The Utah Jazz have more staying power than you think

The Utah Jazz have attacked this season with a vengeance. After a distressingly slow 4-4 start to the season, they’ve ripped off 22 wins in the following 24 games and sit atop the NBA’s standings with a 26-6 record.

If for no other reason than because nobody saw this coming from this team, it’s easy to wonder when the Jazz will cool down. When a team surprises as much as this one has, we often chalk it up to outlier performance and simply wait for them to come back to earth.

The Utah Jazz may not die off anytime soon

We overlook ascendant teams because that ascension doesn’t always convert into championships. And surely, it’s easier to not win an NBA championship than to win one, but sometimes the rise of an upstart is worth keeping an eye on.

The Utah Jazz appear to be one such upstart. Their hot start has been in spite of Mike Conley missing six games and Donovan Mitchell playing somewhat below his expected levels of production for much of the season.

Their 3-point shooting has been too much to be believed at a glance, as they lead the NBA in attempts per game at 42.2 and percentage at 39.9. Generally speaking, teams that lead the NBA in attempts tend to be middling at their rate of success, like the Houston Rockets over the last few years who hung around 35 percent most of the time.

The most prolific shooting team in the NBA also being the most proficient basically breaks the game of basketball.

However, their shooting could actually sustain. They’re getting 22.8 3-point attempts per game from Bojan Bogdanovic (who they didn’t have last season in the NBA bubble or playoffs), Royce O’Neal, Mike Conley and Joe Ingles, all players who shoot over 37.8 percent from long range in their careers. Donovan Mitchell is shooting 38.6 percent from 3 on 8.6 attempts per game, and that’s probably a percentage that will come down but he’s such a lethal scorer it’s an acceptable loss.

Jordan Clarkson has been lethal from long range as well, shooting 38.1 percent on 8.5 attempts per game. He and Ingles have been dynamic bench weapons all season long for the Jazz.

While some of these scorers may have their efficiency dip as the season goes on, as a group they’re just not that far off from their career numbers. So maybe they won’t slide after all, and Mitchell is likely to get better as the season goes on.

They have the NBA’s premiere defensive big man in Rudy Gobert, and he’s putting up a career-high in blocks, and his screening impact on the offensive end is almost too well-renowned.

They also have the league’s fourth-best offensive rating at 116.7 and the second-best defensive rating at 106.8, and the best net rating at +9.9.

The argument that the Jazz have peaked too soon to be a title contender holds no historical weight, either. At 26-6, their 32-game record is right on track with every champion from the past decade. Let’s run through them.

• 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers: 25-7
• 2018-29 Toronto Raptors: 23-9
• 2017-18 Golden State Warriors: 26-6
• 2016-17 Warriors: 27-5
• 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers: 23-9
• 2014-15 Warriors: 27-5
• 2013-14 San Antonio Spurs: 25-7
• 2012-13 Miami Heat: 23-9
• 2011-12 Heat: 25-7
• 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks: 24-8

The fact that the last 10 NBA champions all had similar records doesn’t prove that the Jazz are the next contender, obviously. There have been plenty of flameouts, like the Milwaukee Bucks, the pre-Kawhi Leonard Raptors, an occasional Houston Rockets or Portland Trail Blazers entry.

It does tell us, however, that there’s no merit to the argument that the Jazz are peaking too early. In fact, historically speaking, championship contenders do win like this early on. Sometimes they maintain that pace and others they lag a bit through the dog days of the season, but there’s no clear disqualifier for this team at this point.

They don’t have a LeBron James or a Kawhi Leonard in their ranks, and that’s going to be a problem as the season goes on. However, in this new and unusual era of NBA basketball, the Utah Jazz may be a bigger force to reckon with than we once thought.