Salt City Seven: Revisiting Summer Blockbuster Ahead of Jazz-Cavs & More

Every Monday during the regular season here at SCH begins with the Salt City Seven, with a septet of recurring features that let us relive the biggest moments, key performances and hot issues in Jazzland from various angles. Check in every week for the quotes, stats, plays and performances that tell the stories from the last 168 hours in the world of the Jazz.

By late August, the Jazz had been in discussions on various fronts about potential Donovan Mitchell moves for the better part of two months. Some teams were lowballing, others were more earnest but lacked the assets, and still others were quietly making progress at assembling the type of package that would convince Utah’s brain trust to pull the trigger.

When Cleveland solidified an offer package built around Lauri Markkanen, multiple draft goodies and the rights to sign Collin Sexton for four years, they had the Jazz’s attention. The Jazz knew the smart thing to do was to give other bidders like New York one more chance at blowing them away with draft capital, but there was unanimous excitement about the Cavs’ offer. Days later, the Jazz made it official after hammering out the finer points: Markkanen and Sexton were SLC-bound, and Mitchell was quite unexpectedly a Cavalier.

As those three all prepare to face their former teams, we’re bound to spend part of this week reliving that seemingly interminable summer limbo in which a Mitchell trade felt all but inevitable.

This writer has very little interest in a full-blow post mortem of the Mitchell era, so let’s leave it at this: I believed right up until the very end (and still do) that the previous Jazz core had the talent and complementary skills to do special things. But they were too broken. Folks may remember that I actually started the offseason by daring to imagine how the Jazz could keep their 2022 All-Stars and redesign their supporting cast on the fly. But the more connected people I heard from, the more obvious it was that it just wasn’t happening. The group had mentally moved on from one another. It sucks, but it happens. 

So rather than do a whole other round of “what might have been” wistfulness, I’d rather treat Spida-vs.-Jazz as an opportunity to review why Jazz brass are thrilled with their September swap, even as Mitchell is knocking on the door of the MVP conversation with career-high 29.5 points per game and .640 true shooting.

The Jazz’s excitement — now and when that offer arrived in late August — centers on Markkanen.

The 7-foot Finnish forward is not someone the Jazz wanted in the deal as a pass-through asset or a simple rebuilding chip. He was a target, the type of prospect they would have actually spent draft capital to go get. They saw him as someone who had largely been under-utilized, but who had intermittently shown he was capable of being more than a pressure release valve. Markkanen is really smart, smooth and versatile as a scorer, and he’s improving in other areas, too.

Contrary to summer chatter, the Jazz never really cared about out-hauling the Rudy Gobert trade return on a Mitchell deal. But the fact that they ultimately got Markkanen — whom they viewed as worth assets — PLUS Sexton, three picks, two swaps and recent lotto selection Ochai Agbaji makes it a very similar macro-value return.

The Gobert trade just didn’t have that type of headliner; Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt are solid, young, complementary pieces on short-term deals, and Patrick Beverley (whom they flipped to get younger and bigger) never made much sense for the Jazz’s project. The headliner of that deal was the draft capital.

The headliner of Jazz-Cavs was a player who will receive some immediate All-Star consideration in his first Jazz season, and yet the Jazz also scored the same number of unprotected picks. And that’s before we even get to Sexton.

The Jazz were also excited about Sexton’s resume, while also acknowledging that he’d need some refining over time. As Tony Jones has spelled out, they are trying to chisel the 23-year-old into a different type of NBA guard, and that will take some time. But already there are things to like about the early returns: he has been one of Utah’s best on-ball creators, his 49% on non-rim twos is elite for a guard, and he plays with a fire in his belly. Like Markkanen, they acquired Sexton with the intent of giving him a chance to grow into a bigger role. Those two have as high a chance of being part of the next great Jazz team as anybody else on the roster.

Meanwhile, the dude the Jazz sent out in that deal is playing like a top-10 superstar. Honestly, that’s awesome and not the least bit surprising, given that Mitchell has improved consistently since debuting in the league in 2017. He’s an absolute shoe-in to appear as an All-Star in his former hometown this coming February. Hoop fans in Salt Lake should celebrate him when he does, and should applaud him earnestly when he returns a month earlier to face the Jazz. He made being a Jazz fan delightfully fun for a while, and gave the Jazz a pathway to being, if nothing else, really freaking interesting at a time when they otherwise would have been stuck in a lengthy transition period.

