The Utah Jazz are quietly building something | The Athletic NBA Show

The Utah Jazz are quietly building something | The Athletic NBA Show

A lot can change in a month on December 12th one month ago the Nets who are currently 16 and 22 we in above 500 team the Lakers who are are currently teetering at the 10th spot were the six seed with three more wins than the team

In seventh wow the Pistons had one fewer win than they currently do and the Jazz the Utah Jazz were seven and 16 at that time cleaning the glass had the jazzz as the 26th best offense and 27th best defense wow a negative 8.8 net rating wow and based on their play to that

Point cleaning glass expected them to win around 19 games over an 82 Game season one month later the Utah Jazz are 19 and 20 a half game behind well actually they’re actually kind of tied with the Lakers now I wrote this like two nights ago but now after the Lakers

Lost as I mentioned that game on Saturday is going to decide who’s in the 10th spot there’re a full game up on the Warriors like what happened to this team well over the last month the Jazz have gone 12 and four they are 13th in offense 12th in defense over that time

Span four is wild man 12 and four is crazy so it is those 12 wins are tied with the Boston Celtics for most wins over the past month and if for some reason 12 and four doesn’t sound that impressive I looked at last season just

For cont text only 11 of the 30 teams had a 16 game stretch as good as what the Jazz have done over the last month this Jazz team has gone from being a true seller dweller hanging out there you know down there with the likes of

The zards and the Hornets and the Spurs and the Pistons to having one of the best months of basketball a team has had so far this season and if you’re wondering whether the schedule God showed them favor over the last month no they didn’t just in the last week they

Beat Philly on the road milwauke walking on the road and Denver at home there’s 16 wins or sorry there’s 12 wins also included wins against Dallas Miami and New York their four losses were at Sacramento at Cleveland at New Orleans and at Boston that’s it four Road losses

To playoff teams wow and if you’re still trying to poke holes in this wondering well maybe they got some shooting luck no it was the opposite over the last month Jazz opponent shot 37.9% from three which was the 11th highest percentage in the league and they shot

45.3% from the corners which was the sixth highest percentage in the league if anything the Jazz were a little unlucky shooting the ball they only hit 35.9% of their own Corner threes which was the fifth worst percentage over that month time span this team has just been

Really good now why have they been good well there’s a couple reasons the obvious one is Health in the first those first 26 games marinin and Kesler missed a combined 15 games and importantly they missed those those games during different stretches which means that jazz weren’t really able to settle into

Any kind of normal rotation now with everyone healthy the Jazz have finally been able to get into a rhythm with their rotations and interestingly what they found works is much different than what they thought would work entering the season the starting lineup on opening night was ton Horton Tucker

Walker Kessler Jordan Clarkson John Collins and Lowry marinin that lineup ended up playing 174 possessions together they were a minus 21.4 net rating in those possessions oh no oh no is right fast forward to today the Jazz are rolling out Chris Dunn Colin seon low marinan Simone fonio I always have to

Pause I really am trying to get that right I I even wrote it out phonetically for myself it’s a great name it’s a great name it is and John Collins in 182 possessions that new starting lineup has a plus 2. net rating per cleaning the glass now that isn’t some overwhelming

Number but when your previous starters were a minus 21.4 it’s pretty good and that lineup has been putting up those improved numbers over this recent stretch which again included games against Boston Milwaukee and Denver Andy lson wrote a great article in the St L Salt Lake Tribune detailing why this

Starting lineup which by the way is the 16th different one for the Jazz this season has finally LED them to a place that makes sense done in the role of the distributor seon as the off ball scorer who has more space because of fonio and Collins being there and then marinin of

Course as the lead guy who in addition to his always efficient scoring is currently at career-high levels with offensive rebound percentage and block percentage that new starting lineup has allowed the all bench unit to make more sense as well rookie keonte George Jordan Clarkson oai baji Kelly olick and

