Utah Jazz have four legitimate contenders for end-of-year NBA awards

Due to some spectacular Utah Jazz performances this season, they deserve consideration for four specific NBA awards.

When it comes to national praise and recognition, the Utah Jazz aren’t typically near the top of the list. Despite boasting one of the more successful franchises in terms of playoff appearances over the course of the last 30-plus years, the small market nature of the team has largely kept them out of the limelight.

That standing has improved somewhat over the past couple years, helped by Utah’s playoff victory last season, Gordon Hayward’s ascension and subsequent departure, the rise of Rudy Gobert and of course most recently, the electrifying play of rookie sensation Donovan Mitchell. But to say that the Jazz are over the hump and turning into a national phenomenon would be largely incorrect.

So to assume that the Jazz will clean house and take home multiple NBA Awards come season’s end, even if they were deserving, is probably quite a stretch. Much like Rudy Gobert stated in a HoopsHype interview this summer, “When you play in a smaller market, you have to do three times what the guys in the big markets do” in order to get recognized.

However, regardless of common perception, there’s simply no arguing that the Utah Jazz have legitimate contenders for four of the league’s prestigious end-of-season awards. That’s not to say that they will win or are ultimately deserving to win all of those by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, at the end of the day, they may fall short of earning a single award.

Nevertheless, the Jazz certainly have a candidate deserving of being in the conversation for each of these following league-wide recognitions.