I hope both the Jazz and the Mavs have a travesty of a season and miss the playoffs. I wish nothing but the worst for them
No. Not a fan of the Jazz. But I do admire their organization. They can't attract premier free agent talent so they're working with a handicap. But they continually reload and become a very difficult team to deal with. As far as the playoffs go, in my mind, there's 6 definite playoff teams in the West with two spots up for grabs. The automatic playoff teams (barring major injury) are SAS, LAC, GSW, MEM, HOU, OKC. That leaves two spots up for grabs. I think there'll be a dog fight between UTA, DAL, NO, SAC, LAL, and PHX for the last two spots with those spots not being decided until the last couple games and probably at least 4 of those 6 teams still in the hunt for one of those last two spots at that time. Of course all this speculation is sans major injury, which never happens. At least one team will go down because they lose a very good player. Unfortunately, in the West, the competition is so tight that a definite playoff team could fall completely out of the playoff picture with injury to their superstar as OKC did last season. But...if UTA doesn't lose Hayward or Gobert for significant time I expect they'll be there at the end of the season.
Personally I wouldn't be super excited to play against Gobert and that defense in a playoff series. I remember us struggling with them last year.
Even if New Orleans makes the playoffs, they still have a shot at making it. I don't hear many people giving the Jazz credit for their very slow improvement, but they can play the game. You can't ignore that they finished the season 17-8. http://www.businessinsider.com/utah-jazz-dominating-since-all-star-break-2015-4
Gobert and the young Jazz have a Dikembe/Nuggets like upset in them if they sneak into the playoffs. Hopefully against GS. My dislike for the Jazz was always linked to Sloan-ball. Ever since he left I haven't disliked them as much. I'm sure them fielding a competitive team will rectify that though.
If you watched this game tonight against the Warriors there should be no doubt in your mind that this Jazz team is coming and coming hard. They're better than us now. No question about that.
Yup, they done pissed them off. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dante Exum, Rudy Gobert, now Alec Burks. Basketball gods, what have the Jazz done to offend you?</p>— Kurt Helin (@basketballtalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketballtalk/status/681204763250274305">December 27, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/AlecBurks10">@AlecBurks10</a> suffered fractured left fibula. Surgery not required, he's out indefinitely: <a href="https://t.co/TFQG3g7HgD">https://t.co/TFQG3g7HgD</a> <a href="https://t.co/rt4jGCT3qx">pic.twitter.com/rt4jGCT3qx</a></p>— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) <a href="https://twitter.com/utahjazz/status/681204666986815488">December 27, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
