The Jazz Are Off to a Surprising Start
Utah’s fourth-quarter luck ran out Monday night during a loss to the lowly, bickering Rockets.
But I thought it’d be worth it to spotlight the Jazz, who have no scheduled national TV games this season after having dealt away Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert to kickstart a rebuild.
Simply put: Utah has been unexpectedly fun thus far. Many of us, myself included, saw the Jazz shipping out their stars and immediately figured the losses would pile up like crazy. (And they probably will at some point.) At the same time, though, this isn’t necessarily a young team.
Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson comprise the starting backcourt. Jarred Vanderbilt, Lauri Markkanen and Kelly Olynyk make up the starting frontcourt. Malik Beasley, Collin Sexton, Talen Horton-Tucker and Rudy Gay are among the biggest minute-getters off the bench.
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At times, you see why some fans and analysts alike were blown away by how much Minnesota gave up to get Gobert, as the hard-nosed Vanderbilt and Beasley are solid veterans who would benefit most teams. (In addition to those two and the never-ending list of picks, Utah also got Beverley for Gobert before trading the guard to the Lakers for Horton-Tucker.) You also can see why Danny Ainge was seeking to trade away other pieces—and probably still will seek to trade some pieces—as the Jazz still have enough to win with, even after dealing away four starters.
Utah has been good in a number of categories since play opened last week. Second in offensive rebound rate. Third at forcing turnovers on defense. Fifth in assist percentage. Seventh in three-pointers made, and 11th in three-point percentage, all while holding opponents to the fourth-lowest three-point percentage.
The 25-year-old Markkanen has led Utah in scoring at 21.5 points per night, and his activity has been noteworthy. At 24%, the 7-foot forward hasn’t shot it well from deep. But he’s repeatedly found crevices in the defense and hurt teams with backcuts left and right, particularly when Clarkson’s running the offense and looking for dump-off passes to make. (As a starter, and with Conley aging, Clarkson has had the ball in his hands more than ever. He’s logging the highest assist percentage of his career while also holding the highest turnover rate of his career.)
The bench unit has been highly entertaining at times, even prompting a brief, if-you-squint-your-eyes-real-hard comparison made by the Jazz broadcast crew about Sexton and rookie big man Walker Kessler having some of the same traits that Mitchell and Gobert had.
It’s easy to see the team’s biggest flaw: Opponents are having their way with the Jazz at the rim and on the defensive glass. (Shockingly, for all the things Olynyk can do, he isn’t exactly Gobert in terms of rim protection.) Utah is giving up a league-high 62 points per game at the cup to this point and ranks second-to-last in defensive rebound percentage. Those struggles, combined with the fact that teams will surely shoot better than 29.9% from three against the Jazz going forward, give reason to think that results will go the other way in the coming weeks.
Still, no one—not even the Jazz—was expecting a 3–0 start from the Jazz. And it was certainly fun to watch, given what the expectations were.
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