Utah's Best Preseason in Years Has One Glaring Hole in the Middle

For the first time since 2022, the Utah Jazz open a season with something other than lottery odds on their mind. They went 3-1 in the preseason, beating Denver 109-97, handling San Antonio 119-109, and closing with a 119-116 win in Phoenix on Friday. The tank, as SLC Dunk put it, has been parked.

But the most consequential Jazz news of the past week wasn't a scoreboard. It was the update on Jusuf Nurkic.

Per Chris Haynes, the veteran center will miss several weeks with a lower-body injury, and the Jazz enter Wednesday's opener at Memphis with a genuine question in the middle. Nurkic was part of the presumed starting five spotted in training camp footage alongside Keyonte George, Darryn Peterson, Lauri Markkanen, and Jaren Jackson Jr. FanSided's J-Notes framed it accurately: not devastating, not long-term, but a scramble the Jazz did not need.

The timing is what makes it sting. Utah traded Walker Kessler to the Lakers for two unprotected first-round picks and two pick swaps, a haul that already looks lopsided in Utah's favor. It was the right long-term play. It also removed the one player who could absorb a Nurkic absence without changing the team's shape. With Nurkic out, the five falls to Jackson — who is coming off February surgery to remove a localized pigmented villonodular synovitis growth in his left knee, an operation that ended his 2025-26 season. Jackson averaged 19.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in 48 games last year, but he has appeared in just three games for Utah since the trade. Asking him to anchor the paint in week one while also carrying more offensive responsibility than ever is a real ask.

The rest of the core is genuinely compelling. George signed an extension and is coming off 23.6 points and 6.1 assists per game in 54 appearances. Markkanen scored 26.7 a night, though he managed only 42 games. And Peterson, the No. 2 pick, dropped 23 points in his preseason debut against Denver, drawing comparisons from two former NBA champions on ESPN's NBA Today and prompting one scout to set the bar absurdly high. FanSided's reasonable caution: his Rookie of the Year case is thin, but his importance to Utah's playoff hopes is not.

That is the leap the Jazz are being asked to make. Last season's 22-60 record came with the 29th-ranked defense (122.3 defensive rating) and a 20th-ranked offense (114.1). The market's season win total sits at 37.5 — roughly fifteen wins of projected improvement, which is a lot to bank on health. Utah ranked 20th in offense and 29th in defense a year ago; only the defense has to move for this to work, and the defense is precisely what a Nurkic absence and a post-surgery Jackson stress most.

The schedule is forgiving early. Memphis won 25 games last season, New Orleans follows at home, and the Jazz split four meetings with the Grizzlies a year ago, including a 147-101 blowout in April. There is room to survive a few weeks without a true center.

But the opener now doubles as an audit of Utah's depth — and of whether a team built to end a four-year playoff drought can afford the one thing every playoff hopeful needs: a big man who can stay on the floor.