Their donor? The owners of the worst record in basketball at one win and nine losses: the Utah Jazz.

“We’re struggling to get over the hump right now,” head coach Will Hardy said postgame from Minneapolis. “I’m seeing a bunch of areas from our team where we are improving. We’re in a tough moment right now with a lot of injuries, but we’re continuing to fight.”

It’s hard to identify the true identity of this Utah Jazz team. The gaps in Hardy’s rotations have been filled by second- and third-unit personnel, only seeing so many minutes because three members of the original starting lineup aren’t in uniform on the court. Rather, they’re in civilian clothes, seemingly modeling the Ralph Lauren fall catalogue from the sideline.

Snake-bitten and continuously overpopulated on the injury report, the Jazz are hobbling through the early days of the regular season.

Abbie Parr, Associated Press

From bad to worse, Lauri Markkanen is out of the rotation again as he struggles to recover from a sprain in his shooting wrist, and Keyonte George finished Utah’s visit to Minnesota in the locker room after rolling his ankle.

Will Hardy’s preferred frontcourt, Jusuf Nurkic and Jaren Jackson Jr., remain sidelined.

In their place, Utah’s reserves have been outclassed by team after team. Lacking physicality down low and offensive firepower around the perimeter, the Jazz are just 26th in 3-point percentage and 29th in overall offense.

This team is really missing Walker Kessler. To be clear, Utah made the right decision by flipping Kessler for a bundle of draft picks this offseason. Reports of the trade were followed by reports that Kessler had no intention of staying with the Jazz long-term, so the Jazz opted for draft capital and flexibility for future moves.

It was a move made with the future in mind, and predictably, the present has suffered by consequence. Kessler’s strong start for the Lakers alongside Luka Doncic is salt in the wound.

Looking back is futile, but Utah’s deflated frontcourt could have been buoyed if Kessler were still on the roster. As constructed, Utah’s available personnel are out of their depth.

Utah’s backcourt has had its fair share of concerns, too, but none that can be blamed on injuries. Just three players can be trusted to bring the ball down the floor: George, rookie Darryn Peterson, and Isaiah Collier. That means we’ve seen a lot of floor time for a tandem that simply hasn’t worked for the Jazz: Isaiah Collier and Keyonte George.

In 2025-26, the George-Collier combination was outscored by 20.6 points per 100 possessions. This season, that pairing hasn’t fared much better, outscored by 15.6 points per 100 possessions.

Ideally, the Jazz would be able to stagger the minutes of these two ball-dominant point guards. They haven’t had such a luxury to this point in the year.

Now, 10 games are in the books on the 2026-27 campaign and the Jazz have tasted victory only once, a one-point win against New Orleans. Utah has lost eight straight, their closest swipes at victory being overtime contests against the Spurs and the Pelicans.

Keyonte George nearly stole that game in New Orleans, his fingertips still on the basketball as the horn sounded on a would-be game-winner. His disqualified shot sailed meaninglessly through the net.

Resilient and determined, George drilled back-to-back 3-pointers from the left wing to open the overtime period with a six-point advantage before Utah hemorrhaged 12 unanswered points to the home Pels. Not the first such overtime collapse the Jazz endured this year; they suffered an eerily similar fate in extra time against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs.

Still, there are some positives to glean between the mounting negatives. Not the least of which is Peterson’s emergence, as he followed up his career-high of 21 points against Dallas with a new top mark of 26 points in Minnesota. He and Ace Bailey are taking strides as perimeter defenders, combining for 1.9 steals and 2.1 blocks per game.

For what it’s worth, Utah’s defense has somehow become more effective than its offense through 10 games. If defense wins championships, does offense win in the regular season?

Jazz Baseline gives a weekly look at the Utah Jazz from Calvin Barrett, a marketing professional and UVU graduate from Springville who currently follows the Jazz from Japan.