If you had told me months ago that 11 games into this season, the Jazz were first in the Western Conference, I would’ve assumed that they kept Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.
Not the case! The Jazz’s group of veteran trade acquisitions and holdovers is raining fire on the NBA, with a 9-3 record and the third-best offensive rating. They were most recently seen hanging 139 points on the Lakers.
Utah’s success is a testament to the value of simply having good players. There are no liabilities or weaknesses in the Jazz’s rotation, and the group amplifies each other’s skills. When I previewed this team before the season, I acknowledged their depth of shooters, but expressed no hope that this team would be anything more than a tank squad facing a bevy of trades.
This team has proven me and everyone else wrong. They play a legitimately fun style of basketball, moving the ball with purpose and unselfishness. Their spacing is outstanding. They run an onslaught of pick-and-pops and pindowns to force rotations and create open shots:
Jordan Clarkson, long known as the ultimate microwave scorer, is passing the ball now. He’s averaging five assists after a career of averaging two. Mike Conley looks revitalized, driving and kicking and dictating in the pick-and-roll.
Everything is based on the Jazz’s ability to hit threes at any opportunity. They destroy lazy defensive teams (the Lakers) who don’t contest at the point of attack, and cause problems for teams in drop coverage:
They use their spacing to get their best players running downhill and attacking. Lauri Markkanen, legitimately in the early season All-Star discussion, is adept at punishing physical mismatches, and takes advantage of the room that the Jazz’s shooters afford him. Look at this spacing:
Help off shooters, and the Jazz will punish you. Rotate, and they’ll put the ball on the floor and pass it through you. In the play above, Colin Sexton screens for Markkanen to get him on the move with a smaller defender in the paint.
The spacing enhances their regular pick-and-roll, opening lobs to the roller with the corner shooter holding so much gravity:
The Jazz force matchup nightmares. Olynyk drags traditional centers out of the paint and through constant pick-and-pops. Put smaller defenders on him and you force them to play in unfamiliar drop coverage, like Troy Brown Jr. above. Anthony Davis, the nominal Laker five, is stuck on Markkanen in the corner.
Utah is getting good minutes from unlikely sources. Rookie Walker Kessler, acquired in the Gobert deal, is a solid traditional big who inhales offensive rebounds. Talen Horton-Tucker has been cooking lately with the bench. Ochai Agbaji, another rookie acquired in a summer blockbuster, defends hard at the point of attack.
Everything meshes better than anyone could’ve expected. The Jazz can play super small, with Sexton, Malik Beasley, Clarkson, and Conley, and switch everything on defense. They create size mismatches with Markkanen, Olynyk, and Kessler. Rudy Gay makes the Melo midrange shots.
Conley is a common denominator in their best lineups. He is a great table-setting point guard, keeping the offense flowing and hitting threes against timid defenders. He’s averaging a career high 7.5 assists and shooting 42 percent from three.
I don’t want to hear anything about Danny Ainge trade negotiations. This team deserves a chance to keep this up. Amid a series of bad NBA news, the Jazz are a beacon of light, with good vibes all around and a group that has embraced their underdog status. They may not sustain this rate of winning, but crazier things have happened.