Five things that must happen for the Utah Jazz to be title contenders post-Conley trade

Conley has to fit like a glove

I’ve said it several times – talent is more important than chemistry, but chemistry is still vital. At the end of the day, you have to have talented enough players to compete, and if your players are good enough, they’ll be able to overcome most disagreements, drama or head-butting that arises. Such clearly has been true for the Golden State Warriors, who prior to this postseason overcame repeated internal strife among their players to win championships thanks largely to their vastly superior talent.

However, chemistry can still completely alter a team for better or for worse. Just look at the Boston Celtics. Undeniably they had more talent this season, with Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward returning to action, than they had in the postseason a year ago. However, the former, less talented team achieved much greater heights. Why was that? Because this year’s rendition of the Celtics had horrific chemistry that doomed them all year long.

The Houston Rockets also have faced chemistry woes as disagreements between James Harden and Chris Paul may have been a big reason why they couldn’t capitalize against a Kevin Durant-less Warriors team in this year’s Western Conference Finals. In other words, the talent was there in both instances, but the chemistry simply wasn’t. And it caused the likes of Boston and Houston to unravel.

With Conley now in Utah’s mix combined with the rest of their squad, they now have the talent. They’ve also long had the chemistry, but new faces can often change that up. So the question that looms large is – can the cohesion they’ve had the past two seasons hold up?

There’s no denying that guys like Crowder and Rubio, in spite of their faults, were great locker room fits and did a lot to enhance the chemistry in SLC, so losing them could be a tough pill to swallow. Fortunately, Conley is reputed across the league as one of the NBA’s most solid guys, a fabulous teammate and an excellent locker room presence. Getting along with guys who want to work hard and win like Mitchell, Gobert and Co. should be an easy task for Conley who has the same desires and by all counts is easy to get along with himself.

Aside from chemistry, Conley should also fit in extremely well with Utah’s style of play, which is another highly reassuring sign. He’s excellent in the pick-and-roll, a great catch-and-shoot guy and knows when to get his own and when to share the rock unselfishly.

I’m honestly not too worried about Conley’s chemistry or basketball fit in Salt Lake City, but we’ve seen bigger surprises before of teammates simply not working out. The Jazz now have the talent to be a title contender, but to truly fall into that mix, they’ll need the cohesion they’ve exhibited the past two years to continue to hold up as well with their newly added point guard.