Since the 2016-17 season, only one team has managed to be a mainstay among the Western Conference’s top six finishers in the standings each year – the Utah Jazz.
In that span, though, the Jazz have accumulated just 19 playoff wins – 3.8 per season on average. In a seven-game series, three wins are not going to cut it.
This season, though the Jazz were in the top half of the standings all year, Utah finds themselves skidding to the finish, just 1.5 games over 7th and at risk of falling into the Play-In.
Utah Jazz should end the Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert era
A statistical nugget from Dustin Taylor came up on NBA Twitter this week following two impressive collapses from Utah against the Clippers and Warriors, and it caused a bit of a stir.
Some users on Twitter took this to be a Donovan Mitchell issue, but others were quick to point out that it may be a warranted lack of trust dissuading Mitchell from feeding Gobert in the post.
Rudy Gobert has just the third-best field goal percentage on shots within five feet of the basket among centers on the Utah Jazz. For context – the Jazz currently have three centers on the roster.
On post-ups, Gobert is averaging just 1.0 points per possession – that places him at 50th in the NBA. Not exactly ideal for a 7’1″ center, particularly one as strong as Gobert.
Despite Gobert’s uninspiring numbers, sometimes he is overlooked when he really should get the ball. While it’s Mitchell catching heat on Twitter, he’s not the only one who regularly looks Gobert off. None of the Jazz ballhandlers really seem to trust Gobert on the offensive end.
The Jazz’s issues reared their ugly head in the past week especially. On Tuesday, the Jazz were leading the Clippers 83-60 late into the third quarter. On Saturday, they were leading the Warriors 103-87 with under 8 minutes to go.
They lost both games, and Mitchell was clearly frustrated:
Donovan Mitchell at a loss for words after falling to Clippers: "I don't know. It's the same s***. It's the same thing. It's literally the same thing."
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) March 30, 2022
Utah is now two games behind No. 4 in the Western Conference. Home-court advantage in the playoffs unlikely. pic.twitter.com/tb0wtHAjzz
The Jazz have been on an impressive regular season run for the past six seasons – but they only have a couple of Rudy Gobert DPOY trophies and a Donovan Mitchell Rookie of the Year second-place finish to show for it. They may have reached the maximum potential of this Gobert/Mitchell core. It may be time to move on.
Rudy Gobert is a fantastic player locked into an, albeit expensive, long-term deal, and teams have already expressed interest should the Jazz decide to move on. Utah could get a substantial return for a player like that.
Donovan Mitchell is on a similar long-term deal and could net an impressive return as well, should Utah decide to trade him. Mitchell is an explosive scoring guard who would be an offensive boon to any team that acquires him.
In the modern NBA, where title contention and tanking are king and mediocrity is akin to purgatory, it may be time for the Jazz to take a realistic look at where they are, and make the necessary substantial changes.