The Utah Jazz are on a tear that few teams are capable of mustering, having turned around their season completely since the start of December and going from one of the worst teams in the entire NBA to being one of the best. Currently 15-4 across their last 19, the Jazz have been powered by an unexpected dou; Lauri Markkanen and Collin Sexton.
Markkanen was expected to be the star that he is this season, but Sexton? Not so much, in fact, Sexton was on the bench to start the season and many thought he'd likely be traded. But as famed college football analyst Lee Corso always says; not so fast, my friend. Sexton being inserted into the starting lineup has changed the course of this team.
The Jazz are now firmly within striking distance of the playoffs, a feat they should be able to achieve assuming the front office doesn't muck this run up. Should they be able to do that, the catalyst for the turnaround would fall mostly on Sexton's shoulders. He's proven that he's one of the better players on the team and his addition to the starting lineup coincided with the Jazz's turn-around.
Those two moments in time were not a coincidence. Since entering the starting lineup, Sexton is averaging well over 20 points per game and has seen his playmaking improve as well. In January alone, he's averaging well over 5.5 assists per game. Pretty impressive considering he was seen as simply a mid-range scorer for his entire career up until now.
But it hasn't even been his own stats that have exploded since he took over the reins of the starting lineup. The Jazz as a whole are playing better, in part because of Sexton. In the 23 games with Sexton on the bench, they were averaging just 111.39 points per game. In the 19 games since Sexton has come in, the Jazz are now averaging 123.36 points per game.
For an even more wild comparison, the Jazz in five fewer games, are just 218 points shy of the total points scored prior to Sexton starting for the club. They're a dramatically better shooting, passing and overall scoring team and Sexton deserves a good deal of credit for that.