Ever since Rudy Gobert was permanently inserted into their starting lineup midway through the 2014-15 season, the Utah Jazz have routinely had one of the NBA’s top defenses. Making the best shots in the league less profitable for opponents is one of the most surefire ways to build a top defense, and Gobert is better […]
End-of-year NBA awards are a good lens through which to evaluate the league’s best performances, but the framing isn’t always quite right. Certain seasons are so exemplary that viewing them only in the context of same-year contemporaries sells them badly short. The 2020-21 Defensive Player of the Year Award serves as one such instance. While […]
Aside from a brief blip on the road against the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, the Utah Jazz have been absolutely rolling of late. Including Monday night’s victory over the Charlotte Hornets — in which Utah buried Charlotte with a franchise-record 28 three-pointers — the Jazz have won 10 of their past 11 contests and […]
High-usage bucket-getters like Donovan Mitchell are essential for most title contenders, and before the 2019-20 season began, that’s exactly what his Utah Jazz were. Their preseason over/under was lower than that of only three other teams, and after opening night, the FiveThirtyEight prediction model gave them a 5 percent chance of making the NBA Finals […]
Which NBA Contracts Were Gems This Season, And Which Were Stinkers?RAPTOR on this shortened season’s under- and overvalued salaries. More NBA:2019-20 RAPTOR player ratings2019-20 NBA predictions By Ryan Best After 140 days without basketball, NBA action is set to resume inside the Orlando, Florida, bubble on Thursday. There are eight “regular-season” games left to be […]