Jaren Jackson Jr. will have surgery to remove a localized pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) growth in his left knee and will miss the remainder of the season, the Jazz announced in a press release.
The team states that the growth was identified in an MRI during a physical after Jackson was acquired in a trade with Memphis last week. The procedure is expected to take place during the All-Star break.
Jackson appeared in three games with Utah, averaging 22.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 24 minutes per night. The Jazz went 2-1 with him in their lineup.
Utah acquired Jackson to be part of a supersized frontcourt for the future alongside Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler. Jackson and Markkanen are both under contract for the next three seasons, with Jackson holding a $53.5MM player option for 2029/30. Kessler is considered likely to be re-signed this summer as he approaches restricted free agency.
Jackson is a two-time All-Star and was selected as Defensive Player of the Year in 2022/23. He has been named to the All-Defensive team three times and has twice led the NBA in blocks during a season.
The Jazz will convey this year’s first-round pick to Oklahoma City if it falls outside the top eight, so even before Jackson’s health issue surfaced there was an expectation that his playing time would be limited for the next couple months — the team has been sitting him and Markkanen during the fourth quarters of games since the trade deadline.
Undergoing the operation now should ensure that Jackson will be fully healthy in time for training camp in the fall. Utah currently has the sixth-worst record in the league at 18-37.
Ain’t no way lol – Pigmented Villonodular Synovitis (PVNS) of the knee is a rare, benign but locally aggressive tumour-like growth that causes the joint lining to overgrow, resulting in chronic knee swelling, pain, locking, and instability. Jaren is the first player in league history to have this…
He’s getting put to sleep for a tattoo
Jazz don’t want to screw up their last year of real tanking. Laurie is next, but perhaps he’s not good enough to lead a team to wins so perhaps he’ll keep playing lol
Jamar please tell us , diffuse or localized? We need more information. Genetic?
The article says localized, hopefully it’s correct.
It’s like when they asked the guy who was going in for surgery about the anesthesia.
He said,
“forget that local anesthesia. Get me some of that imported stuff !!”
Wow that’s crazy. I doubt a doctor would lie about a surgery to help the team tank but I’m shocked they didn’t see this in his pre-trade exam. Or maybe they knew but didn’t think it would matter afterwards???
I wouldn’t call it lying, but there’s probably something on all our bodies that a little surgery could fix and correct.
You are correct and as a jazz fan this is disgusting and disrespectful to the NBA. This was no longer a tanking team. They found out that the team they have would have push for a play in spot and they would have lost their pic. They’ve pretty much won every game for the last five or six games, losing three of them on purpose. And now they have some BS surgery to keep Jackson out. The NBA will destroy itself and kill viewers ship if the NBA is not correct this. This has gotten way out of hand
Yes they’ve been blatantly losing games on purpose but like knicksfancavsfan said I doubt a doctor would lie about him needing a surgery. The doctor wouldn’t just be lying to the league. He’d also have to be lying to Jackson as I highly doubt he’d want an unneeded surgery on his knee and possible radiation. He’d be breaking the The Hippocratic Oath.
This also can be serious as it can cause bone erosion and joint damage if left untreated. There’s a ton of other ailments that don’t involve surgery that can cause an athlete to miss games.
I just reached out to one of my head surgeon doctor friends and he said that where this could be a legit procedure. The recovery timeline is not as long as they’re putting out to be and he could do this in the off-season as well and be out for a month and a half. So two things can be true. You’re correct. Maybe he really does need it but it also is a tank job by getting it done right now or by saying you’re out for the entire season
It’s far more likely that this is an injury that a) he could play through without making the issue worse, b) he was originally going to have addressed in the offseason anyway. The timing is too coincidental to think otherwise.
From the Jazz’s perspective, it’s an easy win. Not lying, was probably going to get done anyway, and the league can’t call BS on it even though we all know he would not be getting this done now if the team had any desire to compete.
If they get a top 4 pick you will forgive and forget.
I’m glad you feel this way. Far too often I see fans of tanking teams hostile to such feelings solely because it happens to benefit their team. You can feel that tanking is the prudent course of action to take while also being disgusted with the practice and realizing the NBA needs to weed out this garbage.
Yup. Goal is to be better, jazz will be. Nobody runs to sign with Utah and they know that. Draft and make wise trades are how they build. They have done a better job at that than kings,hawks,magic,bulls,suns,nets,hornets,clippers.
Another team trying to tank. It’s a competition. i don’t follow college basketball that much. who will be the number one pick everybody wants? Does this class have a Flagg?
