Fighting For The Middle Of The NBA's Western Conference

Ti’s Four-Point Play: Fighting For The Middle Of The NBA’s West

By Ti Windisch | Jan 17, 2016

Jan 13, 2016; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum (3) drives to the basket on Utah Jazz guard Rodney Hood (5) and center Rudy Gobert (27) during the first quarter of the NBA game at the Moda Center at the Rose Quarter. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports /

3 of 5

Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports /

Utah Jazz (18-22)

Although the Rockets are bummed out to be the seventh seed, the Utah Jazz must be pretty thrilled to sit in the eighth spot in the West at the moment. Utah lost Dante Exum this summer, leaving them without their starting point guard all year.

To further complicate things, Rudy Gobert has played in just half of the 40 games the Jazz have played this season — yet they’d still make the playoffs if the season ended today.

The expectations for the Jazz were to compete for the seventh or eighth seed–before the Exum and Gobert injuries happened. Now it feels like making the playoffs would be a major win for this Utah team. And they have a pretty good shot of making it.

The Jazz point guard situation has been fascinating this year. Although Trey Burke seemed like the obvious choice to take over for Exum, Utah has gone with Raul Neto instead. But despite Burke not starting a single game this year, he’s playing over five minutes per game more than Neto is, and scoring over twice as much per game.

That’s because neither of those two is really running the Jazz offense. Gordon Hayward is. Hayward leads the Jazz in total points, assists and steals this season, and has really held up the entire team. Watching him be the first option on a playoff team will be a lot of fun going forward. Hayward will finally have a chance to prove he’s an elite NBA player in the postseason.

Next: Can Sacramento Finally Capitalize on Boogie Cousins?