In An Era Of Blatant NBA Tanking, It's Refreshing To See Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler And The Jazz Grind Their Way To Playoff Contention
Not to take anything away from the commendable job the Oklahoma City Thunder have done of competing and hovering around .500 this season. To do that without the services of Chet Holmgren is applaudable. However, I'm focused more on the improbable fact that the Utah Jazz are a competitive basketball team in 2022-23 and have now moved to 30-31 on the season.
The Jazz made a shameless effort to torpedo their roster by trading away their only two true star players in guard Donovan Mitchell and center Rudy Gobert. An offensive force and a perennial Defensive Player of the Year contender shipped out of Salt Lake City. Enter: a bunch of have-nots, has-beens and/or overlooked glue guys who haven't panned out elsewhere. Accompanying a hefty haul of draft picks, of course.
Everything about Utah's offseason screamed "BUILD FOR THE FUTURE!" and "TANK!" All the incentive was there to sabotage this season since Victor Wembanyama is on his way to being the No. 1 overall pick. Even Scoot Henderson would've been a hell of a consolation prize.
Instead, despite giving up multiple key players around the NBA trade deadline, we've got the Jazz still banding together on a nightly basis. Rookie center Walker Kessler is making fans say, "Rudy who!?" with plays like these: Relentless effort on the glass to tie the game in regulation late, and then a filthy block at the other end to force extra basketball:
Kessler had SEVEN BLOCKS against the Thunder on Thursday. He was one of my favorite prospects in the 2022 NBA Draft. Don't remember if I blogged that out loud at any point. Maybe because you can only get so much utility out of a 7-foot average athlete who can't shoot from the outside in the modern NBA. Credit the Auburn product for taking his rim-protecting prowess and energy into the pros to become one of the most impactful rookies in the sport. He's taken this opportunity for immediate NBA playing time than he'd otherwise have bargained for almost anywhere else and run with it.
Then you could see just how much Markkanen went off by his numbers alone. This man is the revelation of the entire NBA season. One of the most out-of-nowhere All-Star-caliber players to emerge that I can recall. Since I grew up in central Ohio, I'm a Cavs fan, because there's no other NBA team nearby. Was sad to see Markkanen leave Cleveland after last season, but hardly gave it a second thought since the Cavs were, you know, acquiring Donovan Mitchell in a blockbuster trade.
NEVER would've believed Markkanen would turn into this once he arrived in Utah. Dude entered Thursday's matchup with OKC boasting rounded 51/41/88 shooting splits. Then he hits the three winning free throws in OT to punctuate a 43-point performance.
And it's not just Markkanen's play on the court that's uber impressive. You can tell he's coming into his own as a leader for this band of misfit toys.
Man, I was so over the Mitchell-Gobert Jazz last postseason when they got blown off the court by the Mavs, who played multiple games without Luka Doncic in that series. With the likes of Danny Ainge helming the front office and Will Hardy coaching his absolute ass off, this Utah squad is hella fun.
My innate interest from the Cavs castoffs aside, I'd love to see the Jazz waltz into the West's play-in tournament and see how far they can push this thing. I have a feeling they could resemble last year's Pelicans, who made it out of the play-in sans Zion Williamson and surprisingly beat the Suns twice in the next series.
Considering Markkanen and Kessler are rolling like this in the frontcourt, I wouldn't put it past Utah to keep shocking the world and at least giving one of the West's top seeds a hell of a run for their money in the first proper round of the postseason.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok