With the restart of the coronavirus-struck season on the horizon, one of the biggest teams that will be entering the bubble with a number of intriguing issues at hand is the Utah Jazz.
The Jazz were tremendous prior to the hiatus, amassing a 41-23 record for fourth place in a ruthless Western Conference. They are a shoo-in to this season's playoffs, where they will likely face the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Houston Rockets, and the Dallas Mavericks, who are all just separated by a game and a half in the fifth to seventh spots.
However, the Jazz will be entering the second half of the season as a much different team than how they ended the first half. Below are three burning questions Utah will face at the restart.
The Donovan Mitchell Situation
Jazz star Donovan Mitchell has been one of the propagators of the recent movement of players not wanting to participate in the Orlando bubble. It is believed that this initiative is being spearheaded by Brooklyn Nets All-Star guard Kyrie Irving. Nevertheless, Mitchell himself has not been shy about sharing his hesitations about playing in Florida.
According to reports, Mitchell's biggest concern is the increased injury risk once the basketball season returns. The 23-year-old is up for a huge extension in the summer, and he fears that any injury sustained in the bubble might have an adverse effect on what most people predict to be a max deal for the 6-foot-1 shooting guard:
Yahoo’s Chris Haynes with more on Donovan Mitchell’s reservations about returning, and the feeling that younger players have been excluded from the process. https://t.co/2gbgIjWoWK pic.twitter.com/awmGKhsBI6
— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) June 13, 2020
To be clear, Mitchell never said that he's not going to play. He is merely looking for assurances not only from the Jazz, but from the league as well. At the end of the day, this is a business, and Mitchell needs to take care of his money.
The big question here is this: what do the Jazz do if Mitchell all of a sudden decides that he's not up for playing in Florida? Does that pretty much end their chances of making a deep playoff run?
Team Chemistry Post-COVID-19
As we all know, Utah big man Rudy Gobert was the first NBA player who tested positive for the coronavirus. Mitchell himself tested positive too a few days later. Videos of Gobert mockingly touching media equipment just days before his diagnosis later emerged, which enraged the entire basketball world for his irresponsible act. For his part, Mitchell was reportedly incensed by his teammates actions.
The situation got so bad that whispers began emerging about the unsalvageable relationship between the two. So much so, that the Jazz front office was reportedly already looking at possibly trading one of their two stars. The two seem to have made up since the incident, but their current relationship is anything but peachy.
If Mitchell does end up playing, how will this affect his chemistry with Gobert? These are the two best players on the Jazz, and any conflict between them will almost also certainly affect everyone else on the squad.
Then again, this is not going to be the first time that players on the same team have personal differences. This has happened many times before, and for what it's worth, some of them work out. These two don't have to like each other; they just need to play well together.
The Bogdanovic Injury
Last month the Jazz announced that 6-foot-8 swingman Bogdan Bogdanovic was going to be out for the remainder of the season. According to the team, Bogdanovic was suffering from a ruptured scapholunate ligament in his right wrist, which he injured in January. Bogdanovic and the Jazz decided that the best course of action was for the 31-year-old to undergo season-ending surgery. Needless to say, Utah will be without their second-leading scorer the rest of the way.
Bogdanovic arrived in Utah during the summer as a free agent. He was one of the most coveted “second-tier” free agents in the market, and somehow, the Jazz was able to lure the former second-round pick to their squad. This came out to the tune of $73 million for four years, which is not a small price to pay. However, Bogdanovic has since paid dividends and has established himself as one of the most important players on the team prior to the hiatus.
Bogdanovic was averaging across the board career-best marks with 20.2 points (on 44.7 percent shooting), 4.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists, while also connecting on 3.0 triples per game on a very efficient 41.4-percent clip. How the Jazz intends to replace Bogdanovic is going to be a huge question. They do have options, but there's no denying that it will be close to impossible to replicate his level of production at this point in the season. I guess the better question would be how will they survive without him?
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