3. Utah Jazz
Last season: 48-34, 5th
Notable ins: Grayson Allen
Notable outs: Jonas Jerebko
After a slow start to the season, the Utah Jazz emerged last year as a legitimately elite team. They finished the season with the second-best defensive rating in the league, and were top five in net rating.
With basically no roster turnover, there shouldn’t be any reason for that to change next year. By opening the cheque book to re-sign Derrick Favors (two years, $36 million) and Dante Exum (three years, $33 million), Utah’s front office have shown that they trust this group to keep improving.
With strong centrepieces at each end of the court and good depth on the roster, it’s easy to see why. Rudy Gobert took another giant leap as a defender last season, as he won Defensive Player of the Year and led the Jazz’s resurgence after a 17-26 start to the season.
On the other end, Donovan Mitchell took an often-flagging offense and turned it into a respectable one. He led the team in scoring, took over in crunch time on multiple occasions and had some truly stunning performances in his rookie year.
Around those two pillars remain a good blend of role players, with Joe Ingles, Ricky Rubio, Jae Crowder and Favors all finding a niche in Quin Snyder’s system. New draft pick Grayson Allen could see early minutes as well, and his two-way play could help to replace what was lost in Rodney Hood’s mid-season trade.
With Mitchell as a developing star and Gobert as the defensive anchor, the Jazz have the makings of a top-four seed for years to come. While Mitchell may hit some roadblocks as teams start to gameplan against him, they shouldn’t be enough to knock his team off course.