Perhaps 3 Flaggs. It’s one of the better drafts in a while.
No, it’s not. Have you watched college basketball? It’s a bunch of potential All-Stars and low-level NBA players. What guy jumps off the table and is such a great player that you got a tank for? I understand. Indiana, Washington, Brooklyn, Sacramento,
Indiana
Your best player is out and the team is constructed around him. So they added pieces that when he comes back and adding another young piece pretty much prolonged the team. Without haile This team is not a playoff team and they over exceeded last year expectations anyway so I have no problem with them tanking out this year.
Brooklyn
Pretty much doesn’t have anything and they’re a bottom team anyway. So play the young guys till you get a top pick or a top three pick which they should get this year and then they can start moving pieces around that.
Washington
Was in the same situation and so they traded for Trae, young and AD. Ad was already hurt and the wizards two other young players in draft player from last year was already hurt for the season. So to me there’s no problem with them throwing the young guys out and then competing with their players that they just traded for. I do believe that they should throw AD and Trey young out there at the end of March so the team can see what they have and what they’re going to develop around them
Sacramento
They just needed to tear the team down completely 100%. . With the players they have, they’re not good enough to win. They have a bad cap sheet and pretty much are at the level zero of tanking so there’s no problem with that team taking.
Memphis
They just started their reconstruction by trading all their players. So it’s okay for them to throw young guys out there in tank. They’re obviously trying to move off marantz
Any other team should not be tanking. They should be playing now. Teams will miss the playoffs naturally and then you may jump up in the draft and be able to get a player. But to try to tank the season away is ridiculous. Especially for the Utah Jazz when your pic is top 8 guaranteed and you have a team that is going to be pushing for the playoffs. A. Hypothetical 19-year-old player, especially if they don’t get a top three pick is not going to help his team out when they have their starting lineup already figured out.
I’m sorry I meant to say low level all NBA players. Not low level players
Which drafts of recent vintage would you say were better?
It’s not about what drafts are better. It’s just that this isn’t 97, 2003 or 1987 or 2009. All these players coming into the draft are 19 years old, so we don’t know what any of these players are to be honest. Yes, I do see All Stars is an All-Star word completely tanking and destroying the NBA product for in my eyes probably not. I don’t see one generational player 03 had multiple generational players and Bron, Melo. And then a bunch of players you felt were going to be All-Stars and Wade. Chris Bosh and then a bunch of really great starters and role players that lasted very long in the league.
But you’re asking where’s the wimby at in this draft? Where’s the Luca in this draft?. There seems to be none of those players that we can speak of in this draft. And that’s not to say that guys won’t be All-Stars are all NBA players. What I’m saying is for the Utah Jazz. It’s not worth taking a playoff team to pick one of these players for a hypothetical and then you still have to win the draft. I guess you can say AJ but you already got Ace Bailey so can you say one is better than the other? I mean not really. They pretty much seem to have the same upside. If you’re tanking for Patterson you already had KG and you can’t play both of them in the back court. One is already proven. They can play in the NBA and the other one has to show it. If you’re talking boozer how is he going to play in the front Court when you already have Lori JJ and you’re going to resign? Kessler so where is he going to develop at? So by questioning you is, it’s not really a question of the players. I just don’t see any generational talent. That doesn’t mean they won’t be all NBA players. It just means that teams that are in the middle like the Jazz to completely destroy your whole franchise. What do you get out of that.
Now the teams that I named absolutely go ahead and take and do what you got to do to try to see if you can get one of those top three players and turn them into an all NBA player and start your franchise off right
Before the Jackson surgery, I didn’t like the Jazz tanking this season. Now that he’s out, they might as well lean into it, they aren’t going to make much noise without Jackson anyway.
A top 8 pick helps any team. If they get lucky and land No. 1, then as much as I like Bailey, he’s going to the bench because Darryn Peterson is simply better right now. As for Dybansta, Markkanen is 28 and there’s no rush. Dybansta can develop off the bench and eventually replace Markkanen in a few seasons.
Anything lower than that, they should trade the pick (Boozer included) for multiple future firsts. With the second apron, teams need mid to low level firsts to replace contributors with cost controlled players once current rostered players get too expensive to keep. Just as important, it also takes a lottery pick out of OKC’s hands.
You’re right. Grizz can grow, hawks,wiz can do. Kings are just trash. No matter how many good players they assemble they can’t win. I watched them with a lineup of Cousins,Caron Butler,Daren Collison,Rondo,Rudy Gay and they were still a laughing stock.
