Two Jazz Draft Picks Finalized After Tiebreakers

The first of Utah’s second-round picks will be 43rd overall, courtesy of the Dallas Mavericks and the Luka Doncic trade. Dallas won a tiebreaker with the Chicago Bulls, meaning they’ll go into the lottery in 11th place. Because the second-round pick tiebreakers are the inverse of the first round, the Jazz pick slid down an extra slot.

Secondly, by a more complicated tiebreaker, the Jazz will also be picking 53rd overall, with the pick they acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers in that same consequential trade that took Doncic to LA. 

That means we have finality on three of the four upcoming 2025 draft picks for the Jazz. They’ll be picking 21st via Minnesota, 43rd via Dallas, and 53rd from the Lakers via the Clippers. While complicated, it means the Jazz are equipped to move around the board to target those players that they’re enamored with.

Plenty of players have gone from second-round pick to a valuable NBA player. Nikola Jokic stands in a tier of his own after being picked 41st overall, but there are plenty of other examples of success stories. Kyle Filipowski, who is hoping to get an All-Rookie nod for the Jazz, was a second-round pick just a year ago.

As I alluded to earlier, the most important date for the team is the May 12th NBA Draft Lottery. It’ll be there where we find out if finishing with the worst record in the league will pay off with a franchise changing prospect, or if they’ll have to settle for a good, but not as exciting option.

The Jazz have a 14% chance of winning the lottery, the maximum odds allowed with the new system. While the single most likely outcome is that they’ll pick 5th, they have greater than a 52% chance of landing in the top four. 

With Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, and Ace Bailey all expected to go in the top three, the Jazz securing one of those picks would be ideal. Regardless, the team guaranteed itself a top-five pick and will be able to bring the best prospect of this rebuild into the building this summer.