The Utah Jazz don’t have any All-NBA players but they’re deep, very deep.
The Utah Jazz are not going to be an easy out this year. That’s becoming more and more clear following the FIBA World Cup. The team is loaded with good, starting quality players, who will help fortify this team going forward. Sure, they don’t have a single All-NBA player right now. Maybe Lauri Markkanen will break into that area, but who knows?
The team does have holes, but they’re not exactly limited. Look at the point guard position, you could do worse than Jordan Clarkson or Collin Sexton taking over the role. And if you want a more traditional type, then you have Kris Dunn. Not an All-Star caliber crop of guys, but all three could be starters for a majority of the NBA’s teams.
This is a team that, if you were to look at 2K24 as a guide, wouldn’t have a lot of “90-type players”, but they’re a team that, if we’re being honest, won’t have a single bad player in the entire rotation. Sure, not everyone will fit the role they’re given, that’s just reality, but all of them should be able to put up some impressive performances.
Look at two guys who are coming off the bench in Simone Fontecchio and Kelly Olynyk. They were the star or featured players on their respective FIBA World Cup teams. Fontecchio got Team Italy to the quarter-finals and Olynyk allowed Team Canada to use different lineups simply due to his versatility.
And those are guys who are, in Fontecchio’s case, going to be competing for minutes and Olynyk’s case, going to be coming off the bench possibly as a sixth-man type.
Sure, neither man is Mikal Bridges or Nikola Jokic but the depth here is what makes this team dangerous. Even Jazz play-by-play broadcaster Craig Bolerjack knows this, as he spoke to ESPN 700’s The Drive with Spence Checketts.
In the interview (via Sports Illustrated), Bolerjack echoed similar sentiments, saying;
"I think the depth of his team has slowly been built and almost in a surprising way by Danny Ainge — not a lot of hype, but players that understand their role and also are ballers, and I think they have the hunger and an attitude."
And that doesn’t even factor in the rookies that the team drafted this year either. If those guys can match the quality of bench play that the Jazz already have, then it’s not out of the realm of possibility they outplay other teams when the second-team units hit the court. They could become one of the best bench squads in the league.
And that makes the Jazz deceptively dangerous going forward.