The Utah Jazz has been eliminated from the Western Conference Semifinals, after falling in five games to the Houston Rockets 4-1. While the loss may be tough to swallow for a team that posted the third-best record in the league following the all-star break, the future ahead for this team seems bright and promising.
Heading into the 2017-2018 season, expectations for Utah were relatively tempered. Many people picked Utah to fall in the standings and regress. Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated pegged the Jazz at sixth in the Western Conference, a prediction that some doubted given the roster changes. Even after losing their star forward, Gordon Hayward, during the frenzy of free agency in the offseason, the Jazz were thought to still be a playoff team. Perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate, Rudy Gobert, would presumably become the number one option on offense for Utah, a task would seem tough with his efficient but limited offensive skillset.
General manager, Dennis Lindsey, then made a few moves in free agency to retool his roster. He managed to save cap space while making a lateral move by trading for Ricky Rubio while allowing George Hill to walk in free agency. Lindsey added some nice depth, by signing Thabo Sefolosha, Jonas Jerebko, and Ekpe Udoh to team friendly deals. After re-signing Joe Ingles the Jazz had managed to salvage together a deep team that just didn’t have a star.
Then Donovan Mitchell emerged. The 13th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft quickly took over as the star player Utah desperately needed and kept Utah somewhat afloat when Rudy Gobert missed a large chunk of November, December, and even four games in January. Now with Mitchell asserted as a young but elite talent and a healthy Gobert, the Jazz were able to finish the regular season displaying the potential dominance they were capable of.
Their dominance came to halt when after running into arguably the second-best team in the league, the Houston Rockets, in the Western Conference Semifinals.
Houston was able to minimize Gobert and Derrick Favors on offense, a huge crater to the gameplan Utah laid out in the series. The basis to their gameplan was using their guards, most frequently Donovan Mitchell, to attack the basket and then either dump it off to a big man or kick it out to the 3-point line. But the Rockets sent their defense inside every time, collapsing on Gobert or Favors, whichever big man Utah had on the court. By doing so, the perimeter opened up for Utah, a team that was 12th in the league in 3-point shooting percentage during the regular season. Mike D’Antoni risked allowing the Jazz to strike from deep, and the risk paid off. In the conference semifinals, Utah shot just 35.7 percent from three, a mark that would have ranked 19th in the league during the regular season, below the league average.
Watch below how the Rockets defended the interior. Defensive ace Clint Capela defended the rim against the Utah attack as he has throughout his entire career, altering shots and sending them away.
Even with injuries to multiple rotation players, including Ricky Rubio, the Jazz would not have had enough firepower to outshoot Chris Paul, James Harden, and the Rockets. Donovan Mitchell was fantastic all season and this series was no different, but he could not outshine the star power of Houston, who has better weapons around their stars than Mitchell does. And that is okay. The Jazz weren’t supposed to make it as far as they did. They outplayed their expectations in the playoffs, just as they did in the regular season.
Now, the Utah Jazz face an intriguing and important offseason. Their key pieces, Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, and Ricky Rubio are all still under contract, but Derrick Favors hits the open market as an unrestricted free agent. The oft-injured Dante Exum is a restricted free agent as well. Both are players the Jazz should re-sign to new deals, as each had a role on the roster this season and neither will require a very big payday. Shooting may also be an area to target for Utah, as they didn’t knock down 3-pointers at a sufficient enough rate to stay alive in the playoffs.
Nonetheless, Utah should be proud of the year they had. They found a star in the making in Donovan Mitchell and are moving in the direction of a franchise to be a contender in the near future. That possibility may rest on the shoulder of Mitchell, who made sure the rest of the NBA took note of the Jazz this season.
