NBA: Ranking every team based off draft success over the last 20 years

15. Utah Jazz: 29.5 points 

• 2003: Mo Williams: 2 (1x all-star, double points for 2nd round pick)
• 2005: Deron Williams: 9 (3x all-star, 2x 2nd team)
• 2006: Paul Millsap: 8 (4x all-star, double points for 2nd round pick)
• 2010: Gordon Hayward: 1 (1x all-star)
• 2010: Derrick Favors: 0.5 (Joe Johnson rule)
• 2011: Enes Kanter: -1 (bust with 3rd overall pick)
  2013: Rudy Gobert: 9 (1x all-star, 1x 2nd team, 1x 3rd team, 1.5x multiplier for pick outside of lottery)
• 2017: Donovan Mitchell: 1 (1x all-star)

The Utah Jazz is another team that has won a sneaky amount of games since 2000, ranking 8th in the NBA during that time. They’ve never been down for too long, showing an impressive ability to re-load after losing Karl Malone in the early 2000s and again after losing Deron Williams in the early 2010s.

The most impressive part of their winning has been the way they’ve done it: zero big free agent signings and zero “generational” type players in the draft. And if you need any proof to validate their lack of free agents, look no further than the very real article titled: Is Bojan Bogdanovic the Biggest Free Agent Signing in Utah Jazz History?

They’ve built their success on drafting not superstars, but really good NBA players that can win a lot of games. It’s unlikely that they’ll ever win a championship in that market without drafting one of those “generational” players, but there’s a lot to be said for a team in the middle of Utah that has more wins this century than teams in markets like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. to name a few.