Utah Jazz
Current Record:30-16, Last 10: 4-6
The Utah Jazz have had to deal with several key players like Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert all missing time this season due to injuries and their bench has never really been fully-healthy, but Utah is missing something right now.
They are still one of the better teams in the Western Conference and will undoubtedly be in the playoffs as one of the Top-4 seeds in the West, but the Utah Jazz do not seem to intimidate other teams the same way other championship teams like the Suns, Bucks and Nets do with their All-Star talents.
Utah currently ranks 1st in the league in offensive rating and 11th in the league in defensive rating, which has led them to having a 30-16 record at this point in the season.
Donovan Mitchell though cannot be the only “go-to” scorer for this team if they are to win a championship. Rudy Gobert is an All-Star in his own right, but many of his contributions are on the defensive-side of the ball, as he is not much of a scoring factor outside of the paint.
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Bojan Bogdanovic is averaging 18.1 points per game this season and shooting 39.3% from deep, but his stats are a little inflated and he is really not a feared scorer in this league like Mitchell is.
The 32-year-old forward has had some great games this season, scoring over 20 points and sometimes 30 points multiple times, but he has had a handful of “dud” games where he shoots below 30% from the floor and three-point range.
The Utah Jazz are a really good team and they will likely win a first-round playoff series again, but the question of whether or not they can advance past the Western Conference Semifinals is key.
Obviously the answer to this question would depend on injuries and opponent, but right now, the Jazz really have not looked like a team that can contend for a Western Conference championship, yet alone an NBA title!
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They have really struggled defensively at times this season and as mentioned before, outside of Donovan Mitchell, they struggle to find consistent scoring in their starting unit.
The Utah Jazz are well above the tax line this season and do not have many options to make trades unless they are to give up a core piece of their roster, but they do have a $7.4M trade exception and could look to move on from veteran Joe Ingles ($13M) at the trade deadline.
The struggles the Utah Jazz have been having are heavily predicated on the fact that they have one elite-level scorer and a bunch of other above-average, but inconsistent shooters. In order for the Jazz to truly be a feared team in the Western Conference, they need to add another All-Star-level scorer next to Mitchell.
