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Where the Utah Jazz go from here after second round exit

By Keith Rivas

HOUSTON, TX - MAY 8: Jae Crowder #99 of the Utah Jazz handles the ball against the Houston Rockets during Game Five of the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2018 NBA Playoffs on May 8, 2018 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TX - MAY 8: Jae Crowder #99 of the Utah Jazz handles the ball against the Houston Rockets during Game Five of the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2018 NBA Playoffs on May 8, 2018 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /

With the end to their season officially here, the Utah Jazz are now in a position to look ahead to a bright future — but how can they grow from this experience?

What a ride this season has been for the Utah Jazz. Starting last summer when Gordon Hayward — the beloved Jazz star that had just gotten them to the second round of the playoffs and helped make them somewhat relevant — departed for Boston, the franchise had more questions than answers.

Originally holding the 24th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, they secured a deal to move up to the 13th pick, where they selected the guy that would quickly become the face of their franchise in Donovan Mitchell. Fast forward to the 47-game mark of the season, and the Utah Jazz are a loss away from being 10 games below .500.

A 19-28 record isn’t a good look for any team, but for the Jazz, this seemed to just be a sign of the times. Mitchell looked like a great guard, but not near the star level that seems only steps away. The Jazz also dealt with a type of identity crisis where everyone knew they weren’t the same team from a year ago, but no new identity had really been formed yet — in a way, they were just sort of existing.

In the 25 games that would follow their first 47, the Utah Jazz won 22 of those contests and seemed destined to prove everybody wrong and follow through on the point that they were far from being low on the NBA’s totem pole. Sure enough, they fought back all the way to where they were a win over Portland away from securing home-court advantage as the third seed in the Western Conference.

Instead, because of their regular season finale loss to the Trail Blazers, the Utah Jazz set themselves up for a date with the Oklahoma City Thunder and entered into the playoffs as the fifth seed overall. Utah had successfully ended the Big 3 in Los Angeles a season ago under the lead of Gordon Hayward, so the Thunder seemed as though they were ready to prove that they could at least overcome that obstacle.

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Of course, the Jazz had other plans and moved on past OKC in six games. Also, it’s a series that should have been over in five games, but thanks to the Jazz being nervous with a big lead, they saw a 25-point advantage evaporate within one quarter on the road before heading back to Salt Lake City to finish business.

Ending their year against Houston was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to this team. In the loss to the Rockets, we got to see more of the good, bad and ugly from Donovan Mitchell, but at the same time, have to refrain from overthinking anything that happened because he’s a rookie that is going to only get better — depending on what Utah puts around him, that is.

That brings us to a question worth asking: What’s next for the Utah Jazz?

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