The Finnish forward will be the focal point of Utah's offensive structure again. A full season alongside Jaren Jackson Jr. means that Markkanen will likely go back to playing the lion's share of his minutes as a supersized wing, which was his primary role in 2022-23 when he earned All-Star honors and won Most Improved Player.

He'll also shift up to the four when Jackson sits, but the beauty of Markkanen's game is that he defies positional definition. Checking him with bigs is problematic because of his constant movement and perimeter shooting; guards struggle with his size. He does need to get better at post-ups as a means of punishing smaller guys, but the bottom line is that Markkanen poses a ton of really hard questions for opponents.

If the Jazz realize their goals this season, it will likely mean Markkanen has had another All-Star or even All-NBA type season. The closest he came to the latter was in 2022-23, when he finished 17th in voting for 15 spots.

Team president Austin Ainge continually refers to Jackson and Markkanen as the Jazz's two best players. Jackson (like Markkanen) topped out at 17th in All-NBA voting. He's made all-defense three times, and he's also a capable scorer. His best scoring seasons were 22.5, 22.2 and last year's combined 19.4. He makes a decent amount of threes, but what really makes him stand out among big men is his ability to put the ball on the deck. Last year, he scored 8.1 of his nightly points on drives, third most by a player 6'11" or taller, behind only KD and Giannis.

On defense, "Trip" makes opponents' lives harder in the paint, but is also switchable and can impact guys in space. That's why the Jazz don't necessarily want to park him at the rim on defense. In fact, Jackson has done some of his best work collaborating with behemoth bigs who took some of the traditional center type stuff off his plate.

At just 27 years old, Jackson has a lot of his prime still in front of him. He has three years left on his contract, plus a player option.

With Jackson and Markkanen figuring more prominently into the Jazz's plans, they might not need George to average 23.6 points again. That's even more true if rookie Darryn Peterson is ready for a big role right away, or if Ace Bailey has a year-two leap.

But either way, George is essential since Utah's best offensive players are still dependent scorers to a degree. The need for a legitimate table-setter is obvious. The next step for George, beyond making easy A-or-B reads our of pick-and-roll action; is to be a real game manager, with a feel for who needs to get more involved on a team with multiple threats. That's a tougher version of the floor general role, but George spent the summer connecting with his All-Star teammates to figure out how he can magnify them.

Advanced stats are still cautious about quantifying Key's impact on winning. Guards with more modest statlines like Jalen Suggs, Dyson Daniels and Devin Vassell rate much better in all-in metrics. That's why it will be fascinating to see how the year unfolds for George now that the Jazz will be competing.

Bailey figures to be one of Utah's most important pieces this season, whether he starts or comes off the bench. He led the team in minutes last year, including shifting into a more featured role as Utah slid him into some of their "Lauri actions" after the All-Star was put on the proverbial shelf.

The 20-year-old just remains too tantalizing not to play him major minutes. He can play multiple positions, his defensive instincts are good, and offensively he has a feathery touch and great footwork. (Check this video thread from late March.) He's toolsy and effortlessly athletic.

At 6'9", he could also solve some really important defensive questions for the Jazz. Utah doesn't really have a ton of plus wing defenders in their core group, so that could be his path to becoming indispensable. Jackson already lauded him early in training camp for screen navigation and defensive effort. Either way, expect a massive role for Bailey this year. The Jazz remain high on the 2025 lottery pick.

The Jazz won't say it exactly this way for fear of putting too much pressure on a teenager, but they are hoping this season will lay a foundation for Peterson that will ultimately yield a title alpha. Unleashing that type of player in year one is incredibly rare, though, so be prepared to have patience.

Peterson has a lot to work with. There will be some fun moments, and the Jazz seem to want to give him as much responsibility as he can handle. We've seen him in preseason have a healthy mix of off-ball and on-ball work. Hardy has complimented Peterson's maturity, process and coachability. Playing alongside George means he won't have to orchestrate an offense right away, but expect to see him featured prominently.

Remember that Kobe Bryant — who Peterson idolizes and to whom he's been compared — averaged 8-2-1 counting stats as a teenage rookie guard. Devin Booker (14-3-3), Bradley Beal (14-4-2) and LaMelo Ball (16-6-6) produced more, although they were on rebuilding teams. The very best seasons by rookie guards in their teens belonged to Luka Doncic (21-8-6) and Kyrie Irving (19-4-5), but again, they didn't arrive to teams with multiple established All-Stars. This year is about figuring out how his tools translate.

Kessler's departure leaves the Jazz in need of a starting big, Nurk has started 83% of his NBA games. He does certain things really well, and Hardy has spoken very highly of the impact he has on the offense as a screener and his commitment to other winning activities like rebounding. Because of what he offers that the Jazz need post-Kessler, he figures to play a fairly central role.

They'll need him to rehabilitate his weird rim finishing issue. His 57.4% inside three feet last year is not just weirdly low for a 7-footer; it's legitimately one of the 15 lowest figures by ANY size player to log at least 1,000 minutes. That lack of rim pressure is partly why the scoring efficiency dropped in his minutes, even while the assist ratio went up. On defense, Nurkic is more of a paint clogger than a true rim protector. Guys shot 60.3% at the rim with Nurkic defending last year, which is not Jackson- or Kessler-level, but it's a little better than average for a big.

Early reviews on Sensabaugh's offseason work have been positive, and it sounds like he is expected to be a rotation contributor. For all of its talent upgrades, this Jazz team is still a little light on self-creation, so having a bench scorer who can iso his way to buckets is a commodity.‍

In terms of Sensabaugh's long-term fit, he still has some work to do to show he's more than the basketball equivalent of "designated hitter." The defensive stats have looked bleak at times, but he says that was a focal point in his summer workouts. His rebound rate, assist rate, and steal/block percentages have been pretty flat throughout his career. He has competition now for wing minutes and may need to show progress in those other areas to secure Hardy's trust.

