2025-2026 Tank Race Prediction Contest and Current Results Thread

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Man, I really feel like Utah could be better than Memphis, Portland, Sacramento, New Orleans and possibly San Antonio.

Would mostly be health dependent for all teams, but Memphis/Sacramento/New Orleans are perpetually cursed by injuries and chronically underperform.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Also, is there a Western Conference Prediction thread?

 

[SoberasHotRod]

Also, is there a Western Conference Prediction thread?

I mentioned it. Someone needs to start it. @HermanG are you willing to take that on?

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Kevin Pelton Win Projections:

1. WAS 14.2
2. BKN 17.6
3. UTA 20.2
4. CHA 28.5
5. NOP 32.6
6. PHO 34.7
7. POR 35.8
8. CHI 38.0
9. PHI 38.4
10. SAS 40.1

I saw Locke said the Pelton projections have us having 2 wins at the end of December (or maybe the start), 12 by the all-star break, then 20. So I guess we have a severely front-loaded schedule?

 

[KqWIN]

1. BKN
2. WAS
3. UTA
4. MEM
5. CHO
6. NOP
7. SAC
8. PHX
9. POR
10. TOR

 

[LogGrad98]

Better than this, here is how the top 5 picks will fall out:

Note: 1-3 are interchangeable, could be any of 1 through 3, but this is most likely:

1 - Phil
2 - Phx
3 - San Antonio if they are in the lottery, otherwise most like Bkn
4 - Was
5 - Utah

Book it. More likely if we end up with the worst record for real.

 

[fishonjazz]

Man, I really feel like Utah could be better than Memphis, Portland, Sacramento, New Orleans and possibly San Antonio.

Would mostly be health dependent for all teams, but Memphis/Sacramento/New Orleans are perpetually cursed by injuries and chronically underperform.

I don't see us being worse than the spurs.

Also, we seem to be perpetually cursed by injuries and chronically underperform during the Hardy era so that should be taken into consideration as well

 

[fishonjazz]

1. BKN
2. WAS
3. UTA
4. MEM
5. CHO
6. NOP
7. SAC
8. PHX
9. POR
10. TOR

3 feels like the lucky number for next draft so I like your prediction.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I don't see us being worse than the spurs.

Also, we seem to be perpetually cursed by injuries and chronically underperform during the Hardy era so that should be taken into consideration as well

Actually we have chronically overperformed and the injuries are largely just tanking in disguise. The Jazz have only had one major injury in the Hardy era (Hendricks last year).

 

[HadAnEffectHere]

Man, I really feel like Utah could be better than Memphis, Portland, Sacramento, New Orleans and possibly San Antonio.

Would mostly be health dependent for all teams, but Memphis/Sacramento/New Orleans are perpetually cursed by injuries and chronically underperform.

List the players on the team who can both dribble and score.

List the players on the team that can defend.

Group 1 is largely just.... Keyonte I guess?

Group 2 is Walker Kessler and SloMo.

Trying to get players the ball is going to be miserable because the competent passers on the team (Collier, Nurkic, SloMo) can't score enough to get attention. Defensively, this looks like a trainwreck unless Markkanen and Hendricks play much better defensively.

There are talented players on this team, but they don't fit together at all and Will Hardy's scheme minimizes Kessler on defense so the players don't fit defensively either.

I imagine this is somewhat by design or they just don't care very much about spending assets to get a more functional team in a tanking year.

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

Looking at Memphis' health situation, they might pull the red handle early this year. I like their pickups of Caldwell-Pope and Ty Jerome, and I like Jaylen Wells as up-and-coming, but without JJJ, their defense doesn't have an anchor.

 

[Flc]

I didn't know where to put this so I'm putting it here: