Subscribe
Follow Us
The Utah Jazz entered the 2019-20 NBA campaign with lofty expectations, which was what made their rather rough start all the more puzzling.
Through Dec. 4, the Jazz had gone just 12-10 in spite of a stocked roster that included mainstays Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert and Joe Ingles as well as offseason additions Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic.
People understandably began to wonder whether or not if the chemistry was there.
But since then, Utah has gone on a tear, going 24-8 to take a 36-18 record into the All-Star break.
While the Jazz have looked really, really good of late, there are still some legitimate questions for this team heading into the final couple of months of the season.
The first one is whether or not Conley's recent stretch of strong performances is going to become the norm.
Believe it or not, Utah did much of its winning with Conley out of the lineup, ripping off 10 straight victories while he was sidelined with a hamstring injury.
When he was on the floor, he struggled mightily.
Now, over the last four games, Conley has looked much more like his old self, averaging 20.3 points per game while shooting 46.8 percent from the floor and 50 percent from three-point range, but on the season as a whole, he is logging 13.5 points per game while making 39.2 percent of his shots and 36.1 percent of his triples.
Is Conley finally breaking through?
Make no mistake: the Jazz 100 percent need Conley to play at a high level to have any chance of making noise in the playoffs. He is their X-factor, and he is the guy who could make them a truly elite team.
If the Conley we saw in the few games just before the hiatus is the Conley we will see once the league re-assumes play later this week, then Utah is in great shape.
That being said, the Jazz also have some issues with their bench.
Utah ranks just 25th in the NBA in bench scoring, and most of that production has come from Jordan Clarkson, who has been a revelation since the Jazz acquired him from the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this season.
But outside of Clarkson, Utah hasn't gotten much from anyone else.
Jeff Green was so terrible that the Jazz bought him out. Ed Davis has been a complete bust of a signing. Royce O'Neale (when he has come off the pine, which hasn't been often) and Georges Niang have provided Utah with some good perimeter shooting, Tony Bradley has been a decent backup big to compensate for Davis and Emmanuel Mudiay has been alright, but that's about it.
Article Continues Below
It's not like the Jazz are completely bereft of bench talent, but in a loaded Western Conference that features teams stacked from top to bottom, Utah needs to get production from everywhere in order to compete.
The Jazz have been able to get by thus far, but you have to wonder how much their shaky depth will hurt them come playoff time.
Of course, Utah can always explore the buyout market to add another piece, and we don't know if any more interesting options will become available between now and March 1.
What I can say for sure is that the Jazz are considerably more dangerous than they were a year ago. It's no longer just Mitchell having to create something offensively while everyone else just stands around.
With the acquisitions of Bogdanovic and Conley, Utah now has multiple guys who can get their own shots, which will make the club infinitely more difficult to defend in the postseason.
Also, the Jazz have much more shooting this time around.
Yes, their defense has fallen off a bit, but given that they lost Derrick Favors and Ricky Rubio this past summer, that was to be expected.
But really, the main question is whether or not Utah has enough to get by either of the two Los Angeles teams. I do think the Jazz have enough oomph to beat the Denver Nuggets or Houston Rockets if they met either of those squads, but the Clippers and Lakers may be another story.
It just comes down to how much Conley gives the Jazz in this closing stretch and the playoffs (we pretty much know that Mitchell, Gobert and Bogdanovic will deliver) and whether or not Utah's lack of elite depth will end up being a death blow for this team in a tight series.
If history is any indication (and it is), depth matters, especially over the course of a long series.
All of that being said, I liked the Jazz a lot over the summer, and I still like them quite a bit with the postseason on the horizon.
