With the Utah Jazz slated to be on the clock at fifth-overall during this June’s 2025 NBA Draft, it now marks the team’s fifth top-five selection set to take place in their 50-plus year history–– a rare place to be for a relatively successful franchise since being established.
Therefore, that leaves a short, yet intriguing list as to who has previously held the title of a top-five pick throughout the Jazz’s history. One of which was the Rookie of the Year in their class, one was an All-Star, a couple of others… not so much. Perhaps it’s a cautionary tale as to how this year’s first-rounder may pan out at the top of the board, and a sign for the unpredictability that comes with any NBA draft.
Here’s the four previous players in Utah Jazz history to have been taken within the top five:
The Jazz’s most recent top five pick, Dante Exum, isn’t quite one that jumps off the page. He had four seasons stationed in Utah after being selected as a top-rated guard prospect out of Australia, yet failed to average over 10 points per game during his 215 games with the franchise.
During his tenure in Utah, Exum averaged 5.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 2.2 points on 40.1% shooting from the field. Part of his lapses with the Jazz can be attributed to the injury concerns he faced during the latter end of his time with the team, while he also never quite reached the advertised ceiling he held as a top five pick off the board.
Though, since leaving Utah, while Exum’s bounced around a bit, he’s now found a new home with the Dallas Mavericks, and even established himself as a solid role player and one of the better perimeter defenders on their roster.
He’s now known as Enes Freedom, but the former Jazz center once known as Enes Kanter, was Utah’s third-overall pick in a largely historic 2011 NBA Draft–– a class that included All-Stars like Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, and Isaiah Thomas.
For Kanter though, he never quite reached those peaks throughout his 11-year career. In all, he played 265 total games for the Jazz to average 9.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 0.5 assists on 50.1% shooting from the field. He was eventually traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder during the 2015 trade deadline, ending his tenure after four seasons.
With OKC, he did manage to find his way into some Sixth Man of the Year discussions–– placing third in voting during the 2016 season–– but still a bit off the mark from some of the peers in his draft class to make this one of the best batch of prospects in recent NBA history.
Perhaps the best top five draft pick in Jazz history, Williams was nothing short of a star during his time with the Jazz in the 2000s.
At his peak, Williams was in the discussion as being one of the best point guards in the NBA. During his time Utah, he was there from 2005 up until the 2011 trade deadline to secure two All-Star nods, two All-NBA selections, and even made his way into the top ten of the MVP discussion in 2010.
Williams was also a part of some high-end Jazz playoff runs during his time in Utah as well, suiting up for four years of postseason action worth 44 games to average 21.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 9.6 assists, with the best run obviously coming during the team’s 2007 Western Conference Finals run.
The goal is to see the Jazz’s top-five pick to end up with a ceiling as high as this one’s was. That’s much easier said than done.
While the Jazz technically did select Dominique Wilkins within the top five of the 1982 draft, it was’nt before he was quickly traded to the Atlanta Hawks in a package headlined by the name “John Drew,” making that deal one of the worst throughout NBA history. In this list, that pick doesn’t count.
However, the Jazz did have one top five pick that actually played for the team during the 1980s, that being Darrell Griffith as the franchise’s highest selection in franchise history at number-two overall.
Griffith was a college basketball star for the University of Louisville–– leading the program to its first-ever National Championship in 1980 months ahead of his selection to Utah. Once arriving to the Jazz, he was tasked with being the franchise’s next star following their relocation from Utah and take the torch from Pete Maravich, and with his 1981 Rookie of the Year award, he did exactly that.
He went on to play ten total seasons in Utah as a strong runningmate to Adrian Dantley, averaging 16.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 765 games, even participating in a pair of dunk contests across the way as one of the NBA’s most innovative dunking pioneers.
Eventually, Griffith’s career would be derailed due to lower-body injuries, but not before becoming one of the Jazz’s early fan favorites during their initial years in Salt Lake City.