Be happy for Mitchell. Be happy for what he did in Utah (on the court and off it) and for the fact that now he gets to push the limits of his greatness in a new environment. Be happy that his growth as a Jazzman made it possible for Utah to reload convincingly when things had sadly run their course with the Mitchell/Gobert era. Be happy that the Jazz pivoted decisively once it reached that point so that they could negotiate from a position of strength and bring back potential studs like Markkanen and Sexton and a boat load of draft capital to start to imagine the next contending core of the Utah Jazz.

“They really lean on each other. They’re doing it as a group. It’s not as if they look to one person to lead us, one person to save us. They all just rally around each other and bring their little piece to the game every night.”

-Will Hardy, after the Jazz swept the Pelicans

The Jazz have been the best, friskiest and most fun version of themselves when they have abided by that ethos. They have had 15 games with at least six players reaching double-figures, more than any other team in the league, and they’re 9-6 in those games. They’re also 7-2 when they have three players with 5+ assists, and 7-4 when multiple players grab 9+ boards. 

It’s just the reality for a team with no clear top-20 superstar: the Jazz need to function in such a way that it’s not any one guy’s job to carry them to a victory.

“That’s been our mantra all year, that nobody has to do any more than they need to. We don’t need anybody to save us, we just need everybody to do their job.”

43%/3.1

To continue the dialogue from above, we should also acknowledge that the Jazz will visit Bojan Bogdanovic after they drop in on Mitchell. They didn’t get quite the same asset haul from the Bogey deal as some anticipated, and yet Kelly Olynyk has been really important to how the Jazz are playing. He’s the only big man in the league shooting above 42% from three AND averaging 3+ assists per game.

As I detailed after the deal, the Jazz could have gotten a first for Bogey in several different deal versions, but those constructs all required them to take (or include) other stuff they weren’t wild about taking (or including). With Olynyk they gave themselves a chance to balance the roster and make the basketball ecosystem a little more cohesive to everyone else’s development because of the Canadian’s savvy. I did write that I thought they probably should’ve gotten some type of asset in dealing the better macro player, and a good sign that I was right is that ESPN’s Zach Lowe still thinks they did. He continues to remember the deal as the Jazz getting “Olynyk and some seconds or something,” a good indicator that the rough value calculation here is that the Jazz gave up the better player on the whole.

That said, the broader point behind this stat entry: Olynyk really matters to the present-day Jazz.

61.2

Will Hardy described Tuesday’s installment of Jazz-Pels as his team’s best defensive game. Empirically, it was. The Jazz held New Orleans to 92.3 efficiency for the night, their best single game defensive rating of the year outside of garbage time. In halfcourt possessions, the Jazz held their visitors to just 61.2 efficiency, one of the four best halfcourt defensive performances of the entire NBA season through Tuesday.

.52

However, then they turned around and had one of their worst defensive performances of the season (128.2), lowlighted by the fact that they let Milwaukee score a mindblowing average of 0.52 points after each reboundable miss. That is a wild number. The Bucks turned a third of their misses into second opportunities.

5-2

In between those two was the thrilling finale of the Jazz-Pels season series, a well-fought game on both ends that required every second of overtime to decide. The Jazz are now 5-2 in games decided by three points or less.

14

The Jazz currently lead the league in games played against .500-or-better opponents (23, tied with the Pistons and Magic) and in wins in such games (14, tied with Boston).

You may remember when we told you almost exactly a month ago that only eight teams this century had matched Utah’s 12-6 start but eventually missed the playoffs.

Over that same span of NBA history, Stathead shows 38 teams have been 17-15 (the Jazz’s current record) or better through this point in the season and missed the playoffs, so it would appear that a range of outcomes are back in play now that the Jazz are 5-9 over their last 14. FiveThirtyEight gives Utah a 63% chance of making the playoffs, B-Ref an 81% chance, and TeamRankings a 49% chance.

Also though: of those 38 teams, the highest any of those teams drafted with their own pick was #4 (and the Lakers subsequently moved DeAndre Hunter as part of the Anthony Davis acquisition). So for those thinking Utah is back in range where tanking to a Victor Wembanyama-level prize is the most logical outcome… that’s still the longest of long shots, even after the Jazz have slipped.

