The Utah Jazz are only two preseason games into 2026, and both came against the Denver Nuggets last week. That’s not much of a sample, but it’s already enough to see which players are making a stronger first impression and which ones are starting to slide.
A few guys have helped their cases with one good night, while others have given the Jazz reasons to keep a closer eye on the depth chart. Here’s where things stand after those first two exhibitions.
KJ Hayes is one of the easiest names to point to on the buy side, and not just because of what he’s done on the floor. The bigger reason is opportunity.
Hayes is now one of only three healthy bigs on the roster available for minutes, alongside Jaren Jackson Jr. and Mo Bamba. If the health situation stays put, Hayes looks positioned for a meaningful role early in the season.
The biggest stock boost among the group may belong to Peterson. After a quieter preseason opener, he broke out in the rematch with Denver and finished with a game-high 23 points on 10/18 shooting, plus three rebounds and three assists. Will Hardy has already said he wants to see more from him defensively, but the No. 2 pick has shown enough through two games to make a strong early impression.
Ace Bailey also fits on the buy list after drawing heavy praise from Hardy, who called Bailey’s preseason debut the best basketball game he’s seen him play since arriving in Utah. Bailey backed that up with 10 points on 50% shooting, but the real value was on the defensive end, where he flashed real upside. If that two-way growth continues, the Jazz could be looking at a huge season from their second-year wing.
On the other side, Jusuf Nurkic’s stock has taken a hit simply because he won’t be available. The Jazz announced after the first preseason game against Denver that the veteran big man would miss at least four weeks with a foot injury, which pushes him out until early November. When healthy, he’s likely the team’s best rebounder and screener and a valuable frontcourt passer, but right now the trajectory is clearly down.
Svi Mykhailiuk hasn’t helped himself much through two preseason games either. He’s logged a decent amount of minutes, but the shooting hasn’t been there, as he’s gone 6-23 from the field against the Nuggets. He remains a trusted part of the rotation and should still have a sizable bench role to open the season, but he hasn’t found much traction yet.
Then there’s Jaden Green, whose first appearance of the preseason did little to strengthen his case. He sat out the opener, then played 11 minutes in game two and finished with zero points, two rebounds, two assists, and two steals. The quiet night matters because he was also limited in time, which suggests he may be sitting behind Mykhailiuk and Josh Okogie for those minutes right now.
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Jazz Suddenly Face An Early Problem They Built Around Nurkic
The early days of the 2026-27 season were always going to tell Utah a lot about its new shape, but now the Jazz are already adjusting to life without one of the players they expected to anchor the middle. Jusuf Nurkic, brought in to give the group size, physicality and stability, is set to miss the opening stretch after a preseason foot injury, leaving the frontcourt without the veteran presence the staff had built around.
Will Hardy said the first concern is on the glass, where Nurkic was supposed to make an immediate difference and where Utah now has to find production by committee. The Jazz will need multiple players to pick up the slack until he returns, because there is no direct one-man substitute for the rebounding and interior work they were counting on from him. [Read more 🡒]
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Utah is not being talked about as a title team, and there will likely be some growing pains along the way, but the broader expectation is a much more competitive group than fans have watched in recent years. For a franchise that has spent so long selling progress in the abstract, even that shift matters, because it gives supporters something tangible to watch every night as this next phase takes shape. [Read more 🡒]