Donovan Mitchell has improved his scoring and efficiency every season he’s been in the league, yet his team has not made a conference final. Now, year 5 awaits (Instagram/@UtahJazz).


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Sarah Todd, Utah Jazz beat reporter for the Deseret News and host of the Unsalvageable podcast, sheds light on last season’s best regular-season team. How can the Jazz take their pre-playoff success and parlay it into a deep postseason run?

4:48-6:28: “I think it all has to do with versatility and health. Because if Mike Conley is healthy through the Clippers series, if Donovan Mitchell doesn’t have a bum ankle, then maybe the Clippers’ offense isn’t able to break the point of attack as easily as it was able to, which then causes problems on the switch, which is what caused so many problems for Gobert on the defensive side. It wasn’t that he wasn’t good; it was just that the perimeter gave him too much to deal with because they weren’t holding guys out. … Other teams have been exploiting that flaw of the Jazz’s for years. … As far as versatility goes, that’s what they tried to address in the offseason. They got Rudy Gay and Eric Paschall, both guys that can play small-ball 5 and can switch 1 through 5, are versatile defenders.”

12:50-13:06: “They saw firsthand last season how important health is once you are in the postseason and how much it can change things in a really drastic way. And so, in talking with some of these players over the last couple of weeks, they are more open to the idea of resting.”

14:42-15:10: “These are elite athletes. You’ve got two max players that the Jazz have completely built their roster around in Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell. They want to be the best in their lane, and if there wasn’t any tension between them at all, I think that I would be really surprised. That’s not just for the Jazz; that’s on all 30 NBA rosters. There’s not an NBA roster out there where there aren’t quibbles among teammates, and I think that’s what this is.”

20:25-20:55: “His last season in Cleveland, some of the coaches started working with him on finding more efficient ways to play. They started trying to take and cut out some of his midrange game. And then when he came to the Jazz, they completely expedited that, and they say, ‘OK, let’s almost nearly eliminate the midrange game. You can shoot absolutely as much as you want.’ Jordan Clarkson wants to get buckets, he can get ‘em all he wants as long they’re from the 3-point line or at the rim. And so, they just let him loose.”

24:38-25:29: “Royce O’Neale leads the league in minutes played against the opposing team’s top option. And so night after night after night he’s taking on anyone from LeBron James, Devin Booker… Ben Simmons… or Kawhi Leonard. He’s asked to go up against the most productive and the toughest guys on every team and he seems like he barely breaks a sweat. He’s in incredible shape, he’s very fast, he’s really good in transition defense, he’s way more athletic than you would think that he is. And seeing him after coming out of this offseason, it looks like he’s even stronger and leaner than he was before.”

28:24-28:51: “When you have a season like they did last year, I think that pressure is eased a little bit because the front office is able to look at the health of the team and say, ‘What was Quin [Snyder] supposed to do when he’s got injured players?’ If something like that were to happen again this year, again I think the pressure will be off, but if the Jazz go into the postseason completely healthy, basically no excuses, I think that raises the pressure a lot because then you start looking at the fact that he’s been here eight years and they haven’t been able to get past the second round.”

36:33-37:38: “The fact that [Jared Butler] dropped to 40 and they were able to get him, that was like Christmas morning for the Jazz. …His handle and his decision-making with the ball in his hands seem incredibly advanced for a guy coming in to his rookie NBA season. I’ve been really impressed with that. … He’s also just a pure shooter. He has just a beautiful shot, and he has amazing range.”

*Stories referenced in the discussion:

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Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod.