Memphis star Jaren Jackson Jr. warns a rising Utah core that sustained success demands an even-keeled temperament as the pressure of expectations replaces the freedom of rebuilding.
The dangerous part of a rebuild can arrive when people stop treating you like one.
The Utah Jazz have spent years trying to reach that point. Jaren Jackson Jr. has already lived through what comes after it — when young talent turns into wins, wins turn into expectations … and every result starts carrying a little more weight.
Jackson entered the league with Memphis in 2018 at the tail end of the Mike Conley-Marc Gasol era. By the following summer, both were gone and the Grizzlies were building around a younger core.
Then the climb started.
During Jazz media day, Jackson was asked what Utah needs to handle if it wants to make a similar jump. His answer started with competitiveness, then drifted toward something he learned only after Memphis started winning.
“You just gotta be competitive. You have to be ultra-competitive all the time,” Jackson said. “You can't really be too high or too low. That's like the main thing; just keeping it even-keeled.”
Memphis found out how hard that can become.
The Grizzlies returned to the playoffs in 2021, reached the second round the following year and made the postseason again in 2023 and 2025. Success changed the standard around them. A young team once praised for arriving ahead of schedule eventually had to deal with what happened when simply arriving was no longer enough.
Jackson remembers that shift.
“I got a lot of lessons with that, for sure,” Jackson said. “Because I felt like, before, we had a lot of success [in Memphis] when I was younger, and I don't think our expectations were that high, and when the expectations were high, and I think when we were meeting them at times, we probably should've celebrated them more.”
Utah could be approaching its own version of that transition.
Darryn Peterson is beginning his rookie season. Keyonte George is entering Year 4. Ace Bailey is still 20. Jackson and Lauri Markkanen give that young core two established veterans with All-Star experience.
If the wins start stacking up … the calendar changes.
A good week becomes something to protect. A rough stretch becomes harder to shrug off. February games carry meaning they rarely had during the lowest points of Utah's rebuild … and suddenly, staying level becomes more than a media-day talking point.
“So, it's finding a balance of celebrating, but also keeping it together when it gets hard; staying in the same temperament all the time,” Jackson said.
Utah has spent years waiting for expectations to return.
And once they do … Jackson's experience in Memphis is a reminder that reaching that point is only the beginning.
