The Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz both suffered through disappointing 2021-22 NBA seasons this year – in very different ways.
The Pacers’ season followed an unexpected trajectory. Indiana began the season with center Domantas Sabonis as their best player.
Coming off a play-in tournament loss, Indiana entered the season with playoff potential. By the end of the year, Indiana’s best player was Sacramento, swapped for Tyrese Haliburton, and their 25-57 record placed them 13th in the Eastern Conference.
The Jazz season, though equally disappointing, followed a much more familiar path. Utah found regular-season success, as they’ve always managed to in the Donovan Mitchell-Rudy Gobert era.
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Finishing fifth in the Western Conference, Utah faced a first-round playoff match-up with the Dallas Mavericks. The playoffs are where the familiar disappointment set in, as the Jazz lost in six games and received another all-too-common early playoff exit.
Both teams will look to make changes this offseason in hopes of avoiding a repeat of their 2022 seasons. Interestingly, a swap of two end-of-the-bench players could stand to help both teams take a step in the right direction.