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Utah Jazz (Projected Record: 41-41)

Losing their second best player and a top 25 player in Gordon Hayward to Boston for nothing certainly hurt the Jazz quite a bit and it’s reflected in their projected 10 win decline from last season.

Still, Utah has the league’s best center (healthy players division) and they doubled down on their defensive identity this offseason. They acquired Ricky Rubio, one of the league’s best rated point guard defenders by most plus-minus numbers for years, but who doesn’t do much scoring (though he always helps his team’s offenses by being one of the league’s best and most creative passers). The Jazz also got Thabo Sefolosha, one of the league’s premier wing defenders, who struggles to score. Finally, they brought Ekpe Udoh in from Europe after he had shown himself to be one of the best defensive big men in the world.

Given the defensive prowess of the above acquisitions, as well as Utah’s placement in the top three defenses in the league last year on a per possession basis, the Jazz figure to be the best defense in the league this year. Unfortunately, Utah also lost one of its primary offensive creators in Hayward, and none of those players they brought in figure to be much help in replacing Hayward in that regard. As a result, we can expect the Jazz to slip from their 12th ranked offense of last year, somewhere below average to bad. That should lead the Jazz to be one of the league leaders in games that could be classified as “rock fights.” There’s a lot of fun stuff going on with Utah, but they will have a tough fight to remain in the Western playoffs.