Utah Jazz: 2018-19 NBA season preview

Storyline 2: Health issues

The first portion of the season last year in Salt Lake City was painful to watch. By mid-January, the Jazz were nine games below .500 and appeared to be well on their way to being a lottery team.

The main reason for the dismal start last season was the absence of Rudy Gobert. He missed 27 games from November to mid-January, which caused the Jazz to struggle through the first three months of the season.

The Jazz are able to maintain things offensively, but without him they struggled defensively. With Gobert off the court, Utah had a 105 defensive rating. With him on the court anchoring the defense, the Jazz had a 97.7 defensive rating and were one of the best defensive teams in the NBA.

Backup point guard Dante Exum has battled injuries the past two years, and missed significant time last season. Sidelined with a shoulder injury in October, he didn’t make his first appearance in a game until mid-March.

Exum showed flashes of his defensive prowess in Utah’s second round series against the Rockets. In Game 2 of the series. He matched up defensively against James Harden for 22 possessions, limiting him to two points on 0-for-7 shooting from the field. In his 17 minutes of game time, Utah outscored Houston by double-digits.

It’s critical to keep your star players healthy. The Jazz have a brutal early season schedule, with games scheduled against the New Orleans Pelicans, Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets in October. As witnessed last season, if Gobert can stay healthy, Utah will fare much better against elite opponents.