Utah Jazz Roster Stocked with Depth, Flexibility

The Utah Jazz have the ability to showcase a lot of different lineups this season thanks to their depth and the amount of players who can play multiple positions.

Many have said the NBA is a copy cat league. After a team wins a championship or has a lot of success, others inevitably try to follow exactly in their footsteps. After LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, many teams felt they had to build a “super team” of their own in order to stay competitive.

Trading young talent in their rookie deals (exhibit a, exhibit b, exhibit c) to obtain veteran All-Stars has now become a common practice in the league.

While teams have tanked in the past, the amount of teams tanking to be the next Oklahoma City Thunder has also skyrocketed. The problem is, it’s not exactly easy to draft three future superstars in three consecutive drafts.

And last but not least, there’s the latest trend set by the Golden State Warriors. Not only do you need to spread the court with at least four, if not five guys who can all shoot from downtown, but you need to take those threes at a rate that has never before been seen in NBA history.

Now, it’s not necessarily bad to follow in the footsteps of teams that have had success. Chances are, you’ll have some success as well. However, what’s better than following other teams as they set trends? Making the new trend yourself and forcing the other teams to follow you. And the Utah Jazz may just be on the edge of making a new trend.

The past few years the Jazz have accumulated young players who all meet some specific criteria: they play great defense, they have great length and they can play multiple positions.

In today’s NBA, it’s critical to be able to play a couple different positions. Quin Snyder’s offense requires all of his players to be able to handle the ball, pass, cut, set screens and score. But being positionless comes into play on the defense end as well.

When you’re playing Golden State, Cleveland, or the Houston Rockets, you better have the personnel that allows you to go small to match up with their shooters while still having advantages on your end of the court. And when you play teams like the San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers, who tend to have two bigs on the court at all times, you have to be able to match up with them as well.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of key players on the Jazz who will be playing multiple positions next season.