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Are the Utah Jazz in a better spot to win the NBA title now than it was with Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert?

Chad Porto|
ATLANTA, GA - FEBRUARY 04: Donovan Mitchell #45 reacts with Rudy Gobert #27 of the Utah Jazz during the first half against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena on February 4, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GA - FEBRUARY 04: Donovan Mitchell #45 reacts with Rudy Gobert #27 of the Utah Jazz during the first half against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena on February 4, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)

The Utah Jazz traded away two major pieces in Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert but are they better off?

The Utah Jazz were as good as they were ever going to be with Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert on the roster, so the Jazz front office decided to tear everything down and rebuild again. In doing so, they used the trades of Mitchell and Gobert to jump-start their new era, this time with a bunch of draft picks and swaps, as well as key players in Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler – both obtained in those trades.

The team is now full of talent, hope, and assets, and may very well get into the playoffs this year without having to go through the Play-In Tournament. But are they closer to winning a title today, compared to where they were with Mitchell and Gobert? Well, one person sure thinks so.

Responding to Jazz Lead on Twitter/X, one Twitter user named Jesse jumped at the chance to have a big take. The user in question said the Jazz are now closer to a championship without Mitchell and Gobert than they were with them.

And, uh…what’s the polite way of saying this?

The Jazz, today, are not closer to the title than they were with Gobert and Mitchell leading the way. If you take that Jazz team from the end of the 2021-2022 season and put it against the current team, it’d be fair to say they win most of the time. Not all the time, this team isn’t full of suckers and talentless hacks, but they’re young. That team had Gobert, Mitchell, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Mike Conley. This team is young and inexperienced at times.

So no, right now, this team is not closer to a world title than the last Mitchell and Gobert team was. That said, this team has more potential and a better chance of getting to the title. With the last incarnation of the team, bloated contracts, aging players, and a lack of movable assets hindered the team’s ability to grow and get better.

Had they not wasted some of their picks and signed some guys to not-so-wise contracts, maybe that wouldn’t have been the case, but they booked themselves into a corner, as some would say. This Jazz team isn’t encumbered by any of those bad decisions, so they’ve got more flexibility to make moves to win.

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