@buying
You said a lot to not really say anything. The point was, at they lying about the severity of the injury just to insure they get a high draft slot? looks likely
Up to 10 Flaggs honestly. Lots of instant all-stars in this draft. The next 2 drafts are like this too. This is why lots of teams want to tank.
Breaking: Laurie Markannen out for the season with Traumatic Anterior Nordic Kneeopathy (T.A.N.K.). Jazz can’t catch a break.
EXCELLENT
^ post of the month
LMAO!!
If this is in wrong spot. It can cause pain and liquid deposits, swelling. So he should get it done. You wonder why Grizz never cared. Or why he didn’t do it after season. Clearly a tank job.
Adam Silver is being publicly walked on a leash by the owners of terrible teams and is still prioritizing an entirely new league on a different continent over fixing the glaring issues the current league he is tasked with running.
Yes I said this. The players did it first as in LeBron and KD, teaming up. The other players as in embiid and kawhi Leonard sitting out and missing games. And players who are 24 and 25 and 26 years old resting in games. And now the owners with all the tanking in cutting players it’s crazy. I do like the second apron and I wish the NBA instead of doing a 2nd apron went to a hard cap obviously grandfathering some players salarys. But I just don’t see how the NBA continuously gets better from here. You got to get a hold on the tanking and you got to get on the hold on the player sitting and not playing. If you do that mixed in with the second apron or a hard cap, you’ll have a better product cuz players will be playing and the competitive nature will come back
I view owners of franchises trying to lose games on purpose as almost the exact opposite of players teaming up together in order to win more games. I can see how those are two sides of the same coin though.
The real problem for the NBA is that in order to fix the laundry list of problems impacting the league, the NBA as a whole would have to lose out on quite a bit of money (relative btw). And that’s top down. From team revenue to a player’s game check. All of it gets impacted negatively from a monetary standpoint. If you thought it was hard to get a player to sign for less the max, try signing a billionaire lmao.
The season needs to be shorter, being a bad team for multiple seasons needs to be a poor strategy for rebuilding teams, the all star break needs to either have actual consequences or just be moved to the end of the season like the pro bowl, and most importantly
the NBA needs to be a higher priority than whatever pocket lining scheme they have set up across the pond. Silver is smart enough to know what needs to be fixed. He just thinks nobody else can see it too. Probably because the bot comments on Tik Tok don’t ever criticize a Wemby block.
@eashington
Let’s be honest here. Tanking generally works and for since teams, getting top draft positions is the icky way for them to get game changing talents. If the Washington Wiz tried to be competitive devoid of any top 20 stars, what’s their ceiling? 45 wins? A pick in the draft around 20? The truck is to tank and rebuild and then augment thru trades and FA role players
@knicks
I guess this would just be a difference in what you consider to be a “long time”. I personally would consider 5 losing seasons in a row as a long time. I’m sure people will think that’s a little harsh so I’ll be willing to go to 7 consecutive losing seasons.
If after 7 straight losing seasons, you have not acquired enough talent to even TRY to win games, then you should not be allowed to represent the NBA. Full stop. It’s an embarrassment to every other team that sells tickets. You are telling NBA fans in other cities NOT to come to the arena when you’re there because they won’t be watching actual basketball.
I’m really not trying to be overly harsh or unfair but what the Jazz have done over the last few seasons is despicable from a competitive and moral stand point. And instead of being snuffed out, it’s being spread around the league. So here are 2 solutions I saw (oddly enough on Simmon’s podcast who I think is a doofus).
A.) If you get a top 4 pick in draft, you are ineligible for a top 4 slot in the following draft. Not ineligible from the lottery, just from those 1-4 picks. I think personally top 3 seems fair but the way the odds work I think it has to be top 4.
B.) If you are in the lottery, your pick in the next draft has to be 3 or more spots lower than the previous years. If you won the lottery, the very best you could do next season is 1.04.
I can admit that the heart of these solutions may be a bit too authoritarian for my personal dogma, but the ends seem justify the means when there is this much money being generated and such little concern over the “fair competition” that generates it.
I agree on everything but the teaming up in your prime.
For the owner. This is unacceptable. You shouldn’t even be able to get a top 3 pick two years in a row. A team like utah should not be tanking. They are good enough to compete for a playoff spot. I agree the NBA has too do something or it will lose viewers. It’s said we have to reduce games. I agree it will hurt the players and the owners but you have to do something to fix the problem.
