Utah Jazz minutia: A by-the-numbers look at the 2017-18 season
By Ryan Aston
Some random stats from the Utah Jazz’s 2017-18 campaign that lend credence to the idea that the team was underrated last season and is set to break out next year.
Over the course of an 82-game season, hoops bloggers like myself see more than their fair share of number. For just about every story I write (or even attempt to write) about the Utah Jazz, I do some level of statistical research; even if the numbers never make it into the published piece.
Along the way, certain figures will catch me. Some of them are the obvious numbers; scoring averages, net ratings, X wins in Y games and so on and so forth. Others take a little bit more effort — did you know that Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles both traveled a little over 184 miles on the hardwood last season?
Just for funsies, I’ve been keeping a log of some of the stats that have stuck in my mind throughout the offseason and cobbling them together for a by-the-numbers review of Utah’s 2017-18 campaign.
You’ll undoubtedly have seen a handful of them before, but they’ll all give you soft, fuzzy feelings for what the Jazz were able to accomplish last season nonetheless. Not to mention what they could be capable of in the year to come. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.
The first one is actual a negative number, in the most positive sense…