Is the culture of the Utah Jazz being affected by the impromptu tear-down?

The Utah Jazz have 18 games left this season and sit at 28-36. A once-promising playoff team is now looking like they may not even make it to the 30-year win mark. Not if the club keeps getting blown out. They are 2-10 in their last 12 and have been giving up 127.7 points over those 10 losses. They just got their butts handed to them by the Denver Nuggets, watching the Nikola Jokic-led club drop 142 points on the Jazz.

The team looks like they've given up most nights, and with rumors of morale already being down after the NBA Trade Deadline came and went, the current state of the team can't be helping things. Desert.com's Sarah Todd seems to see the same things, and went on to write in a recent article;

"This is not a winning culture. This is not a year that demands winning habits — the kind of habits that are formed with a consistent roster, rotation and with a legitimate hope at something beyond the regular season. I’m sure I’m not the only one that has thought that all culture and identity building have been wasted this season."

And she's not wrong. She does try to look beyond that concept, using a quote from Omer Yurtseven to reevaluate the season some.

""I think this year has been about persistence and just staying with it, no matter what""

- Omer Yurtseven

Todd then goes on to give the team credit for its resilience for the season, but I'm left wondering if we're watching the same games because, after the loss to the Denver Nuggets, where the club once again didn't seem to try on defense, it seems like the team has given up.

There's no real persistence on the court when it counts. There's just more of the same. Sloppy passing, poor defense, and chemistry so bad that it makes the bad grades from high school chemistry classes look good by proxy.

The proof is in the pudding. This is not a team that fights. Not yet anyway. There's always a chance that with a few key offseason additions, and maybe a change of philosophy along the way, this becomes a team that resembles the clubs that Quinn Snyder and Jerry Sloan built in Salt Lake City.

Clubs with work ethic, perseverance and most importantly, success on the court. We're hopeful that next season can be better, but we're not going to sugar coat how disappointing, unnecessary and wasteful this season has been.