Ranking the Utah Jazz among the NBA’s remaining undefeated teams
Utah Jazz vs Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls went all-in at last year’s trade deadline, acquiring All-Star center Nikola Vucevic at the cost of Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr. and two first-round picks. The move signified a strong urge to restore a formerly dynastic franchise to glory. This past offseason, they doubled down on those desires by acquiring Lonzo Ball and DeMar DeRozan.
The consensus on this club came swiftly. Observers widely expected them to become one of the league’s best offensive teams, and one of its worst on the defensive end. Those assumptions made sense. Last season, Defensive Box Plus/Minus (DBPM) pegged all 3 of Vucevic (-1.5), DeRozan (-3.7) and Zach Lavine (-3.5) as distinct liabilities on the defensive end.
Assumptions are notoriously unreliable.
The Bulls have posted their 4-0 record thus far on the strength of their defensive prowess. Their middling 109.1 Offensive Rating ranks 12th in the NBA, whereas their Defensive Rating of 99.1 places them 4th overall. There are two explanations for this unexpected development, and one is a lot more charitable than the other.
The first is that the collective stopping power of Lonzo Ball, Patrick Williams and Alex Caruso is enough to offset the defensive struggles of the previously named big 3. Early season metrics are too unreliable to lend credence to, but last season, that triumvirate posted DBPM scores of -0.7, 0.0 and 2.3 respectively. Lonzo’s negative score is surprising, but it is worth noting that team success can factor into DBPM, and that his Pelicans ranked 23rd in Defensive Rating last season.
Any eye test will confirm that Zo, like his two teammates, is a stout defender. However, there is a less friendly, and potentially more viable explanation for the success of this Chicago Bulls team to-date. They’ve had a much easier schedule than either the Utah Jazz or the Golden State Warriors.
This Bulls team has beaten the Detroit Pistons twice, and the struggling Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Pelicans once each. In the light of context, their undefeated record feels substantially less impressive. This supposedly elite scoring team doesn’t have their offense humming yet, and their top-5 Defensive Rating looks a lot less impressive knowing that lottery-bound teams have struggled to score against them.
Frankly, the Detroit Pistons without franchise player Cade Cunningham are likely to struggle to score against anyone. That might be equally true for a Pelicans team without Zion Williamson and a Raptors team missing Pascal Siakam.
All of which is not to say that Chicago Bulls fans should not be celebrating their 4-0 start. This team still has plenty of time to find its offensive rhythm and start winning games in the manner it was expected to. If they do, they’ll be overjoyed to have won their first 4 games before that happened.
Given the manner in which they’ve won so far, however, it’s impossible to rank them ahead of the Utah Jazz or the Golden State Warriors.