Jazz's Random Team Identity is Confounding Opponents
The Utah Jazz came into the 2022-23 season composed of random players who arrived mostly in salary-match deals for Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. Udoka Azubuike is the sole homegrown talent drafted by the organization, and even then, he looks like he is on his way out after the Jazz rejected his extension.
The rest of the roster represents players who were draft-day trades or cast-offs from around the league. It's a team replete with players ready to prove their worth, both contractually and as individuals.
The Jazz don’t operate as a team of individuals, though. Working together, the Jazz have a league-best in assists, which includes career highs in that category for each player in the starting five.
Fans and media pundits alike were writing the Jazz off as the worst team going into the year and easily a favorite for a top draft pick. The Jazz have obliterated those expectations as the No. 1 team in the Western Conference standings after 11 games.
The expectations are still that this team will come crashing back to earth after this stratospheric start, but the Jazz continue to defy those skeptics as well. One thing is certain after 11 games: this underdog team is developing the perfect identity for a bunch of undervalued players.
The Jazz seem to work hard on every possession defensively and run an egalitarian offense that gives any one player in the rotation the opportunity to have a big scoring night.
The Jazz also feature one of the deepest benches in the league, and head coach Will Hardy uses this advantage to run teams to exhaustion, as we saw against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night. The Lakers were playing well in a competitive first half, but Utah's depth provided them with energy for a full 48 minutes, which was too much for the Lakers in the end.
Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, and Mike Conley have been the clear best players on the 9-3 Jazz, but there has been no clear No. 1 option. Each night it seems there is a next-man-up mentality, and it's hard for opposing teams to game-plan for that level of random offensive prowess.
Follow Andrew on Twitter @ArembaczNBA.
