The season has mercifully come to a close and the jazz can finally get out of the doldrums via the draft and the lottery at long last.

It's almost time to start winning again.

This is Locked on Jazz.

You are Locked on Jazz, your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz.

Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day.

What's up, Jazz Nation? Welcome into Locked-on Jazz. My name's Lee-Tolene.

Excited to be filling in for David Locke on Locked-on Jazz. Can't wait to talk to you guys today. Today's show is brought to you by Fanduel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $250 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. So head to fanduel.com to get started. And on today's show, we'll discuss how

the lottery decides a franchise's fate. In this case, of course, the Utah Jazz's fate and how

different teams have fared when having similar odds to the Jazz at the fourth and or fifth

spot in terms of the lottery rankings. And of course, we're going to discuss last year's

fifth pick. That's Ace Bailey.

And Ace, I thought, showed tremendous strides.

So let's dive right in.

The Jazz finished with a 22 and 60 record and put themselves in a good position, not perfect, but a very good position to help find a big time talent to help them win.

And at long, long last, we're talking about winning again.

I've done this show filling in for the last three years. And at every stage, I've talked to you about finding a franchise altering talent through the draft and the jazz have to do so yet again.

But this is the last year in which the jazz have to do so. The lottery decides our fate. And it's not that the

Jazz can't make the playoffs without a good pick or without a pick. It's that the Jazz's true

contention hinges on hitting a home run and finding a franchise altering talent because all the

best teams in the NBA have that. So let's talk about the teams that in recent history have followed this mold and the success

that they're having, the pistons, the spurs.

What's the common thread?

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