If you haven’t been caught up with the NBA this season, an unlikely team has emerged as favorite title contenders and, no, this is not coming from either the city of Los Angeles or the state of New York.
The Utah Jazz currently holds the best overall win-loss record in the league to the delight of its fans in Salt Lake City, and much to the surprise of some basketball pundits who had little expectations for the team.
As of this writing, Coach Quin Snyder and his squad won 40 games against 13 losses, outranking all the other 29 teams thus far in both conferences of the NBA. What makes the Utah Jazz so great and fun to watch this year? Here are five good reasons:
1. All-Star Starters and Elite Role Players
One key factor behind the early success of the Utah Jazz this year is the clearly defined roles all its members have come to embrace, from the starters to the bench players, and that is just working so many wonders for the team.
Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell may be the two primary stars, but a vintage Mike Conley, Jr. is taking the Jazz to a whole new level. All three have been rewarded with an all-star nod this year and they continue to play well together going into the second half of the season.
Completing the starting lineup are Bojan Bogdanovic, who remains an outside threat, and Royce O’Neale, a versatile defender that you also cannot leave open. Joe Ingles is breaking franchise records and has no issue whether he starts the game or comes off the bench.
Jordan Clarkson is a consistent spark plug off the bench and is the current frontrunner for the Sixth Man of the Year award. Reacquiring Derrick Favors as a solid backup center has likewise been a wise decision, making this Jazz team so deep in terms of talent.
Other rotation players such as Georges Niang and Miye Oni also provide quality minutes for the team whenever they are on the floor. The Jazz recently added players like Ersan Ilyasova and Matt Thomas in its roster and they, too, seem to be fitting so well with the team.
2. Balanced on Both Ends
The Utah Jazz is the only team in the league that appears in the top five of both offensive (117.1) and defensive (107.6) ratings this season, according to the latest data and analysis provided by NBA.com.
Ingles is having a great season shooting-wise, placing second in three-point field goal percentage (49.3), to help the Utah Jazz solidify its position as the league leader in three pointers made and second overall in field goal percentage behind the arc.
Contributing largely to that success is the improved accuracy of Mitchell, Clarkson and Conley—the top three leading scorers for the Jazz. These guards are all reliable shot creators by themselves but will never hesitate to give up the ball and find open teammates.
Gobert is on pace to get another Defensive Player of the Year honor, ranking second in blocks (2.8) and rebounds per game (13.3). This speaks volumes about his rim protection abilities and helped the Jazz get on top of the rebounds per game category at 48.4 percent.
But his presence on the offensive end deserves equal recognition, too, as the ‘Stifle Tower’ has been a monster in the paint this season, averaging 66.4 percent in field goals made to lead all active NBA players.
Like Gobert, O’Neale has also been giving headaches for the opposing teams with his solid performance on both ends of the floor. He may not be putting up huge numbers like the rest of his teammates but you should never underestimate his intangible contributions.
3. Credits to the Coach
Much has been said about the Utah Jazz’ amazing ball movement this season, which contributed immensely to their winning culture, and we will be remiss if we do not attribute it to the calm and effective leadership of head coach Quin Snyder.
Snyder has been calling the shots for the Jazz for almost seven years now and is highly respected by his players and his peers. The team has consistently made the playoffs under his watch but this year appears to be a special one for him and the entire Utah Jazz organization.
With the continuing success of the team, Snyder has established himself as the top choice to receive the Coach of the Year award this season, ahead of other notable names such as Doc Rivers of the Philadelphia 76ers and Monty Williams of the Phoenix Suns.
What we love the most about Quin is his coaching style and philosophy, as detailed in a well-written profile of him by Salt Lake City-based sports journalist Sarah Todd for the Deseret News last February.
According to the report, the Snyder system values open communication, building a culture of trust among the players in the process, thus developing a harmonious relationship between the coach and the team. In other words, they have mutual respect for each other.
“Creating an environment where players are willing to take criticism and appreciate honesty without it bringing them down is part of the coaching culture that Snyder has tried to build with the Jazz,” Todd wrote, and it definitely shows this season.
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4. Unity Over Adversity
Last season had been dramatic for the Utah Jazz, to say the least, with Gobert and Mitchell both testing positive for COVID-19, becoming the first professional athletes to be infected of the dreaded virus that sent the NBA and the entire sports world into a grinding halt.
Both players eventually recovered and the NBA resumed the 2019-2020 regular season after a five-month suspension through the Orlando Bubble that turned Mitchell into an elite shooter, posting two 50-point games in their playoff series against the Denver Nuggets.
The Jazz took a 3-1 series lead over Denver in those games, but eventually lost it, as Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray were able to push the Nuggets past Utah and even the LA Clippers in the playoffs to set up a Western Conference finals match against the LA Lakers.
It was definitely one of the most painful losses Mitchell and the Jazz had to endure, but instead of beating themselves up, they used that experience as another motivation to better prepare themselves and start the 2020-2021 season on the right note.
But even as the Jazz started collecting impressive wins this season, dramatic moments do not seem to leave the team. Recently, the squad figured in serious plane trouble on their way to a road game against the Memphis Grizzlies that could have ended in another tragedy.
Luckily for the team, the pilots in command of their chartered flight made a safe emergency landing back to the Salt Lake City airport despite encountering an engine failure in midair after hitting a flock of birds. All players were okay and no one was harmed.
The Utah Jazz ultimately won that game against the Grizzlies despite the absence of Mitchell, who had a fit of anxiety after the flight scare. The coaching staff and his teammates were very supportive of his decision and never made it an issue.
Last year, they did the same for Conley who was permitted to skip a few games in the middle of the playoffs so he could attend to his wife and their newborn son. We guess it’s safe to say that beyond all the wins and the numbers, these are the stories that make the Jazz truly great.
While winning games is important, the Utah Jazz organization understands that there are far greater things in life beyond basketball. Mental health and family are much bigger priorities. No wonder the players are having so much fun at work for this team.
5. Playing for Great Causes
Hard work and talent are pretty much par for the course if you want to be successful in the NBA, but for the Utah Jazz, playing for a cause on top of winning the highly coveted Larry O’Brien trophy makes every victory in its 2020-2021 campaign that much more significant.
Whether the early success of the Utah Jazz in the regular season will carry on to the playoffs remains to be seen, but already we are giving this team and its players the respect they deserve for making positive contributions to their community outside of basketball.
Early in January, new team owner Ryan Smith pledged to give a scholarship for every Jazz win to a college student from a minority population in Utah. This obviously adds an extra motivation for the players to get as many wins as they can.
“I think just in general giving a young man or young woman the opportunity to develop, evolve and embrace education is something that’s incredibly important, and the diversity component benefits everybody,” Snyder said of the Utah Jazz scholarships in a report by Deseret News.
Smith, the billionaire founder and executive chairman of experience management company Qualtrics, is also putting cancer research at the heart of the Utah Jazz games with his “5 for the Fight” campaign.
The Utah Jazz is the lone NBA team with a cause-related patch on its players’ jerseys to promote “5 for the Fight,” the official charity arm of Qualtrics, which asks people to donate at least five dollars to fund programs aimed at developing a cure for all kinds of cancer.
According to Forbes magazine, Qualtrics already raised more than $25-million for cancer research through its NBA sponsorship program. Totally not bad for a first time NBA owner and young billionaire who wanted to make positive contributions to the world by eradicating cancer.
(Editor’s Note: All NBA 2020-2021 regular season statistics stated herein are as of 11 April 2021. Win-loss record, player and team statistics, and other variables are subject to change anytime. This story may or may not be updated.)