Playoff Preview: The Jazz don’t have a superstar, but it might not matter

The Jazz’s greatest strength in the regular season might be their biggest undoing in the playoffs. They have arguably the deepest roster in basketball, with high-end two-way stars, intriguing role players of varying experiences and over-green youngsters who have the chops to swing a game. Only so many teams could withstand losing players the caliber of George Hill and Derrick Favors for nearly half the season and still manage 50 wins.

The Jazz have finally arrived, basically, but the question that plagued them before they lived up to years of promise still begs: Do they need a prototypical superstar to play deep into spring?

Quin Snyder’s team certainly isn’t the first to elicit the skepticism inevitably tied to that debate. The 2004 Pistons stick out like a sore thumb among champions for a reason: All but three NBA Finals participants since the millennium have employed a past or future MVP winner. Gordon Hayward, meanwhile, is Utah’s only All-Star, and unlikely to earn a single tally in this year’s vote for the Maurice Podoloff trophy.

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But the absence of recent and frequent precedent distracts from the factor that gives the Jazz reason to believe they could be different from so many other ousted teams that lacked an otherworldly star. Rudy Gobert is Utah’s version of that trump card, a peerless rim-protector, dominant rebounder and explosive, improving finisher who ranked fifth in the league in RPM. The Stifle Tower changes gameplans all by his lonesome. He’s that good.

The presence of Hayward and Gobert combined with Utah’s much-improved depth and accompanying lineup flexibility is what could separate this team from others without a top-five player in the world.

Dennis Lindsey, a darkhorse pick for Executive of the Year, finally supplemented the Jazz’s homegrown core this summer with the additions of George Hill, Joe Johnson and Boris Diaw. The former’s impact on the Jazz, especially, belies his understated play on the floor. Utah went 18-15 without Hill in 2016-17.

It’s the presence of Johnson, though, who gives Snyder’s tick-tack-toe offense some much-needed oomph. Lineups featuring the seven-time All-Star at small-ball power forward set nets ablaze this season, posting a 119.3 offensive rating and taking 35.8 percent of their shots from beyond the arc, per NBAwowy.com. Just as important: Those downsized units allowed 106.0 points per 100 possessions, a league-average mark.

The value of Snyder going small when his team needs points without sacrificing much on the other end almost can’t be measured. Utah didn’t have that option in past seasons, and plays the type of style offensively that can be successfully schemed for under the playoff microscope. Surrounding Gobert with shooters and running high ball-screens, on the other hand, lends dynamism and ingenuity to the Jazz attack that’s often missing otherwise.

The Jazz can get away with playing small not just due to the presence of Gobert, but also the collective length and physicality of its guards and wings. Hill and Dante Exum have arms that go forever; Johnson has classic veteran strength at 6-foot-7; Joe Ingles is downright nasty; and Rodney Hood and Alec Burks combine height with explosiveness. Hayward, meanwhile, is capable of stoning Blake Griffin in the mid post.

Ingles, by the way, is the kind of guy a national audience will fall in love with if his team plays into May. He’s a crafty ball handler, high-level passer and made 45.4 percent of his spot-up 3s this season — a number just above Kyle Korver’s. Ingles didn’t usurp Burks, a live-wire athlete with some off-dribble verve, in Snyder’s rotation by accident. He can really, really play, and is especially effective in the four-out units Utah has grown increasingly comfortable using.

It remains to be seen how Snyder will approach his team’s first-round series against the Clippers from a stylistic perspective. The Jazz shot 14-of-21 from deep in the only game they took from Doc Rivers’ team during the regular season, keeping the Clippers at bay by going small over the game’s last several minutes. They just couldn’t score on Los Angeles otherwise, and Chris Paul made life hell for George Hill.

Hayward’s struggles against the Clippers can’t go unnoticed, either. He averaged 15.7 points per game and shot just 34.6 percent on 2-pointers in four matchups with Los Angeles. Needless to say, that type of effort won’t be enough over the next two weeks if the Jazz plan on advancing past the opening round.

Should Hayward and Johnson prove able to bother Griffin, then don’t be surprised to see Snyder go small earlier than normal. He might throw Lyles into the fire, too.

The Jazz aren’t a favorite against the Clippers, and perhaps rightfully so. Paul and company aren’t just battle tested, but possess the type of star power the Jazz — for now, at least — still seem to lack. The very fact this series might be the first round’s best, though, speaks to just how far Utah has come in 2016-17.

The Clippers opened training camp in September with legitimate title aspirations, while the Jazz simply hoped to make the playoffs for the first time since 2012. The only disappointment for the Jazz by this point would be if it didn’t take another mini leap next season. Losing to the Clippers in a hard-fought six or seven games should be considered an accomplishment for any up-and-coming team — and the Jazz absolutely have a chance to beat them.

Regardless, Lindsey’s patience over the last few seasons has helped ensure 2016-17 wouldn’t be this team’s high point. If Hayward and Hill re-sign in free agency come July, it’s almost a foregone conclusion the Jazz will be better a year from now than they are today. Nobody but overexcited users of basketball Twitter will be deciding their long-term fate based on its first postseason go-around.

Well, except maybe Hayward. Gobert, though, isn’t concerned by his star teammate’s first foray into unrestricted free agency.

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“I’m just going to ask him, ‘Do you want to win a championship?” he told Basketball Insiders’ Alex Kennedy of his imminent free-agent pitch to Hayward. “I’m going to remind him that I really want to win a championship and I think we can do it. If he stays, I think we’ll have chances [to win titles].”

Soon enough, we’ll have a much better idea if Gobert is right.