NBA 2K18 Utah Jazz All-Time Team revealed

The NBA 2K18 Utah Jazz All-Time Team was revealed today and it included a handful of surprising names.

Earlier in the month, it was announced that the newest edition of the hit NBA video game series – NBA 2K18 – would feature ”All-Time Teams” for all 30 teams across the league. The game has long featured several iconic classic teams and players, but compiling the best to ever play for each organization is a new and exciting facet for the game to pursue.

On Wednesday, per Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune, the Utah Jazz’s 2K18 All-Time Team was revealed, and while the team is headlined by guys that we all could have guessed would make the final cut, there were certainly some surprises on the final roster.

The starting lineup will be composed of John Stockton at the point, “Pistol” Pete Maravich at the two, Adrian Dantley at the small forward, Karl Malone at the four-spot and Mark Eaton at the center. I suppose some could argue about replacing a couple of those guys, but overall, I feel like this is a very accurate slate, and of course who would argue that Jazz legends Stockton and Malone don’t deserve to be among the starting five?

The list of reserve players is where things get a little bit confusing. It includes the following: Andrei Kirilenko, Deron Williams, Gordon Hayward, Rudy Gobert, Darrell Griffith, Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Greg Ostertag, Jeff Hornacek and Derrick Favors. Some of these guys, such as Kirilenko, D-Will and Hornacek are shoo-ins in my mind. However, there’s more than a few that don’t quite belong.

The three that stick out the most to me are Al Jefferson, Greg Ostertag and Derrick Favors. Big Al was only with the Jazz for a short time and during one of the more disappointing eras of Jazz basketball. Beyond that, while he had his moments of offensive dominance, he wasn’t much of a defender at all and did little, if anything, to help take the Jazz to the next level.

Then there’s Greg Ostertag who was one of the main scapegoats for Utah’s inability to surpass the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls and win an NBA championship. Perhaps some of the bad rap he receives is undeserved, but I surely don’t believe he belongs on Utah’s All-Time team by any stretch of the imagination.

Last of all, while I love Derrick Favors and hope that eventually he will chronicle himself in the halls of the Utah Jazz’s all-time greats, he hasn’t done nearly enough for the Jazz yet to be deserving of this recognition. His best stat lines of 16 points and 8 rebounds came on just two occasions and he was largely hindered by injuries the past two seasons. Until he can become a more consistent and reliable contributor, Favors shouldn’t find himself on a list of all-time Jazz greats.

As several have already clamored on social media, it seems odd that those three would be on the list over players such as Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur whose contributions to the Jazz were very noteworthy and ought to have placed them above those mentioned here. Boozer logged six seasons with the Utah Jazz and in his peak year in 2007-08 he averaged 21.1 points and 10.4 rebounds per game while appearing in all but one contest.

Meanwhile, Okur logged seven seasons with the Jazz and in 2005-06 put up 18 points and 9.1 rebounds per game and was a career 37.5 percent three-point shooter at a time when three-point shooting bigs weren’t all that common. Together, Okur and Boozer helped take the Jazz to four straight playoff appearances between 2006-07 and 2009-2010.

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For that third spot, I personally would have liked to have seen one of my favorite Jazz players of all time, Thurl Bailey, get the nod, but there’s a handful of other guys that could have been worthy of the slot as well.

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Although the starting lineup for the All-Time Team is pretty close to on point, it feels like the folks over at 2K should have done a little more homework on the Utah Jazz before assembling this team. Although the roster is good, it just doesn’t seem to quite capture exactly who should’ve made the cut.

What do you think of the roster, though, Jazz fans? Were there others that should have made the team in place of someone that did? Who would you have mixed or matched? Feel free to let me know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter.