The Utah Jazz is in the midst of a basketball renaissance

The Utah Jazz is in the midst of a renaissance

There’s been no guarantee that continuity will be achieved for every NBA team during this year’s full calendar season. Due in large part to playing a professional contact sport during a pandemic, an NBA locker. room leaves themselves vulnerable to future DNPs or even worse a COVID-19 spread amongst their players.

That troubling proposition contains an undeniable reality of missed games and micromanaged practice times that center around player safety at the expense of team chemistry.

It’s no surprise that the top teams in the Eastern and Western Conference have achieved success by surviving various COVID-19 chronicles along with not succumbing to more natural basketball injuries. Outside of the East-leading Philadelphia 76ers being without a few key players due to health and safety protocols, each conference’s top two teams have made it through the season unscathed (*crosses fingers*) thus far.

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As Luka Doncic ominously predicted before the season’s start, such a successful title run could genuinely depend on “which team is not going to have COVID-19 positive people.”

At the moment, the Western Conference-leading Utah Jazz is an NBA-best 15-4 this season riding behind their elite defense and surprisingly proficient 3-point shooting that ranks amongst the league’s best.

When the Jazz signed off on delving their next five years into their impactful guard and center duo known as Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, it was with the optimistic expectation they’d compete in the loaded West for years to come. Right now, they’ve done more than compete as of late tallying 11-straight wins behind a starting 5 that’s played in 17 of their first 18 games together.

Donovan Mitchell missed his first game of the season a few nights ago because of concussion-like systems, and the team played well yet again without his normal point output. Rudy Gobert nearly closed in on a 30/20 game as he finished with 29 points and 20 rebounds to lead the Jazz to a double-digit victory against the Dallas Mavericks. And while Gobert, Joe Ingles, and Mike Conley each served up double-digit scoring outputs as the team’s starting players, it was Jordan Clarkson who led the Jazz in scoring with 31 points off the bench on 11-21 shooting.

Utah is in a unique place where the team has tied most of its future around its foundational pieces and funded the rest of its economy around role players that are a bit past their prime or overachieving within it. Gobert makes the most money on the team with a supermax contract extension and has put up his typical career numbers so far this season. He’ll probably never be the 20-point, 10-rebound interior centerpiece that so many other offensively superior big men are throughout the league.

Yet, he anchors the No. 1 rebounding team in the league by dominating the boards and protecting the rim with reckless abandon. However, what has elevated the team into being one of the NBA’s best is their willingness to take a ton of long-distance shots and make them at an elite clip.

Against Dallas, Utah attempted 41 3-point shots and drained 16 of them which inevitably helped them create enough distance against the Mavericks early to come away with the victory. Joe Ingles amassed all 21 of his points beyond the arc to direct the band from beyond the line. Two nights later against the mavericks, the Jazz hit 20-48 3’s spearheaded by an explosive level of shooting from Bojan Bogdanovic (7-11 from 3).

The performance resulted in another double-digit victory that enlightened the public on how dominant Utah has been from beyond the arc. Utah has three players shooting over 40 percent from 3 not counting Donovan Mitchell’s career-season from deep as well (39.5%).

The team always in the postseason tried to align their offense with a similar blueprint that made the Houston Rockets what they were the last few seasons. Utah would possess two ball handlers in the backcourt that could handle the rock and be threats as playmakers for themselves and others. On the wing, they’d have two individuals who could catch and shoot at a respectable rate to where defenses would have to honor their three and closeout on them.

Then inside, they’d allow their 7-foot big man to roam around the rim to put back missed jumpers or get point opportunities around the basket from drop off passes. Thanks to career resurgences from Mike Conley at point guard and Jordan Clarkson off the bench, Utah has been able to accomplish success and prosperity on the offensive end resulting in early-season success.