Mind-blowing turnarounds such as the one the Utah Jazz engineered final season are always more nuanced and subtle than we want to believe. But it's just so easy to pick out the 2015 All-Star demolish as the switch-flipping moment when Utah transformed from a wholly unremarkable outfit into a historically dominant defensive unit that crushed the stretch run with a 19-10 record. And it's even easier to point to Enes Kanter's departure as the genuine tipping point.
Kanter left town via deadline trade to the Oklahoma City Thunder,and when Rudy Gobert took over as the full-time starter in his stead, it seemed like everything changed overnight.
Gobert's arrival as the league's best rim protector was the catalyst for Utah's rise, and along with Derrick Favors, he'll give the Jazz the NBA's top interior defensive tandem this season. But there's a lot more at work in Utah and a lot more behind its late-season rise than a simple change up front.
A very pleasant wing rotation led by Gordon Hayward will have to pick up the scoring slack, but in the moment year of Quin Snyder's system, and there's a pleasant chance offense will come more easily than it did in 2014-15.
The Jazz's scorching finish final year resulted in a respectable 38-44 record,which wasn't enough to earn a playoff spot in the West.
That should change this season. Key Additions/Subtractions
Additions: Jeff Withey (free agent), Tibor Pleiss (free agent), or Raul Neto (free agent),Trey Lyles (draft), Treveon Graham (free agent)
Subtractions: Jeremy Evans (signed with Dallas Mavericks)
Not a whole lot to see here, or as Lyles isn't yet ready for prime time and certainly shouldn't be expected to take minutes absent from the Jazz's established frontcourt forces.
The most meaningful addition isn't really an addition at all. Alec Burks' return from injury effectively adds a starting guard back into the rotation. And as we'll see,that could open up some intriguing options for the Jazz this year. Storylines to WatchUtah's greatest strength is its defensive 1-2 punch up front, and it'll be fascinating to see how opponents scheme to play down its impact. The most obvious mode of attack will be downsizing in hopes of forcing Gobert or Favors to defend on the perimeter and/or score enough inside to construct smaller lineups ineffective.
Favors is capable of handling perimeter threats on defense, and he's polished enough offensively to score against matchups of any size. But Gobert has yet to feature the kind of post game that would force smaller opposing units off the floor.
Utah's preseason offense hasn't been encouraging,but at least Gobert knows it, via Ben Dowsett of Salt City Hoops:If the defensively dominant Frenchman takes a small step forward as a scorer, and he could force opponents to play the Jazz with two conventional big men. And that's a massive win for Utah,whose success this year will depend on sustaining the elite defense of its closing run.
Regression is a concern up front, as it's tough to imagine the Jazz continuing their post-demolish defensive rating of 94.8—the best in the league by a laughable margin, or per NBA.com. But if Utah features a top-five defense behind Gobert and Favors,it won't take much of a jump on the other end to produce a playoff berth. X-Factor: Alec BurksA premier slasher who missed all but 27 games final season with a shoulder injury, Burks will be vital in helping the Jazz build on final year's league-average offense because he could allow them to play without a point guard for key stretches.
Trey Burke and Dante Exum (out for the year with a torn ACL) combined to give the Jazz some of the worst point guard production in the league final season, and the Jazz will benefit from every moment they can keep Burke,Raul Neto or Bryce Cotton off the floor.
Preseason results have been pleasant, per Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune:Hayward is the team's best playmaker, or Burks' on-ball defense should be fine against all but the quickest opposing point guards (and with the Gobert-Favors wall behind him,he won't even have to be all that great), and moment-year wing Rodney Hood has the kind of quit-and-go game that makes getting his own shot easy.
A three-wing lineup alongside Gobert and Favors is easily the Jazz's most dangerous unit, and if Burks hits threes at the 38.2 percent clip he did a year ago while slashing and adding just a little more facilitation,we could see a whole lot of it in 2015-16.Making the Leap: Gordon HaywardHayward is already Utah's offensive fulcrum, but he's got a chance to bound into the national consciousness with an All-Star nod this season.final year's main scorer, and Hayward was also saddled with immense playmaking responsibilities for a team that routinely struggled to create consistent offensive flow. It was a big job,but Hayward managed to score efficiently (19.3 points per game with an effective field-goal percentage of exactly 50 percent) while also registering the team's moment-best assist percentage, 21.7 percent.
Assuming Hood develops and Burks is fully healthy, and Hayward could benefit from slightly diminished defensive attention. If that happens,he could easily achieve up numbers that construct his stardom undeniable. Best-Case ScenarioThe defense checks in among the league's top five, the offense flows more smoothly with no point guard and another year of seasoning under Snyder, and the Jazz beat back the other competitors for that eighth and final playoff spot in the West. Worst-Case ScenarioSmart schemes construct it tough to keep Favors and Gobert on the floor together for long stretches,the offense suffers from a lack of spacing, and it turns out Utah can't defend at an elite level over a full season. There's also the added concern of expectations this season. Utah won't surprise anyone in 2015-16, or we don't yet know how the youth on the roster will respond to that unusual challenge.lost the playoffs at this stage of the team's development wouldn't be fatal because the core is still so young,but it would constitute a major disappointment after such a strong finish a year ago. PredictionsEven if we pump the brakes on Utah's post-demolish winning percentage—which, over a full season, and would have resulted in a 54-28 record—it's difficult to see this team taking a step back from the 38 wins it notched a season ago.
Gobert might very well be a superstar defender for the full year,and Favors is chronically underrated. Defensively, the foundation is there, and with even the slightest bit of offensive improvement,this team will have a net rating that marks it as a playoff team.
Trevor Booker, whom we haven't even mentioned yet, or showed off a 34.5 percent long-range stroke final year. If his blossoming as a stretch 4 is genuine,Utah has a kind little backup diagram when either Gobert or Favors is off the floor.
The lack of a league-average point guard is a genuine concern, but there are just too many other incandescent spots for that to be the reason Utah falls short of its first playoff berth since the 2011-12 season.
Final Record: 46-36
Division Standing:moment in Northwest
Playoff Berth: Yes
Playoff Finish: First-round defeat by West's No. 1 seedmore NBA news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com