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3 Reasons The Utah Jazz Will Make The Playoffs

By Tyson Newman

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With media day in the rear view and training camp underway, the Utah Jazz have tipped off their 2015-16 campaign. The Jazz find themselves in a much different position than they were in to begin last season. At this time last year, we were calling the upcoming season “the season of discovery.” This year, there’s a much different vibe that can be described with one word–playoffs.

While Jazz players and the front office won’t admit that’s their goal and that they simply want to “see improvement,” we all know that improvement from what we saw last season would be making the playoffs.

In his interview with David Locke and Ron Boone on media day, Rudy Gobert mentioned that his personal goal for this upcoming season was to become a “playoff player.” With the Jazz being a trendy pick to be the eighth seed in the Western Conference by many experts, I’m going to give you three reasons why we will see the Jazz extend their NBA season for the first time since 2011-12.

Gordon Hayward

I led with this reason because, simply put, Gordon Hayward has and will continue to lead this team and step up in big moments. Hayward was one of eight NBA players last season to average 19 points, four rebounds and four assists per game. The other seven players to do that were the top four vote-getters for the All-Star Game (LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Stephen Curry) along with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Damian Lillard.

That’s pretty elite company for a player who wasn’t named an All-Star.

Hayward spent a lot of time working on his game in Indiana during the offseason with other NBA players. He also returned looking like he has been in the weight room a lot, which has led to this tweet of Hayward in his rookie season compared to now making the rounds on Twitter.

All of this points to Hayward having another great season. Considering he has increased his point total every year by two-plus points per game, who knows how great he will actually be this season.

Depth

The Jazz have also added to the depth of the roster compared to the last few seasons. At every position, the Jazz have two or in some cases three guys that we can argue deserve minutes this season. While the team’s one weak spot seems to be at the point guard position, the remaining positions seem to be logjammed.

It’s going to be a battle before the season starts for all of these players trying to prove that they deserve to be on the team, as well as prove they deserve minutes out on the floor.

The reason the Jazz have depth is because of the additions they’ve made in the offseason. They acquired two seven-foot centers, Jeff Withey and Tibor Pleiss, to back up Gobert and shore up that frontcourt depth, in addition to bringing in Raul Neto and resigning both Trevor Booker and Joe Ingles. I haven’t even mentioned the 12th overall pick in the draft Trey Lyles who, according to Booker, has a ton of potential and can do everything on the court.

The Jazz seem more prepared this season to withstand any injury that comes their way and continue to compete through out the season.

Defense

In the second half of the 2014-15 season, the Jazz made a huge jump defensively and finished as the best defensive team in the NBA.

After February 1st, the Jazz defensive rating was 96.6 which led the league. There’s no better way to put in perspective how good that defensive rating is than with this scenario–the Spurs were the second-best defensive team after February 1st with a rating of 99.2; a difference of 2.6. That is the same difference between the Spurs and the Rockets, who were the 12th best defensive team in the NBA at 101.8.

The Jazz didn’t just lead the league, they destroyed every team in the league.

Considering that stat, I think it’s fair to say that the Jazz have a really good shot at being a top five defensive team this season, which leads me to the reason why this is important. There has only been one team in the past 10 seasons who has been a top five defensive team and not made the playoffs. The 2010-2011 Milwaukee Bucks were fourth in defensive rating on the season.

The reason they missed to playoffs is because they were also last in the league in offensive rating. Last season, the Jazz ranked 16th in offensive rating, so it’s safe to say that if the Jazz are top five in defensive rating, they make the playoffs.

These are the reasons the Utah Jazz will be a playoff team in the 2015-2016 NBA season. It’s a great time to be a Jazz fan and the team has gone from having tons of question marks to tons of confidence and excitement. While this has been a huge playoff drought that we are not accustomed to, I believe the drought is over.

Future seasons will all have expectations of the postseason play and with the front office that we have in place, I expect the Jazz to continue to climb the Western Conference ladder every year.

Next: Gordon Hayward Stands Up For Gamers

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