A few days ago, the Utah Jazz were in position to advance in the second round of the NBA Playoffs as they held a 3-1 lead in the first round against the Denver Nuggets.

Fast forward to Wednesday morning,  and Utah became the 12^th team in NBA history to blow a 3-1 lead in a series after Denver outlasted them in a tightly contested game seven, 80-78.

This kind of loss will surely result into changes on the team. The dilemma that the Jazz has to deal with now is one question: what now?

In the last three years, the Jazz have reached the postseason, even reaching the second round during the 2018 playoffs despite having a rookie Donovan Mitchell as “the guy” for the team.

So, a total rebuild doesn’t make any sense since they’ve proven that they can be at the very least be a playoff team. However, it is elevating into a championship contender that Utah is having a hard time with.

At the beginning of the season, the Jazz tried to elevate to that level by making a huge improvement in their roster by replacing Ricky Rubio with underrated veteran floor general, Mike Conley.

“Improvement” was their goal but that didn’t really workout for Utah.

Conley had one of his worse performances this season, only putting up 14.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists in 40.9 percent shooting in the field during the regular season.

It’s fair to note that Conley managed to somehow redeem himself in the five games that he played in the playoffs as he averaged 19.8 points, 5.2 assists on 48.4 shooting in the field and 52.9 percent shooting from the three-point line.

But despite his stellar play in the playoffs, Conley, who has a contract worth $152,605,576 for five years, didn’t really live up to the contract he was given and didn’t elevate the Jazz enough.

Utah has the option for Early Termination of Conley’s contract. If you ask me, Conley is 32-years-old, he already failed to improve your team, if a younger, better point guard is available then they should grab the chance to replace him.

With the young core duo of Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, adding another young experienced player wouldn’t be a bad decision. Maybe trading for a Bradley Beal could be possibility since the Washington Wizards may look at moving him as they continue to struggle.

An option that would be a big risk for Utah would be trading Gobert for a top 3 pick. This year’s draft has some talented young guns that could potentially be a culture changer. I’ve already said in the past that trading the French big-man to the Golden State Warriors for Andrew Wiggins or Draymond Green along with the second overall pick won’t be a bad deal since the Jazz would still be a playoff contender and they’d get a chance to take a LaMelo Ball or a James Wiseman or maybe Anthony Edwards (if he’s not taken first overall).

Three young guns that can immediately make a positive impact on the team and set their future in the right course.

Of course, that would be a big risk but as they say, high risk, high reward.

Utah still have all the tools they need to continue being a playoff team for the next decade but changes are needed to be made in order to reach the next level, that’s why it wouldn’t really be a surprise to see some changes before next season.