Important Hornets information is music to Jazz’s ears

After a much better – not to mention more watchable – season, it has now been confirmed that the Utah Jazz will embrace the tank. They have quite a bit of ground to make up for if that’s the case — and their decisions since this came to light have basically confirmed that’s the case — but the Charlotte Hornets don’t want to stand in their way.

NBA insider Jake Fischer revealed that the Hornets hope to play well enough to reach the play-in, indicating that they plan to be better than the Jazz this season.

“Sources say the Hornets are also open for business to some extent, but that could only mean acquiring veteran guard Collin Sexton, while Charlotte — with the league’s longest playoff drought at nine seasons — clings to the hope that it can still be a Play-In team,” Fischer wrote.

The Hornets are currently 10-20, a half-game worse than the Jazz, although the Jazz’s recent losses would mean they are quite within range to usurp the Hornets for the seventh-best odds for the No. 1 pick in the draft.

Utah wouldn’t be completely out of the woods hoping not to give up their pick to Oklahoma City, but every NBA fan knows that, in a nutshell, seven is better than eight when it comes to fueling.

Several teams that are currently worse than the Jazz want to get better

Charlotte hoping to get into the play-in means they want to be better than the Jazz when the season comes to an end. That’s one less team to worry about in the tank game. Things get better for Utah’s tank hopes that some of the other teams ahead of them in the tank game also want to be better than their current position.

Teams like the Pelicans and Clippers have no reason to tank because their picks are going elsewhere this season. If a team like the Jazz throws away their season, it’s good news for them because it puts them one step closer to avoiding the lottery. Whether they will succeed remains to be determined, but Utah’s tank should help.

It’s one of the strangest cases of “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” that is certainly feasible. The Jazz do the Clippers/Pelicans a favor and vice versa when they tank. And don’t look now, but Thr Nets is suddenly playing much better basketball after a terrible start in October/November.

Currently, the Jazz are playing with fire with the eighth-best lottery odds, but in a month it could be a whole new game. The Hornets are in a position to give the Jazz better odds before the calendar year is out, and the tank could get better from here if all goes well.