Let’s give out some props:

Jazz 121, Pelicans 100: Jarred Vanderbilt. There was a stretch in the late second and early third — precisely as the Jazz were putting some distance between themselves and the Pels — where Vando was involved in everything. A putback, a shooting foul drawn, a steal in the defensive paint, a putback jam, a cutting layup, a block, a boatload of rebounds… and then of course this, the single play we’ll remember the most from this game. The Jazz were up 14 after all that. Vando’s game stats: 18-4-6 on 8-for-9 shooting. He got credited for one block and one steal but also knocked a ton of balls away from Pelicans. Markkanen had 19 (17 in the first half) and 11 boards, NAW kept his hot shooting going, Beasley (21) led the team in scoring and Kessler played really well.

Jazz 132, Pelicans 129: Jordan Clarkson. If you get 25 points in a half, something pretty spectacular has to happen for you to not walk away with the Game Ball. JC did that, but then kept it going into the second-half, including by being key in the stretch where the Jazz made it close again and then by finishing with 39-8-2 overall. Markkanen’s 31 (including a 13-point fourth) were huge, and Walker Kessler earned the right to close by making it much harder for the paint-dependent Pels to score there. 

Strong in Defeat:

• Jazz 97, Bucks 123: Malik Beasley. Since the 3-point shot is the only thing that remotely kept Utah in this one, it is fitting that we recognize Beasley, who drained six threes on the way to a team-high 18. Markkanen and Clarkson each hit three triples, but for me the other real positive story out of this game was Alexander-Walker. He had 14 points (on 6-of-8 shooting) to go with five assists, and just looks like a very different player lately in terms of condifence and ability.

Starting with Saturday night’s visit to Joe Ingles’ new town, every stop on this road trip involved dropping off a holiday card to a recent former Jazzman.

Monday 12/19, Jazz @ Cavs: The Cavs will arrive at Monday’s game sporting the league’s top defense: 107.0 per 100 possessions. They don’t allow second chances (#1 in the NBA at limiting points per opponent miss) and they are meticulous in the halfcourt. Their offense hasn’t been anything too special (12th overall), but some of that is just staggered injuries keeping key guys from learning each other. For example, lineups with Mitchell and Darius Garland are below average on offense (109.0) and stellar on D (108.1), precisely the opposite of what most people predicted for that duo. That said, this will be an emotional game for folks on both sides, so we’ll see how much numbers like that even mean. Ricky Rubio has yet to debut this season as he recovers from an ACL tear.

Tuesday 12/20, Jazz @ Pistons: Detroit, on the other hand, is the NBA’s second worst defense (117.2), but will have a rest advantage over Utah. They’re 3-8 since shocking the Jazz in Salt Lake City, but they’re now learning how to play without Cade Cunningham, a surgical pick-and-roll creator whose season ended with shin surgery last week. Weirdly, so far they nearly an identical record without Cade (5-14) as they had in games he played (3-9), but there just isn’t a ton of creation here without the second-year pro. Killian Hayes and rookie Jaden Ivey are being tasked with running the offense, though we’ll also see the ball in the hands of Bogey and another former Jazzman: guard Alec Burks.

Thursday 12/22, Jazz vs. Wizards: Then the team gets home for the holidays, and no former Jazz players come in with the Wizards, but former assistant Zach Guthrie is now on Washington’s bench. Two former Utah Utes will also come to town for Christmas Eve-Eve-Eve, although Delon Wright is currently injured. The Wiz lost their 10th straight when a Kyle Kuzma buzzer shot drew iron in L.A. on Sunday. They remain without Bradley Beal for the time being, but the Jazz have struggled from time to time with skilled bigs — Washington is 5-3 when Kristaps Porzingis hits 66.7% eFG or better.

The surprising Jazz aren’t just ubiquitous in NBA talk these days — they also made their way into maybe the biggest global sporting event of the year, thanks to a yellow-clad Argentina supporter.

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— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) December 18, 2022

Leandro Bolmaro hails from Argentina, but given that the shirt in question is a Mitchell one, it’s not clear exactly what made that fan throw on a Jazz top on his way to the World Cup Final in Qatar on Sunday. Maybe he likes the goalie, who also was clad in bright yellow for the match?

Either way, congrats to Bolmaro’s Argentina, connecting the Jazz to one of the most electric World Cup Finals of our lives. Other Jazz players’ home countries didn’t fare as well:

• Udoka Azubuike’s native Nigeria and Simone Fontecchio’s Italy both failed to qualify for the World Cup. Neither did Markkanen’s Finland, which has never made a World Cup appearance.
• Olynyk’s and Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s Canada made it to the tournament, but lost all three matches in group play.
• And of course the U.S., home to the rest of the Jazz roster, made it out of group play but fell to Netherlands in the first round of the knockout phase.

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Merry Christmas, Jazz fans!