I also wish they went to a hard cap. I think in a few years the 2nd apron will have a full effects once they’ll bloated salaries around. But to stop the owner from being cheap all you have to do is just have a hard cap. Hard caping players are paid by games. As MJ said You can load, manage and practice. There’s not one study that says skipping games and warns the health of players
@buying
Can we stop this non-sense of LBJ “teaming up”? It’s called free agency and he earned the right to do so. Every single player that changes team via free agency does so for one of 3 reasons. a) They want more money b) they want to pay for a contender. What’s on a contender? Usually other good players c) There old team doesn’t want them out can’t afford them and they want to prolong their careers. In every situation, with a slight exception to the Heat, he joined a team that was in the lottery the year he joined them and had been in the lottery for several years and still losing. But he never demanded a trade, played out every contract and made render team hundreds of millions. Chill with the non-sense. It’s came free agency and he wasn’t the first one to do it. And he could’ve joined much better situations if he wanted to really do it the “easy way”.
Bro I get it. Your a LBJ fan. Players are a lot of team up as much as they want. Have no issue that. However, your legacy is going to take the hit just like LeBron’s has and teamed up with another guy who is a top three and won a championship already at the end of the day. You’ll never catch Jordan to me. He’s not even better than Kobe and those are facts. But thats not the point of this. LeBron has spit on the game on his way out the door and some of the problem are owners but he is the head of the snake with spoiled players mentality
i am impressed by the jazz. this is creative
GSW had a huge offer for JJJ on the table…bullet dodged!!!
Reports say that this injury was found during his physical examination after the trade and that he played low minutes due to medical concerns. Interesting timing though.
I would respond to Davey but he’s blocked me. It’s not a huge Dodge. This is an injury and a surgery he could have had in the offseason and only takes about a month and a half to heal and will not affect his game much at all. They are doing this because they just can’t play him 22 minutes and sit him so they can try to tank out the rest of the season for the pic
Parallel situation with the Pacers and Zubac. He got shut down so the Pacers can keep sucking in hopes of keeping their pick. Lol. At least the fans in these two teams aren’t paying that much to see hot garbage.
I hope the Pacers are not doing that. They should not be rewarded with the top 4 pick for this pathetic showing
NBA needs to address this somehow. By about mid season, a quarter of teams are tanking which makes watching ANY game they’re involved in a sorry experience. At least 6 of the 14 games last night I had no interest in watching because there wouldn’t even be genuine competition for the win
Tanking so they dont give OKC their pick. Lame.
Does anybody other than an OKC fan really want to see the Thunder get another lottery pick?
Since this is a clear tanking maybe league will hand okc some of the 2nds. The trade was pretty dumb because OKC gets nothing after this year. If you want to reduce tanking make the picks always convey and have some consequences. Basically made Utah suck from Favors on which they may already have planned just to keep picks.
OKC tanked to get said pick, lame
The 3 best teams in the league were just recently tankers in OKC SAS and DET
How dare Silver stick his nose in now
Whats done is done and its Adams fault not ANY handpicked team
You’re changing the narrative. Nobody saying teams can’t tank. The Jazz and hornets should not be tanking. They went through a 4-year tank and every team you just named at 4 years were moving pieces to get better. So was, sac, Memphis, Brooklyn and Indiana ( for just this year) All teams should be tanking. Thing about tanking is when you’re at your tank process, your team literally isn’t good enough to win games. So the only tank in their doing is against these other little teams. They’re not good enough to be any other team.
The Jazz and the hornets are good enough to compete for a playoff spot. So to not play your players in a tank for extra picks is just bad on the NBA
Sure, but it’s still getting into semantics to an extent and the league isn’t going to punish one team but not others when they aren’t breaking any specific and clearly/narrowly defined rule. So even if we all realize that the Jazz are taking this disgrace further than some of the other teams, that’s not going to make a difference as far as the league is concerned.
The NBA just needs to solve this issue period. And even if they did try to punish the Jazz or any other team for tanking, whatever punishment they could deal out (and that the owners wouldn’t collectively balk at) would likely not be strong enough to deter tanking.
Tanking is a fairly easy issue to address in some form. It just comes down to whether the league has the stones to do more than make a smaller incremental change to the rules.
