NBA Players REACT to the Utah Jazz's HOT Start

Опубликовано: 18 Ноябрь 2022
на канале: Swish Nation

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The Utah Jazz are good. Very good. Expectation-shattering good. Mind-boggingly good. So good that if you’re one of the four people who actually believed this team would be good at the start of the season, you probably also just won the $2 billion Powerball jackpot. You’re that rare; you also might be a genius.
Their start is glorious. It almost certainly can’t last, given that CEO of basketball operations Danny Ainge did earn his “Trader Danny” moniker for a reason and is hardly afraid to wield it if the proper stash of draft capital and youth presents itself. But, I implore you to bask in it for as long as we can. So far this season, the Jazz have beaten the Nuggets, Pelicans, Grizzlies (twice), Timberwolves, and the Atlanta Hawks. Those are all teams we assumed would be contenders, teams that would mark their matchups with the Jazz on their calendars as “free wins”. No longer is that the case. Waltzing into Utah without a plan of attack to stop Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, etc. is a death sentence. Will Hardy, a first-year head coach, knows how to exploit you. So far, he’s done it to the best of the best in the NBA.
Today’s video will be about what the rest of the NBA is saying about the Utah Jazz’s hot start.
The Jazz aren’t a fluke. They play together, they play hard, and they play to win — something you must hate if you’re Ainge, despite your persistence in gritting your teeth and telling the masses that you expected to win, not tank. The Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes fades further out of focus the longer the Jazz keep winning, yet they can’t seem to stop.
For Donovan Mitchell, the sizzling start of the Utah Jazz comes in with no surprise. The former star Jazz man told reporters that the current Utah squad is well composed of respected leaders, trustworthy veterans, and promising young players that make them special.
“They got hoopers; I don’t know why everybody was so quick to write them off. I think they got phenomenal leaders in that locker room. Mike Conley is a phenomenal leader. Jordan Clarkson is a phenomenal leader. Then they got Collin Sexton and Lauri Markkanen, guys who can really go … Malik Beasley. Like, they’re just not some slump. They have guys that can really go.”
When asked what makes this Jazz team so unique and why they've gotten off to such a hot start, almost every player and coach speaks about the unselfish play for one another. The Jazz will often pass up a good shot for a better one — a key component of Hardy's offense that the team has fully bought into.
Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen is playing some of the best basketball of his career, a major part of why the Jazz are rolling and sit atop the NBA’s Western Conference. Through 13 games this season, Markkanen is averaging 22.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. His defense has also been much-improved. Prior to the season, he competed in Eurobasket, averaging 28 points per game for Finland.
“I’ve played with some good point guards, but nothing like Mike,” Markkanen said.
More importantly, he’s the calming influence for the Jazz. He’s the unquestioned leader on the floor. The Jazz run a beautiful offense with him at the helm, an offense that doesn’t run nearly as smoothly when he’s off the floor.
“I think he’s one of the most underrated point guards in the history of our game,” Clippers head coach Ty Lue said.
Hardy treats Conley almost like his version of Tom Brady. They consistently communicate during games. Hardy has given Conley the freedom to call the plays. How long does it last? That remains to be seen. But the Jazz are currently one of the best stories in the league, and Conley is at the front of that story. Against the backdrop of last season, this year can probably be described in one word.
Simply put, the Jazz’s offense is elite. The ball pops around all over the place with every man on the team hell-bent on playing for each other, while they have also been one of the best three-point shooting teams in the league, leading the NBA with 196 triples as a team. And it shows in their offensive metrics – the Jazz rank third in the NBA in points scored per 100 possessions, while their defense hasn’t been too shabby either, ranking within the top 10 in the season’s infancy. These are good signs that the Jazz aren’t a fluke.
Sure, this elite stretch of basketball could perhaps make the idea of Victor Wembanyama in a Jazz uniform an impossible one to come to fruition, but at the end of the day, winning basketball games is the goal and the Jazz are doing that at a much better clip than almost every other team in the league at the moment.
And what do you guys think? How far do you see this Jazz team go? Will they go to the playoffs and what’s their limit there? I would love to hear your opinion so please let me know in the comments. Oh, and don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to our channel for more amazing NBA stories. Thanks for watching!

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