While 12th may be too low, the criticism around the Utah Jazz isn’t unfair

The Utah Jazz are a better team than they’re being given credit for, but the criticism around them isn’t unfair.

The Utah Jazz are not likely to be sitting out of the postseason this year. The team was good enough to make the Play-In Tournament last year, and that was with them sitting a number of players down the stretch and selling off some of their better assists; namely Mike Conley. The emergence of Walker Kessler and Lauri Markkanen had the team in competition long after many thought they’d fade away into the background.

And with the situations in Los Angeles (both teams), Minnesota, New Orleans, and elsewhere, the West is getting old, and top teams are being mismanaged. This means that younger, better-run teams like the Utah Jazz are looking like they’re getting ready to pop off and take their rightful place in the upper echelon of the NBA’s Western Conference.

That is if you listen to anyone but John Hollinger of The Athletic. Hollinger wrote (via Sports Illustrated), that the Jazz were likely to finish 12th in the West, two spots out of the 10th seed; which is the cut-off for the Play-In Tournament.

"The team, as it stands, is not particularly bad and will once again challenge for the Play-In for most of the year, but given that the West has 11 teams that consider themselves playoff-caliber, it will be an uphill battle to break through. That’s especially true given the odd on-court fit of the talent this year, with no real point and a lot of shot-happy perimeter players starving [Lauri] Markkanen and [John] Collins. Mike Conley will be missed."

That’s absurd, as this team was nearly in the playoffs last season with a less impressive roster. Sure, not having Conley hurts, but the team isn’t somehow worse today than it was at the end of the prior season.

That said, the critiques on the roster and the play style aren’t unfounded. There is genuine concern that guys like Talen Horton-Tucker, Collin Sexton, Keyonte George, and Jordan Clarkson are going to sink the offense by being ball-hogs. The star of the team is Lauri Markkanen and the offense needs to run through him.

Getting John Collins involved is just smart, and Walker Kessler can really do some damage if he’s fed in the paint. A trade is pretty much required, or at the very least, giving guys like Kris Dunn and Kelly Olynyk more minutes, as they’re arguably the two best passers on the team.

So the concern for how the offense is built isn’t unfair, but the team still has the offense needed to do some real damage.