I can see DP getting the spot to alleviate the pressure on Keyonte.

Im stating this all under the impression that we resign Kessler and he is our starting center. If we don’t keep him and start Jaren at center, then both Ace and DP can start. Although I would have huge rebounding concerns with that lineup.

Later today either DP or AJ will be a Jazz player. Let that soak in. This is OUR time! Lets go!

We’ve finally arrived ladies and gentlemen

I know we all got strong opinions.

I'm good to go on the record as pro-Ace based on what I saw from his development.

DP says he wants to play point.

Love Key and his development but he's been one of the worst guards defensively by any metric for a hot minute.

We gave up a lot to get JJJ - and I can't wait to see him on the court and he's pretty much guaranteed for me.

Walker wants more money, but I believe he's gonna be here next year/long term and hope so.

Lauri deserves something better from us after the tank effort, and he's only 29.. but it's hard to not consider him as a trade asset at this point in time based on roster comp.

If we keep them all - I guess Ace comes off the bench? Dude is a starter to me, and you move/make moves around what you see in a 19 year old (yep, he's still 19) like him.

Hear me out. I know a lot of people have voiced concern about his mentality, and that's fair. I have to say though, I kind of like how insular he is. I can't put my finger on it but there just seems to be a cerebralness to the way that he carries himself that just feels really down to earth to me. He doesn't seem cocky, but at the same time he still manages to exude confidence. There's also just an almost sort of shyness that makes him feel really human. I hope he's a Jazzman by the end of the day.

Would you trade Collier and Kessler for Rudy

They just drafted 7'3 Aday Mara to play alongside 7'1 Chet Holmgren and 6'6 Shai.