Gordon who? — Despite losing their All-Star last summer, the Utah Jazz rebounded to have one of their best seasons of the last decade.
Back in October, it was anyone’s guess how the Utah Jazz would respond after losing Gordon Hayward over the summer. After all, seeing your lone All-Star and go-to guy leave town rarely leads to success.
Despite Hayward’s departure, though, there was at least tepid hope that the Jazz could sneak into one of the West’s final playoff spots. Even as some openly wondered whether they’d be better off punting on the season during the doldrums of December and January.
That hope, it turns out, was far from unfounded.
Not only did the Jazz make the playoffs (in spite of massive injuries), but they won nearly 50 games, advanced to the conference semifinals for the second consecutive year and even stole a game from the top-seeded Houston Rockets in Round 2.
In short, the Hayward-less Jazz were actually pretty good.
Along the way, there were a multitude of storylines for fans to enjoy. Donovan Mitchell emerged from the ether to become the man, Derrick Favors returned to form, Jae Crowder came to town, etc. etc.
However, the following five were my favorite moments from what was an incredible 2017-18 season.
Next: No. 5