Overall, the Jazz are tough to completely figure, and attached to that is a big ol’ but.
In this case, you’ll like big buts.
The team — and by team, we mean franchise — doesn’t want to win right now. That’s been established. If it did, it wouldn’t have traded away some of its best players, the ones suited to win at present. Furthermore, it wouldn’t be playing spin the bottle with the players it does have, benching them in random fashion through these last few games.
Anybody think otherwise?
We get it. Some really have been injured. But if victory now was a high priority, the Jazz wouldn’t be goofing around, being as “cautious” as they’ve been with their lineups.
Here’s the but.
But they are playing impressively even without their best players, their best lineups. And the best news for the club, not for the players busting their humps on the floor, is that they are still losing.
Rarely, though, are they embarrassed, rolled up and tossed in a trash can with the lid slammed on them. And there’s something charming and promising about that. Finding charms and promises in a season like this is … what is it? …it’s enough, that’s what it is.
What happened on Tuesday night against the Lakers is a perfect example. It’s hardly the only one, but it is the latest.
Playing without Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson and Walker Kessler, a trifecta, or at least two of three, that provides more hope, talent-wise, for the team’s future than any other thing in the fold, the Jazz darn near beat the Lakers, who not only have been one of the NBA’s hottest teams, but also had both LeBron James and Anthony Davis going.
None of that mattered. I know, I know, this isn’t T-ball, nobody’s handing out Choco Tacos or frosty Push-Ups in the postgame locker room. A loss is a loss is a loss. And this was another one. The Jazz have dropped seven of their last 10 games.
But they’ve looked good doing it. Don’t laugh.
One thing the Jazz, their ownership, their coaches, their fans, regardless of who specifically was or is in the building, have always appreciated is strong competitive effort. That’s been true in seasons where they were authentic contenders and in seasons during which they had no chance at any kind of trophy, certainly not Larry O’Brien’s.
Play hard and players will be respected in this market.
That’s what these Jazz are doing. Losing and leaving everything out on the court.
It’s far from perfection, but … another big but … it is sweat equity. Hard work, among some in and around the NBA, is chuckled at, kind of a good-job, good-effort joke. Particularly when the folks on the floor aren’t seen as of the right caliber.
And, sure enough, that’s become the Jazz’s identity. Not a bad one to have, considering the team’s position in its rebuild. Everybody talks about culture, growing the right one as a foundational part of what is necessary to win. Will Hardy is establishing that among his overmatched dudes. We can assume that some of that attitude is an integral part of what the players themselves are bringing to the push.
They have character. They play hard. Even if they don’t win.
Demonstrated most recently was the Jazz coming back from seven points down with just over a minute remaining in regulation against the Lakers to tie the game, get it into overtime, and … and … and …
Lose.
Uh-huh, this time by two points at the end of the extra session.
Look at the guys who contributed in defeat: Talen Horton-Tucker (23 points), Damian Jones (16), Ochai Agbaji (22), Kelly Olynyk (23), Collin Sexton (15), with help from a bunch of others. All as key front-liners were looking on.
LeBron, meanwhile, had 37 points, Davis 21, and Austin Reaves 28.
Maybe you saw the way the Jazz battled back against the Nets in the previous game, down by a mile, getting edged by a nose at the end. That’s happened a lot this season, even as winning hard-fought games held little reward for a team whose goals — at least from the top on down — centered on developing and identifying individual talent that would help it in the seasons ahead, bolstered by so many draft picks, whether they were actually utilized as selections or traded away for other assets.
Fight, this team has — for regular-season games that don’t mean all that much. Talent, this team has in greater supply than it’s been allowed to show, before and after all the trades. More talent, this team needs in order to successfully work its way through difficult best-of-seven playoff series of the future or even to qualify to play in those series.
The emptiness of not making the playoffs now — the Jazz are not dead yet, only mostly dead — the fact that Vivint Arena likely will be dark in the days ahead, should be mitigated by understanding that even a vastly talented outfit without fight will go nowhere. An outfit with fight and flexibility and basic rudiments of talent only needs a few additional pieces of that last thing, the acumen from management who created this scenario to begin with, to secure it, to reach loftier goals in the seasons ahead.
