The Utah Jazz: An Early Surprise
The 2022-2023 NBA regular season opened on October 18th, 2022, which also marked the first night many assumed the Utah Jazz would begin their quest to secure the 1st overall draft pick next year. Fast forward to November 8th, and the Utah Jazz are in sole possession of 1st place in the Western Conference.
The Jazz Aren’t Tanking?
The Utah Jazz traded many of their stars during the 2022 offseason: Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Donovan Mitchell to Cleveland. The Jazz let go of Quin Snyder and hired Will Hardy as head coach. Bojan Bogdanovic was sent to the Pistons, and many assumed veterans Jordan Clarkson and Mike Conley were on their way out of town as well.
Executives around the league largely believed that Utah would quickly position themselves as front runners in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes, but nearly a month later, the Jazz are tied with the Bucks for most wins in the league.
Clarkson’s New Role and Newcomers Provide the Numbers
The Jazz have six players averaging double figures as of right now led by Lauri Markkanen (21.9 points). Markannen also leads the team in rebounds per game (8.8) and PER (23.5).
With Mitchell doing his thing in Cleveland, the starting lead guard spot now belongs to Jordan Clarkson, who previously did best when he was coming off the bench. Clarkson is averaging 18.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 5.2 assists in his first 12 starts of the season. He is also shooting 42.1% from the three-point line which is easily the best mark of his career by a healthy margin. His next best season was in 2019-20 when he shot 36.8% from deep.
Another newcomer who has shown his worth to Utah is Colin Sexton. Averaging 14.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 0.8 steals in twelve games thus far, Sexton is providing a well rounded performance in Salt Lake City. His highest-scoring game was a 22 point night against the Los Angeles Clippers. Of note, Sexton has started only 1 game thus far, meaning he’s essentially taken over the “heat check” role previously occupied by Clarkson.
Remember who made that game-winning impossible lay-up against the New Orleans Pelicans? That was Kelly Olynyk- another newcomer via trade with the Detroit Pistons.
Olynyk may have never averaged 20 points per game in his career but he can score. The Canadian is having a career year in virtually every scoring category in the early going while also providing above average defense for 27 minutes a night.
More Room For Improvement
As good as the Utah Jazz have been early in the season, they’re seeing success largely in spite of their defense, not because of it. After years of leaning on Gobert and hanging their hat on making the opposition work for baskets, they’re currently allowing 112.2 points per game. Part of this is because of their tendency to foul far too often as they’re amongst the league leaders in opponent FT attempts per game. They also give up the most offensive rebounds per game this season thus far (15.1) as well.
Offensively, they have also shown inconsistencies, but have masked it thus far with a fast paced offense that is currently second in the league in points for with 118.3 per game. Only the New Orleans Pelicans (118.5) are scoring more points than the Jazz at the moment.
With 70 games to go, it’s far too early to anoint Utah as “playoff bound” quite yet. However they’ve easily earned the mantle of “biggest surprise” team of the season out of the gates. Whether they’re able to keep up the momentum, or this is just a blip on the radar remains to be seen.
-Iggy Gonzales