For the Jazz to finish in the bottom-5 they need to be consistently losing to Detroit, Portland, San Antonio, Toronto and Charlotte because these are the teams can push the Jazz out of the top 5 and each win over one of those teams is +2 in the head-to-head results. And the Jazz need to start losing early in the season because later several of those teams will be tanking like there is no tomorrow ( like the Raptors did last season).
Unfortunately, the Jazz does not get to play many bad teams until the mid-December so it would be hard to gauge the record of Utah. The key dates are Oct 31 (vs SAS), Nov 4 (at Chicago), Nov 9 (at SAS) and Nov 21 (at SAS). If they play right in the beginning of the season the Jazz could at least ensure that the Spurs finish above them.
Unfortunately, the Jazz does not get to play many bad teams until the mid-December so it would be hard to gauge the record of Utah. The key dates are Oct 31 (vs SAS), Nov 4 (at Chicago), Nov 9 (at SAS) and Nov 21 (at SAS). If they play right in the beginning of the season the Jazz could at least ensure that the Spurs finish above them.