Eventually, the shooting is going to have to improve at least a little bit. Weirdly, his pull-up 3s are at least passable at 35%, but the sub-23% catch-and-shoot number looks like a typo. Defenses can't ignore you if you have the ball. But over time, more ball handling will shift to Peterson, Bailey and others. At some point, Collier is going to need to be able to bag a few catch-and-shoots if he's going to be on the floor in the playoffs.

For now, though, Collier is a rotation lock because he makes the Jazz better in specific ways they need. They're still light on creation and passing, and "Zay" (as the fellas call him) just kind of bullies his way into the paint and then makes good reads. His foul-drawing rate is also great, trailing only George's, although he needs to cash in on a higher percentage of the resulting free throws.

If you're budgeting minutes at the SG and SF spots, it starts to get tricky fast. Markkanen, Bailey, Peterson and Sensabaugh are all pretty easy bets to play, which realistically leaves at most one spot for a 2/3. That means Mykhailiuk's case for minutes could be intertwined with Josh Okogie's, and even Josh Green's. Obviously more guys will pop in and out of the rotation through the regular course of injuries, illness, rest, struggles, etc.

That said, Hardy has obviously come to trust his understanding of the Jazz's playbook and defensive philosophies. He doesn't grade out as a superb individual defender by all-in metrics, but Utah consistently guards better when he's on the floor.

Utah has a lot of wing options, but given the questions about their perimeter defense, it seems inevitable that Okogie will find his way to minutes at some point. One of his nicknames is "Non-Stop" for his ceaseless energy and irritation of opposing ball handlers. He's also one of few current Jazzmen to have tasted the postseason in a rotational role.

Since leaving Minnesota, he has consistently averaged between 16 and 19 minutes for the Suns, Hornets and Rockets. Eventually, he may find his way to a similar workload in Utah, even if to start the season he's jostling with other veteran wings.‍

The need for a backup center means Hayes is practically guaranteed some kind of role on this team. The Jazz aren't going to force Jackson to slog through too many minutes as the lone big, and anyway Nurkic is likely to miss games at some point.

He's also an interesting contrast to Nurkic. It might not hurt to have a lob specialist opposite the somewhat rim-averse Nurk in the center rotation. He's also a little more defensively stout than the Bosnian, although he wound up not being quite the shot blocker he was projected to be pre-draft. Some of that is because he was foul-happy early and had to learn not to lunge at everything. But he does limit opponents' paint accuracy. On the other hand, he's not quite the screener, rebounder or especially passer than Nurkic is. They are really quite opposite as centers go.

The question that will determine whether Flip plays a big role this year is essentially: what is he? If he's exclusively a power forward, then the path to minutes is harder, because Utah has two All-Stars who are at least part-time fours. But to play the five consistently, he'd have to improve his pretty bleak rim defense numbers: 70.1% allowed as a rookie, 71.8% last year. Filipowski at the 5 last year just wasn't a winning configuration: -10.7 per 100, per Cleaning the Glass.

Perhaps the recipe is for him to play as the nominal five, but alongside Jackson. Memphis used a similar tactic when pairing Trip with stretchy big Santi Aldama. Those two had a +24.0 net rating in Jackson's first All-Star season, and +4.6 in the second. It worked (to varying degrees) because Aldama is more than a mere "stretch" five. Aldama shared some of Flip's passing ability and they have similar rebound rates — whereas Jackson with a popping five who doesn't rebound as well (like Jay Huff) just didn't yield the same results.

As detailed above, the Jazz have more rotation-caliber wings than they can really play, and that could make it tough for Green to carve out a big role. If he does crack Utah's rotation, it will be because they need wing stoppers. Green has elite lateral mobility, a 6'10" wingspan and solid instincts, and could help the Jazz on nights when none of the young guard corps of George, Peterson, Collier, etc. know what to do with a given star ball handler.

He has more playoff experience than any Jazz player outside of Jackson and Nurkic (by minutes played), but the reality is that unless he meaningfully cracks the rotation, his salary could wind up being useful in a midseason trade. Utah doesn't really have guys in that salary range (other than a prized rookie and a pretty essential starting center), so any trade idea that involves a player making $20M+ is likely going to implicate the Australian guard.

By making the roster, Bamba locked up a salary guarantee that is basically the same as paying him a prorated miniimum for 25 days — through game 13. In other words, there's not a lot of risk to keeping him for now, unless something more tempting comes available. The security blanket of more big man depth is probably important since the starting big is 32 years old and is already banged up. There just aren't a lot of inspiring centers left as free agents. (No, Kevin Love is not a center.)

Bamba is theoretically a shooting five (he shot 39% from deep for Philly a couple of years ago), although he has basically stopped taking threes at this stage in his career. Really, the value proposition at this point is that Bamba makes it pretty hard for opponents to score in the paint, and he can catch lobs.

The Jazz claimed Bradley's non-guaranteed contract off waivers to have a little bit more big man insurance with Nurkic out. If, say, Hayes turned an ankle things could get dicey fast. Utah could obviously wait until there's an emergent need, but acquiring someone now gives them someone they'd prefer as opposed to settling for whatever might be available in the middle of a season.

That said, it's hard to imagine the Jazz keeping Bamba and Bradley past whatever the duration of Nurkic's injury winds up being. Bradley is a solid rebounder (career 19% Reb%) and is selective enough about his shots to have a career .641 true shooting mark. The question will be whether he can leverage this extended tryout to push himself ahead of Bamba in Utah's big man pecking order.