The Burden of Expectation: Kyle Filipowski

With the NBA season right around the corner, and the Utah Jazz presumably being competitive for the first time in far too long, everyone is right to place the majority of the responsibility on the shoulders of our biggest names. We just drafted Darryn Peterson #2 overall in the NBA Draft, we just signed Keyonte George to a contract extension, and we just traded away a massive amount of draft capital (not to mention we’re paying him $50 million a year) to acquire Jaren Jackson Jr. These guys will obviously play a huge role in our team’s success this year, but if this isn’t a true team effort from everyone involved, I believe that we are doomed to fail.

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Long gone are the days in the NBA where we could throw 3 superstars on the floor and ride on their coattails. The league is much too talented for that type of strategy to work, so even though the aforementioned players will grab the headlines whether we win or lose, there are three players in my mind that will need to step up their game if the Jazz want to be successful. This is the first edition of my mini-series “The Burden of Expectation,” and I don’t think that there is anyone more vital to this team’s success from a role player’s standpoint than Kyle Filipowski.

I think that enough time has passed to where I can now comfortably say that Walker Kessler will be missed. The draft picks that we received in return are great, and I’m sure that Trader Danny will put them to good use eventually, but our frontcourt depth chart is looking… grim.

Our frontcourt depth wouldn’t have been elite even if we were able to retain Kessler’s services, but now that he’s in Tinseltown, it is quite worrying. Now, I’m not on Will Hardy’s staff (although I am open for hire), but I’d imagine that our starting lineup goes one of two ways:

a) Start Jaren Jackson Jr. out of position at the 5, Lauri at the 4, Ace at the 3, Darryn Peterson at the 2, and Keyonte George at the 1.

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Or

b) Start Jusuf Nurkic at the 5 and push Ace to the bench, allowing JJJ to play his natural 4 position and making Lauri play out of position, and if the preseason is anything to go off of,…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/burden-expectation-kyle-filipowski-021821158.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-06 02:18:00

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