The Utah Jazz received high marks in a recent ranking of NBA League Pass watchability, courtesy of ESPN’s Zach Lowe.
The month of October is finally here which means that the NBA regular season is nearly upon us. Utah Jazz fans in particular have a lot to be excited about as their team is poised to make some big-time noise in 2018-19. As the team leans on continuity and internal growth, a squad that advanced to the second round of the playoffs last year is aiming to do much, much more.
As such, particularly with a rising star in Donovan Mitchell and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, the Jazz are starting to garner some national attention. Not only have they become a fascinating squad in terms of their talent and on-court achievements, but the way they play the game with great ball movement, an increasing pace and relentless defense has made them entertaining to watch.
Such a notion was firmly backed up in a recent ESPN piece from Zach Lowe wherein he released his seventh annual NBA League Pass rankings. As you probably know, League Pass is a service that allows die-hard NBA fans to pick one team they’ll have access to watching all year, or they can subscribe to have access to watch the entire league. As such, Lowe gives his readers a look at rankings of which teams fans should be most excited to watch.
The 2018-19 League Pass Rankings, Part 1 https://t.co/Rhbg4q6LRw
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) October 1, 2018
The criteria he uses includes highlight probability, style, League Pass minutia such as uniforms and commentary, and zeitgeist. Given that the Utah Jazz are a small market team that often tends to fly under the radar, that last category can be a tough one for them, but they did extremely well in pretty much all the other areas.
So much so, that the Utah Jazz came in at number 10 on Lowe’s overall list.
Lowe had a lot of good things to say about Utah including their phenomenal style of play, the pair of stars in Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell and the duo of agitator extraordinaires Joe Ingles and Grayson Allen. Furthermore, the Jazz received bonus points for their uniform game which will continue to include the ultra-popular gradient city threads and the new purple throwbacks.
The 7th Annual League Pass Rankings, Part II, where I am drunk with power: https://t.co/spSe6geTwi
— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) October 2, 2018
That’s some pretty high praise for the oft-overlooked squad. Perhaps by finishing in the top 10, the Jazz will continue to gain more followers among crazed basketball fans willing to give them a shot. Quite frankly, though I’m biased, there were quite a few teams that I was surprised to see ahead of the Jazz in the top 10, including the Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets and Chicago Bulls.
The Bucks and Nuggets undoubtedly have intriguing players and are in situations to have an impressive 2018-19 season, and the young Bulls are in a large market and could surprise this year. But still, in terms of quality basketball and standing within a deep Western Conference, I’d give the Jazz an edge in watchability over those teams even if I wasn’t a fan.
At the end of the day, the League Pass Rankings are all in good fun. Some teams that were picked low last year ended up being an absolute blast to watch. Meanwhile, others that were supposed to be epic were quite disappointing. If anything, I expect the Utah Jazz to out-perform expectations. While a top-10 finish is nothing to complain about, I think Mitchell, Gobert and Co. are about to put the league on notice.
There’s a lot to be optimistic about regarding this team, and I have a feeling that’s about to be on full display when the regular season kicks off in a mere two weeks.