Tonight the Utah Jazz will welcome the Toronto Raptors to Salt Lake City in the second game of a five-game homestand.

For these two teams, this season has not gone exactly how many predicted heading into the season.

For the Jazz

Many expected them to be in tight competition for the worst record in the NBA. Instead, the Jazz have performed much better than anticipated revealing some great building blocks for the future as part of the Jazz’s ultimate rebuilding plans.

They are currently very much a part of the wild wild west and its crazy conference standings. They currently sit in the 11th slot in the West but are only 4 games out of 4th in the West while simultaneously being one loss away from falling even further down and landing in the 12th spot.

For the Raptors

On the other hand, they were expected to be better than they have been. They have taken a step back from last season despite a fantastic season from Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes entering his second season. As it currently stands, they would not even make the play-in tournament sitting at a disappointing 17-23 on the season.

Due to this season’s results, both teams have been frequently brought up as the trade deadline nears with rumors swirling. Including tonight’s game the Jazz only have 4 more games before the trade deadline.

This means there is a very real chance that tonight’s game is one of the last times that these two teams play as currently constructed as it feels like a trade could be announced for either team at any given moment.

In fact, just today another rumor popped up discussing the Knicks considering trading 3 first-round picks for OG Anunoby after they missed out on Mitchell during the offseason.

It seems we are right on the edge of big news for each of these teams, but for now, we will all just enjoy watching both teams play each other as currently constructed.