In a season full of surprises, it’s hard to say the Utah Jazz are the biggest one. But they might be the most consequential.
We have the Knicks and the Bulls and the Suns playing basketball that comprehensively belies their bottom-feeding resumes. Yet, none of those teams are as substantial as Utah, so they’re smaller players in the NBA’s grand picture - which is, of course, winning championships.
At 12-4, the Jazz are a half game back of the Lakers for the Association's best record, and hold the tiebreaker. If the season ended today, which would be stupid, the Jazz would have homecourt versus 28 possible opponents. They’re currently on an 8-game winning streak, the longest of the season so far.
Being a surprise does not implicitly mean that the Jazz are playing above their heads. It doesn’t make them destined to fall back to earth.
When your team employs Rudy Gobert, you’re expected to be a defensive stalwart. That’s always been the calling card in Salt Lake City. And this year, the Jazz’s defensive rating is 6th in the NBA. That’s almost surprisingly low given their success, until you see that their offensive rating is 5th. The only teams with better combined rankings are the Lakers and the Bucks, who are known, consistent heavyweights and title contenders.
Stat pack:
The Jazz are 1st in rebounding percentage, meaning they win the rebounding battle more handily than any other team.
The Jazz are 2nd in three-point percentage (40.3), behind an unsustainable 42.3 Clippers mark.
The Jazz led the NBA in that category last season.
The Jazz are 5th in fouling.
The Jazz are 3rd in opposing effective field goal percentage.
The Jazz are 4th and 7th in EFG and true shooting percentage.
Donovan Mitchell, the Jazz’s leading scorer since he joined the team as a rookie, continues to get better every year. This year, he’s added a three ball. To a team that already had led the NBA. On 1.6 more attempts than his previous career high, he’s hitting a full 4% more than he ever has before, just under 41%. Naturally, he’s posting career-highs in EFG and TS%. That efficiency uptick can’t be understated in terms of team success when it’s coming from your primary scorer. He’s also averaging a career-high in assists.
Rudy Gobert, other best player on the team, hasn’t even hit his stride yet. The 2-time Defensive Player of the Year and 2017 blocks champion is averaging a career-high in blocks and rebounds, and a career-low in fouls. But he’s scoring his least points in four years because of a 15 point drop in free throw percentage. That’s from his career percentage (63% on 2300 attempts) so it’s virtually certainly a small sample size deviation.
Bojan Bogdanovic has yet to hit his stride as well. A 20-point per game scorer last season, Bojan is putting up just 13.5 this year with less rebounds and the same assists. He’s shooting 6% worse than his career-low from the field. And he’s still hitting 37.4% of his threes. He had season-ending surgery on his shooting wrist last May, begetting a recovery process that typically lasts four to six months. It shouldn’t be affecting him still, but it does give hope that he is just getting back into form.
Mike Conley rounds out the Big Four, as the senior of the group. One of the best players to never make an All-Star team, the Jazz traded for Conley before last season, when he was coming off of a 21.1 3.4 6.4 season on 44/36/85 shooting. The former All-Defense point guard never found a comfortable rhythm last year. He has leapt back to his Memphis Grizzlies form this year and looks like he’s here to stay. Players as good as Conley don’t just fall off a cliff. He’s leading Utah in assists and steals, while posting career highs in field goal percentage and three-point percentage (on career-high attempts). He leads the league in plus-minus by 31! He’s +188 this season, LeBron James is +157.
Quin Snyder has been and is an awesome coach. As we entrench nearer toward the pinnacle of the 3-and-D era, the Jazz are perhaps the premier microcosm. The best shooting team over the course of a season-plus and a tops defense every night are nearly impossible feats to combine. Snyder looks great because of the way his team plays, and his personnel looks great in part because they’re put in positions to succeed on both sides of the ball.
Supplementing the Big Four is tremendous depth and continuity. They’ve used the same starting lineup in all 16 games: Conley-Mitchell-Bogdanovic-Gobert and Royce O’Neale at the other forward spot. O’Neale is the team’s best perimeter defender, second-leading rebounder, and drilling 46.2% of his shots from beyond the arc.
Only one player on the Jazz averaging more than five minutes wasn’t on the team last year: Derrick Favors, who was on the Jazz from 2011-2019.
Jordan Clarkson is the odds-on favorite for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, putting up 17-4-2 with tremendous efficiency. Joe Ingles is as diverse a forward as it comes, and a perennial three-point leader. Favors is a top-notch backup rim protector. Georges Niang plays awesome defense and has yet to miss a game as well, going 16-16 and averaging 11 minutes.
Continuity is not a guarantee for success, but when a team is this talented it really makes a difference. That consistency helps win regular season games, and that comfort + trust helps win playoff games.
The Jazz were good last year, and lost nothing in the offseason. They were a single shot away from advancing past the Nuggets, who beat the Clippers and made it to the Conference Finals. None of their players are old enough to decline, and their best player is only 24 and in his fourth season. It defies no logic for them to have gotten better, and they aren’t winning in unsustainable ways. The rest of the West is facing the music.
Comments