The Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs have been two of the most pleasant surprises to start the 2022-23 NBA season. Perceived initially to be two of the worst teams in the league, they have surpassed expectations. The Jazz are a Western Conference-best 10-3 and while the Spurs are only 5-7, they play hard and share the ball well.

Despite hot starts from players like Lauri Markkanen, Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell and Jordan Clarkson, not everyone is a believer. An anonymous NBA executive told Sam Amick of The Athletic that teams will eventually start tanking hard for the 2023 NBA Draft and that the strong starts from the Jazz and Spurs won't last.

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“They’re all going to self correct,” the executive said of the Jazz and Spurs, via The Athletic, before giving an opinion regarding who the league's biggest tankers will be. “Detroit, I just don’t think is very good. They want to win, but I just don’t think they’re very good. And I think Indiana will be there at the end, for sure. Houston will be there. That’s five teams. Now I think Utah will make trades to make themselves bad, so that’s six. And then the question is Oklahoma City. I mean, how far do they want to push this? And then we’ll have one or two teams that are down there that’s unexpected, like the Lakers or the Kings.”

The Jazz and Spurs still have a lot of games left to prove they can be competitive. Plenty of teams have started very well only to go on losing skids that give them losing records by the end of the season. Utah and San Antonio will look to prove that they are not one of those lowly squads.