Hornets have had more lottery than all teams combined lol. Tanking is part of the game. Why do you care who does it. Its about drafting right and development. Thibs had one lottery pick in his six yrs in NY. Yet he turned Grimes, McBride, Quickley, Mitch, Randle, Obl, RJ into OG, Towns, Bridges. Signed Brunson as a FA. Yes drafting is best way to build a team. If you have right people.
it’s not the only way. Jokic was a 2nd rd pick. There is always talent outside the lottery. Just need talent to find talent. Where would Lakers be without West. Or the Warriors lol. You can’t simplify things just cause you don’t like it. Blame is the easy way out. Money isn’t an issue for people who have too much of it. And you can’t blame players for taking the money. That’s what it’s there for. These teams would spend more time on real talent evaluators. They would spend less time tanking. And more time building real teams.
You talk about OKC. Their best move wasn’t tanking. It was trading for SGA. It wasn’t drafting Chet. It was bringing in IHart that allowed Chet to grow. And protected him and their young talent.
link to nba.com
Since their inception the Hornets in 35 yrs. Have had 28 lottery picks to date. And will probably add another lottery pick in 2026 ….
Tanking hurts the overall product of the NBA. I’m a fan of the NBA. That’s why I said the hornets shouldn’t be tanking at all. The Utah situation is different from a lot of other teams where they are a legit 7-9 team and tanking for another lottery pick. It’s disgusting and disrespectful to the integrity of the game. I didn’t have a problem last year but they got there too pick and when you have to mess with line ups it means your better than your letting on
I agree with everything else you said. But as you see the hornets are a playoff team as well. So they do have talent
Hornets are not passing up a lottery pick this year. There are 14 teams in lottery. Right now Hornets are 12 th position. They will be in lottery again.
Tanking is part of competing in NBA. Some teams can only build that way. And every team is bad at some point. So you have no choice but to tank. Tanking all the time will eventually work against you. If you are a lottery team. Then all you have is playing for next year and the lottery.
They know with him and Lauri they are play in level and don’t want to screw it up.
Comical, and it will keep getting worse. Silver has blessed tanking for so long that he’s complicit in it. He presides over a league where the best rosters were built almost entirely on tanking that occurred during his tenure. As such, he has no credibility to do anything about tanking going forward, and the teams that are currently tanking know it.
UTH has been the most rhetorically aggressive tanker in recent years (vitrually thumbing their nose at Silver, clearly upset that the ping pong balls don’t seem to like them very much recently). But, in fairness, SAS, OKC, DET and HOU were at least as bold in their tanking, and did for at least as many years or more. They got theirs. Why would UTH, WSH and the rest tankers back off the practice, at least until they can say the same?
Think we can erase all other posts and just stick with this on for the thread
Nailed it
Certainly not a complete solution, but what if they got rid of protections on picks? It would remove the reason for this particular brand of tanking. They could also put a cap on the number of picks that a team can stockpile? Reduces the incentive for bad teams to become a dumping ground for bad contracts in exchange for picks. It’s not an easy problem to solve, but there are levers they can pull…
It literally got better though
Adam Silver should have to go and supervise this “surgery” to make sure it is legit. If not legit, the Jazz should lose their franchise to Seattle.
That seems like an overreaction lmao
When it’s the SPURS, THUNDER tanking, they call it proud franchises on the rebuild.
When it’s the NETS, WIZARDS. JAZZ, tanking, they call it poverty franchises on the mend.
OKC “Tank” time was still playing young guys. SGA played a bit and they rested him but they were able to develop Dort. They still have kenrich and Wiggins from the 2020-2022 period of tanking. They had players like Ty Jerome, Sev, Krejci, Tre Mann, Waters 3rd, Giddey are still in the league. They gave Poku and Bazely multiple times to show up but they are the only decent picks from them that were out for the year. Chet was their only top 3 pick. OKC only had 2 tanking years while others go 5+
Spurs fit in the 5 year range started ducking in 19-20 season. They got Wemby and still decided to suck a bit to get Castle and Harper as top 5 picks.
Different teams will have different set of circumstances, current lineup, etc when they tank ….. OKC saw a great window into contention post Big 3 – flipping for SGA as they were stockpiling picks.
Yes, their path to tanking ran concurrent with developing their young guys …… they picked the right lead star, had a homerun pick (JDub) and got cost-controlled FA’s ……. boom, everything went right last season and they’re setup to contend for a good while more.
SPURS were on a similar path post Kawhi.
On the opposite end, these poverty franchises like the NETS, WIZARDS, etc who haven’t won anything, missed on their FA signings, missed on their draft picks.
Now THIS is a tanking masterclass
if the league wanted to they could’ve fined them a FRP
And they told us this NBA players today can survive and be on top in the 80’s and 90’s era… NBA players today will be out for months with a toothache! lol
Ainge is a GM god if ethics aren’t your thing.