Small market status shouldn’t get in the way
It would be easy for a team like the Utah Jazz to use their small market status as an excuse for when the chips don’t fall their way. It’s harder to attract free agents. The luxury tax is more of a burden. Players demand out and want to leave. The list goes on and on.
But Toronto is subject to many of those same issues and yet they overcame them to produce an incredible NBA Finals bound squad. The Jazz are certainly capable of the same. Sure, they don’t have the natural recruiting prowess of a location like Los Angeles or Miami, but there’s still plenty the Jazz have that they can use to their advantage and many things they can continue to expand upon to follow the same path that has been blazed by Toronto.
The Jazz have great ownership, a wise front office, a brilliant coach and a winning culture. The same can be said for the Raptors in many ways. However, the Raptors have outdone the Jazz in that they have made savvy trades, such as for Kawhi and Marc Gasol, they have put together an incredible reserve unit with guys like Fred VanVleet, Serge Ibaka and Norman Powell, and they’ve drafted well with pickups like Pascal Siakam who is a budding star.
Again, the Jazz have done some of this but they’ve also been lacking on the trade and draft front. Yes, they made deals on draft day to get Mitchell and Gobert, but as far as bringing in the right veterans in trades or pursuing blockbuster deals, they’ve struggled to find the right match. And outside of Mitchell and Gobert, they haven’t been able to find other difference makers in the draft. Rodney Hood is no longer with the team, Dante Exum is always hurt and Grayson Allen has a long ways to go assuming he ever gets to the level he needs to.
Nevertheless, this isn’t about criticizing what the Jazz have done or even praising the things they’ve done magnificently, which describes more than what they get credit for. This is more about how the Raptors, as a small market and oft overlooked team, have overcome the odds to become a powerhouse. They did so by defying typical small market perceptions and by putting together a road map of how to ascend the ranks of the NBA’s elite.
And that’s something wherein the Jazz can aim to follow suit by bolstering their bench, making timely trades and aiming to improve their talent acquisition in the draft.
The Jazz clearly have a lot of work to do if they hope to become true title contenders, especially with the Golden State Warriors running rampant in the Western Conference. However, seeing the Toronto Raptors make it this far is an undeniably good sign for the Jazz.
A blueprint is in place for how a perennial middle tier playoff team can make the leap to the NBA Finals. The Utah Jazz just have to apply some of these key lessons and now find their own way to do what the Raptors have done and follow suit themselves. Toronto’s success is a great sign that a team like the Jazz can be just as capable of making a similar leap if the right steps are taken and the appropriate decisions are made.