The Utah Jazz have mostly finished the heavy lifting of their offseason, and the roster now looks set enough that the front office could roll straight into the 2026-27 regular season if it had to. With 15 players on the active roster and a mix of major and minor moves already in the books, the real question now is how those changes have shifted the pecking order.
A few players clearly came out ahead. A few others lost a little ground.
Jusuf Nurkic is the easiest name to put in the winner column. He already benefited from the two-year, $22 million deal he signed to stay in Utah, a nice payday that keeps him where he said he wanted to be at the end of last season. Now he gets an even bigger boost: with Walker Kessler out of the picture, Nurkic moves from projected backup to the Jazz’s clear starting center.
That changes the shape of his role entirely. Instead of fighting for backup minutes, Nurkic is now set to open alongside Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. in Utah’s starting frontcourt.
The catch is obvious enough. He’ll need to stay sharp on offense and steady on defense if he wants to hold that job for good.
Svi Mykhailiuk also looks like he’s in a decent spot, even if his path is a little less secure. He was a regular part of the rotation last season, playing a career-high 23.1 minutes per game across 50 appearances before he faded out late in the year because he was viewed as a bit too much of a winning player for Utah’s tanking plans.
There’s a strong chance he lands in a similar role again this season. The Jazz guaranteeing his contract before free agency says plenty about how they view him. Still, the addition of Josh Okogie creates real pressure on the wing, and Okogie’s defensive value could chip away at Mykhailiuk’s minutes even if both players bring some connective offense.
Kyle Filipowski may be the biggest beneficiary of the Kessler move. Before that change, his route to playing time looked murky. Kessler and Nurkic were ahead of him at center, while Jaren Jackson Jr. and Cody Williams, with Williams’ defensive upside, made the fit even trickier.
Now the lane opens up. Filipowski can slide into center minutes, even if that isn’t a perfect positional match.
His size and offensive versatility give him a real chance to make it work. The Jazz also didn’t exactly load up on overwhelming frontcourt competition, with Jaxson Hayes and Mo Bamba among the additions.
Unless Utah is especially sold on Hayes’ scoring inside or Bamba’s rim protection, Filipowski has a better shot at minutes than either of them.
The Kessler trade doesn’t wipe out Utah’s postseason hopes. Far from it. If young players like Ace Bailey or Darryn Peterson pop faster than expected, a top-eight seed is still in play by April.
But the move does lower the ceiling. Utah was once being viewed as a legitimate dark horse for a top-six seed, and that kind of talk is harder to justify now.
The Jazz still have two All-Stars in the frontcourt, an emerging star in the backcourt, and a pair of top five picks from the last two drafts. That’s a real foundation.
They just need more things to break right if they’re going to climb into the top half of the West.
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