Utah Jazz's 'Biggest Loss' of 2024 NBA Offseason Revealed

The Utah Jazz didn't light NBA headlines on fire this offseason, but they still walked out of this summer putting together a notably solid offseason. With the re-signing of All-Star Lauri Markkanen and a successful draft in each of their three top-32 picks, it's hard to dislike the moves this front office made during the past few months, even if we didn't see any blockbusters come to light.

However, as with any offseason, there are a few departures suffered on the roster that may be easier said than done to patch for the coming year. The Jazz are no different, as they found themselves parting ways with a few key players in their rotation, and in the eyes of Bleacher Report, one name sticks out above the rest.

When laying out each team's biggest loss of the 2024 NBA offseason, Dan Favale of Bleacher Report labeled the Jazz's as Kris Dunn-- noting how Utah will "immensely" miss his defensive presence on the perimeter:

"If you find yourself questioning whether Utah is committed to being bad enough, look no further than it signing and trading Dunn for what amounts to a 2030 second-round pick swap... Dunn's ball pressure, wizardry in the passing lanes and bandwidth for guarding, let's say, 3.5 positions will be missed. Immensely. Nobody else on the roster fills this role. Taylor Hendricks has shown he can effectively defend down, but he probably shouldn't be tussling with the Shai Gilgeous-Alexanders and Anthony Edwardses of the world on a regular basis."

- Dan Favale, Bleacher Report

After joining the Jazz late in the 2022-23 season to stake his claim with a roster spot from being back-and-forth in the G-League, the former top-five pick was a notable bright spot down the stretch of that season, which ultimately gave him the chance to spend the next season in Utah on a fully guaranteed contract.

Through the 2023-24 campaign, we saw Dunn appear in 66 games, starting in 32, where he averaged 5.4 points, 3.8 assists, and a steal per night as one of the roster's biggest contributors on the defense end.

Considering the Jazz ended the season as the 30th-ranked defensive team in the NBA, his contributions may not have been enough to mitigate the glaring holes Utah has on that end, but he clearly made an impact during his time on the floor.

However, the Jazz won't have the benefit of seeing Dunn in their backcourt rotation for this coming season, as he looks to join the Los Angeles Clippers from the mentioned sign-and-trade earlier this offseason. His leave does effectively give more opportunity and minutes to hand out to the younger options in this guard rotation, but it won't be without seeing some growing pains on the defensive side of the ball.

As Favale mentioned, maybe we see a younger defender like Taylor Hendricks be the one to step into a key defensive role for this Jazz rotation, but we're likely to see some struggles on defense for the Jazz regardless in 2024-25, and the loss of Dunn doesn't help much at all.

Without a ton of defensive upside, it may be tough to expect this team to be a consistent threat to win games in the Western Conference, but at the very least, we're sure to see some positive growth from this young Jazz core next season, which should be the main goal of this coming campaign.

Patience is key in the case of Utah's current team state, but with the right drafting and development underway, we may not have to wait long to see this squad return to serious competition.

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