Tank note: A high lottery pick may still be obtainable for the Jazz

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SALT LAKE CITY — At the end of the season, the Utah Jazz's loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday could be looked back on in two ways: It was the unofficial start of the end-of-year tankathon, or it was a game that cost them a higher seed (or worse, in this scenario at least, a playoff berth).

As of now, the Jazz aren't good enough to compete for a title but are probably good enough to get into the playoffs — even if Jazz management doesn't want to go that route. A team doesn't trade four rotation players in the middle of a supposed playoff battle if it actually wants to win said battle.

So with under 20 games to go, there are decisions to be made for the Jazz.

Is it better for the organization long term to fall back and collect a higher draft pick? Probably. Is it a tough look to throw the season while sitting in the ninth spot? Sure is.

The league has done a lot of work to reduce the incentives for teams to go down the tanking road by leveling the lottery odds and adding a play-in tournament. The odds of the team with the league's worst record getting the top pick are 14% — down from 25% of a few years ago. The play-in tournament allows a team to potentially make the playoffs from the 10th spot, presumably increasing the odds more teams will be trying later into the season.

In the West, for example, the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are currently 13th in the standings, are just 1.5 games out of 10th; that should be close enough to not punt the rest of the season. It should …

That is exactly why the start of Utah's six-game road trip is so interesting. The Thunder and Jazz will play two games against each other in Oklahoma CIty — two games that might reveal the intentions for each squad. Are they going for the playoffs or not?

The Jazz and Thunder are both in playoff contention, but flip the standings and there may be a bigger prize than a likely first-round exit.

Oklahoma City, which has lost four straight and just had All-NBA candidate guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander enter COVID protocols, is only 2.5 games back of fifth in the reverse standings which comes with a 42.1% chance at a top four pick. Utah, meanwhile, is just three games out of sixth in the reverse order and a 37.2% chance of a top four pick.

The standings are tight, no matter which way you look at them.

"Obviously, the coaches, myself included, would be lying to you if we said that we don't look at the standings, we definitely do; but in terms of messaging to the team, things are just so tight right now that it's just about trying to play good basketball," Jazz coach Will Hardy said when asked if he was paying more attention to the standings after the All-Star break.

It should be noted here that tanking is a management thing; players and coaches almost always want to win, so there was disappointment in the Jazz locker room after Tuesday's loss. Walker Kessler beat himself up for what he deemed to be a poor play in the fourth quarter, and Lauri Markkanen said the loss was frustrating.

"I think this is a game that we were all expecting, as long as we played our game, to come out and win," Markkanen said.

They didn't do that.

But while the Jazz were shorthanded on Tuesday against San Antonio, it just doesn't seem like they'd play a lineup of Kris Dunn, Johnny Juzang, Simone Fontecchio, Juan Toscano-Anderson, and Rudy Gay for nearly half a quarter if it was really trying to win.

That could be reading too much into things, but the fact is the teams around Utah in the standings have more of a sense of panic (or to be nice, let's call it urgency) to make something of the season — the Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers, and even the Portland Trail Blazers come to mind. Utah wouldn't have to try too hard to slip behind multiple teams on their way to better lottery odds.

Which some fans have been rooting for all along.

How does Markkanen feel about that, though?

"I don't think it's our job to worry about that," he said. "We focus on the court. Obviously, we're competitors and we all want to win so we're not trying to lose. We're just trying to stay focused on this day and try to win basketball games."

That's when he paused a bit, gave a soft smile and finished, "So hopefully we've got everybody's support."