The Surprising Utah Jazz

By David
Kaye

Who would have thought that as we approach Thanksgiving the Utah Jazz would be sitting a top the NBA with the best record at 10-1. I might be partially bias because I call myself a proud fan of the Jazz, but not even I could have imagined how well they would have played this season after missing out on last years playoffs.

The days of Stockton and Malone might be over, but the Jazz continue to roll as one of the brightest and up and coming teams in all of basketball. They are now lead by a new breed of players named Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko who have brought the excitement of basketball back to Salt Lake City. Nine out of the fourteen players on their roster were born in 1980 or later and only two are 30 years of age or older. This shows the trust that veteran coach and soon to be hall of famer Jerry Sloan has in his youngsters and they have yet to disappoint him.

The Jazz are a high tempo team that likes to run up and down the court. This has translated into them leading the league in scoring at 108.3, assists at 25.0, total rebounds at 45.1 and being tied in field goal shooting with the Magic at a solid 50 percent. They have distinguished themselves as the class of the NorthWest division and barring any major malfunctions they should go on to win their division.

Now, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself in handing out the division to a team in November, but the Jazz play so well together as a cohesive unit and I feel that they are primed for an extensive run in the playoffs. Second year point guard Deron Williams ranks third in the NBA with 9 assists per game and big man Carlos Boozer is second in the league with 13 RPB. On top of that, the fifth year forward out of Duke is posting a career high in points with 20.5 per game and a career high in shooting at 55.5% from the field.


After last nights 101-96 win at home against the Raptors Jerry Sloan became the first coach in NBA history to win 900 games with a single team. This accomplishment is a testament to his dedication to the Jazz and it speaks to the knowledge he has for the game. With his coaching ability and the performance of his players, the Utah Jazz will be major contenders when the playoffs role around this spring.