In order for the Utah Jazz to truly emerge as championship contenders next season, they’ll need each of their starters to take a leap in very specific areas.
It’s no secret that the Utah Jazz made some critical moves this offseason that vastly improved the overall talent of their roster. Between the additions of Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic, combined with the internal improvements of the guys already established on the roster, this team is set to be nothing short of a powerhouse in the Western Conference.
But that by no means is to say that they’re perfect as they are currently. Not only will the Jazz newcomers need to mesh for the new-look squad to reach its potential, but they will need to continue to improve this summer as they aim to take a major leap in the West.
In order to do so, there are specific areas that each of the starters in particular need to enhance going into the 2019-20 season, so we’ll take a look at each of them and dive into where they can specifically refine their game to most help the Jazz this upcoming year. In so doing, we’re going to assume that the Jazz opt to go with a starting lineup described in a recent article from The Athletic (paid subscription required) by Tony Jones in which he mentions that the Jazz are likely to commence the game with Royce O’Neale at the four-spot.
Joe Ingles will still be a crucial figure of the Jazz rotation, and may very well still close games and log more minutes than Royce. But for this exercise, we’ll assume that he’ll be coming off the bench, and cover the improvements he and his second unit running-mates need to make in a later writing.
For now, we’ll focus in on the sure starters – Mike Conley, Donovan Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic and Rudy Gobert – along with the likely starter Royce O’Neale, looking at the one major area where they can take their game to the next level.