Walker Kessler are a plus 22 net rating in 0 possessions only 90 possessions so far per cleaning the glass and one thing Andy brought up in his article was how coach Will Hardy has talked about using Kessler differently in terms of spacing starting him closer to the three-point

Line instead of near the paint and Jackson Frank on Twitter clipped a play from that Nuggets game showing how this works it was a play where Kesler starts just inside the three-point line in the corner and while the movement of all the other four jazz players keeps the Nuggets occupied Kesler eventually cuts

To the rim where he catches an easy lob from Mark in for the dunk I know one thing I have been guilty of is thinking that good spacing is just too difficult with a non-shooting big in the current NBA which is just wrong it can be difficult but it’s also not impossible

Either and will hardy deserves a lot of credit for constructing this offense in a way where all these random pieces are being optimized because I can’t really say that I just love this Jazz roster and you know I’m not I’m not blown away when I read this list of names to myself

And so part of me does Wonder as good as this month has been how much further up the standings can they really go but that’s where it starts to get interesting because while everyone has been focused on the Jazz as sellers at this deadline talking about marinan or

John Collins or Kelly olenick why wouldn’t they be buyers this is the same team that engaged with the Blazers about Damen Lillard the same team that was trying to get involved in the Drew holiday sweep Stakes the team that made the John Collins trade and the team who

If the Thunder didn’t exist we’d be talking about how much trade ammo they have at least 15 total first round picks including their own five that are completely unprotected they got lightly protected ones they got swaps they have movable contracts why wouldn’t the Jazz be buyers and that should terrify these

Old ass teams at the bottom of the playing range because a month ago the Warriors Lakers and Suns thought they’d really only need to fend off one other team to at least make the play in when it looked like all of San Antonio Portland Memphis and Utah wouldn’t be

Competitive well well now Utah even without some big deadline deal is going to be a huge problem this team assuming decent health is going to make the play in official slam and jam prediction Andrew whoa whoa I don’t think they’re World beaters by any means and I’d love to see

Them make some kind of upgrade at the deadline but after a turbulent start to the season they have now been in a solid Groove for a month which is so much more that you can say about these other goofy old teams around them m so yeah i’ I’ve

Kind of been waiting but we are now at the month Point like they’ve been doing this for a month now 12 and four so I I I feel like I have to start to change my priors which granted I think it was deserved after you start off the season

Seven and 19 but they follow that up with this 12 and four month beating some really good teams now with everyone healthy I think I’m starting to buy the Jazz I’m buying in so official slaming J prediction who’s out then if the Jazz are in who you’re asking me to make a second

Prediction Andrew I only do one prediction show it’s attached to the the first one Andrew is none of my business okay whoever wants to drop out that’s their call okay so I mean it could be two of Phoenix Houston Lakers Jazz Warriors are gonna miss correct two yes

Two of them because I think like Dallas is good enough pelicans have been good enough everybody else is good enough like two of those teams two of Dallas or not Dallas Phoenix Houston La Utah Golden State that’s pretty wild like those are I mean obviously Utah didn’t

Make it they they I don’t think their fan base would be like outrageously disappointed if any of those other missed it would be like such a big disappointment for any of those fan bases well and I know what some people will say is well if if if they’re around

The playin by the end of the season as a reminder their pick is going to OKC but it’s top 10 protected so wouldn’t they kind of do a you know Dallas Mavs move from last year where they try to make sure they’re in the 10 spot but you and

I have talked about like if you’re the Jazz wouldn’t you rather that pick convey this year in what everyone is seeing as a ground draft and then getting your own pick next year in the 25 draft now they expect to be better than the 10th pick next year but it kind

Of it makes it easier like you don’t have to worry as much like you you can have it either way you know you’re GNA having your first round pick in a much better draft so I don’t really buy that as much I I did at the beginning of the

Season but now I’m at the point where I think the Jazz are just going to continue to play well and might even be buyers as they kind of suggested in the summer yeah yeah they could go get one of those net swings

The Athletic NBA Show discuss the Utah Jazz’s season and if they should make a trade.