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5 reasons the Utah Jazz can win the NBA Championship

By Philip Rossman-Reich

Nov 1, 2016; San Antonio, TX, USA; Utah Jazz point guard George Hill (3) celebrates with his teammates after a basket and foul against the San Antonio Spurs during the second half at AT&T Center. The Jazz won 106-91. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 1, 2016; San Antonio, TX, USA; Utah Jazz point guard George Hill (3) celebrates with his teammates after a basket and foul against the San Antonio Spurs during the second half at AT&T Center. The Jazz won 106-91. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /
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The NBA Playoffs seem like a formality but there is still the chance for a surprise or two. The Utah Jazz are a team who could make one happen

The NBA season can seem like a bit of a test of inevitability. There is little variance from preseason predictions and few surprises in the NBA Playoffs. It is not that everyone is not impressed with the greatness that comes from teams like the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, but that is all that anyone really has to look forward to.

Sure, there will be intrigue and competitive series. It will not be a cakewalk. But that still seems like the direction the NBA Playoffs will eventually head. Unless there is that surprise. They do have to play the games.

And no team would surprise in the Western Conference as much as the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz do not have the house name like the Oklahoma City Thunder have in Russell Westbrook or the Houston Rockets have in James Harden. Utah does not have the big lights of the city like the LA Clippers. Or even the pedigree of the San Antonio Spurs. Yet, the Jazz are in the fight for home-court advantage with the Clippers and could very well be one of the biggest threats to the Warriors’ supremacy in the Western Conference.

Yes, Utah has not been to the playoffs since 2012. It has been a long journey to get back to this point. But the Jazz have been playing Playoff basketball for the last two seasons really.

The Jazz put the league on notice with a strong defensive performance to close the 2015 season. Utah began playing Rudy Gobert after trading away Enes Kanter and began carving a defensive identity that would be the envy of the league. Last season, the Jazz were in pole position until injuries to Gobert and several other players slowly knocked them out of the race. Utah finished one game out of the final playoff spot.

This season’s breakthrough — from Rudy Gobert’s Defensive Player of the Year candidacy to Gordon Hayward’s All-Star appearance — was a long time in the making. The Jazz were the team everyone believed would make the breakthrough this season.

No one, perhaps, saw the Jazz making the leap up to homecourt advantage this quickly. And it does, surprisingly, have them in line to make a title run if the cards fall right.

Here are five reasons the Jazz can win it.

5. Defense wins championships

This season has seen an insane and sudden influx of offense and pace which the league has not seen for at least a decade. The San Antonio Spurs’ league-leading 103.3 defensive rating entering Sunday’s games (according to Basketball-Reference) will be the highest since the 1995 season and the league’s 108.8 average defensive rating will be the highest since at least the 1980 season, when the 3-point line was introduced.

These things are usually cyclical. Defenses will figure out how to catch up. It may take a few years. But this is the playoffs, and there is still a simple truth. The game will slow down in the playoffs and the better defenses are going to assert themselves.

Last year, the league played at an average pace of 95.8 with a 106.4 defensive rating in the regular season, according to Basketball-Reference. In the 2016 playoffs, the average pace dropped to 93.0 although the average defensive rating increased to 106.7.

As the game slows down, possessions become more valuable. That should theoretically benefit defensive teams like the Jazz. Utah is third in the league in defensive rating. Rudy Gobert is the anchor as one of the most fearsome shot blockers and rim protectors in the league. The team all around is just solid defensively with players who are just sound fundamentally.

Even as things get tougher in the playoffs, the Jazz will be able to rely on this. It should help them keep scores low when they struggle and give them a chance to win any game in the playoffs.

Gobert is certainly not a problem a team can solve easily in a playoff series.