Ranking every season in Utah Jazz franchise history

1994-95 Utah Jazz Record: 60-22, Lost in Western Conference First Round vs Houston Rockets 2-3

In seemingly all these rankings, it’s difficult to decide how to weigh the regular season. On the one hand, history is written by the victor. The deeper you proceed into the playoffs, therefore, the greater your share in determining how history is written. On the other hand, it feels a bit silly to disregard an entire regular seasons’ worth of work on the basis of winning one extra playoff series.

The 1994-95 Utah Jazz encapsulate this dilemma. This is the first team in franchise history to clear the 60 win threshold, but they also lost in the first round of the playoffs. Of course, it has to be said that they lost to the eventual NBA champion Houston Rockets.

That series lost highlighted a common shortcoming of the Stockton and Malone era: depth. The pair of superstars were, as was often the case, overcome by a pair of superstars with a better supporting cast. Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler were formidable enough, but flanked by Robert Horry, Vernon Maxwell, Kenny Smith, Mario Elie and a young Sam Cassell, they were practically unbeatable.

A midseason trade of Otis Thorpe for Drexler probably explains Houston’s relatively modest 47 regular season wins. These Utah Jazz were good, but the Rockets were substantially better.