Predicting the final records of each NBA team

Utah Jazz

It was an ugly season in Salt Lake City, but on the positive side, the Utah Jazz have elected to go with a much-needed youth movement. The organization has been stockpiling assets for years, but in 2013-2014, they still assigned a great deal of court time to low-upside veterans like Marvin Williams and Richard Jefferson. This season, they have handed the keys to the young guys.

The frontcourt duo of Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter may never match the lofty expectations attributed to two top-3 picks in the draft, but they are both solid players. Favors is an impressive athlete who averaged nearly 14 points and 8 rebounds per game with more than a block and a steal per contest, and somehow, the former Georgia Tech star is only 23 years old. That lends some optimism to the growing notion that he is a “bust”, and Kanter is even younger at the age of 22.

However, the perimeter is even more interesting for the Jazz, and they have four legitimate young players in the backcourt. Gordon Hayward got paid this off-season, and deservedly so, but it would be nice to see him shuffled into a role more suited to his skills. Utah leaned heavily on Hayward last season, and his efficiency slipped as he was forced to withstand a “number one option” workload. Now, the Jazz have multiple options, including the development of both Trey Burke and Alec Burks.

The jury remains out on whether Burke can “earn” his lottery status, but he improved greatly during the season and still averaged 12.8 points and 5.7 assists per game as a young rookie in 2013-2014. Burks will finally get a chance to shine, as he is the player most greatly affected by the movement to rid the team of older stand-ins, and the former Colorado Buffalo managed to finish second on the team in scoring in just 28 minutes per contest.

This year’s lottery pick, Dante Exum, is an extremely intriguing prospect, but in a perfect world, the Jazz won’t need him to play a ton of minutes as a rookie. The 6-foot-5 combo guard is still 19 years old, but on a team littered with backcourt players (including fellow 2014 first-round pick Rodney Hood), the minutes won’t be huge, and he likely needs a year or two to develop after skipping college or any sort of professional career in Australia.

The Jazz should be a lot of fun, and we will learn a great deal about their future potential in year one under Quin Snyder. However, the youth movement likely won’t yield too many wins, and Utah fans will be forced to take solace in their escape from the West’s basement.

Projected Record: 30-52, 13th in West