Utah Jazz Potential Exciting To National Pundits

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – After a fantastic 2017-18 season that saw the Utah Jazz win a first round playoff series over the Oklahoma City Thunder, have Rudy Gobert win Defensive Player of the Year and send the whole sporting world into a Donovan Mitchell-crazed frenzy, the team has quite a lot of expectations going into next season.

Many national media members are raving about the Jazz’s potential for the upcoming year, most predicting that the Jazz will win around 50 games and compete for one of the top spots in the Western Conference playoff race.

Brad Botkin of CBSSports.com wrote, “I’m buying everything the Jazz are selling. Donovan Mitchell is a star, and when Rudy Gobert came back from injury last year they were the best defensive team in the country by a country mile. They’re the new Spurs – nothing flashy, bringing back the same guys who get just a little better playing together every year,” while predicting the Jazz to finish just short of 50 wins.

ESPN projects Utah to finish behind Golden State and Houston for the third-best record in the West, writing, “The Jazz made continuity a priority this summer, banking on internal development as the path to improvement after advancing to the second round for the second consecutive season.”

Donovan Mitchell specifically also received lots of love from ESPN. He was voted as the second-most likely player to play in his first All-Star game in the 2018 season, behind the Sixers’ Ben Simmons. Rudy Gobert was voted as the fifth-most likely to play in the game.

Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report thinks that Utah will finish with 51 wins, writing “The Utah Jazz are the rare powerhouse that isn’t treated as such. Maybe too many observers checked out once Gordon Hayward exited in summer 2017 and forgot to check back in, but it doesn’t seem like they get enough buzz for how much chaos they can cause in the West.”

The Jazz’s regular season will begin October 17, when the Jazz travel to face the Sacramento Kings.