The Utah Jazz apparently do not have the words “Victor Wembanyama” in their vocabulary.
The Jazz were expected to be at the bottom of the bottom of the barrel this season after a dramatic facelift over the summer saw them trade both their franchise cornerstones in Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. Key starters Royce O’Neale and Bojan Bogdanovic were also moved in separate deals.
Much to everyone’s surprise though, Utah is undefeated (2-0) to start the season. They had a convincing 123-102 win over reigning MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday and even defeated Gobert and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday by a 132-126 final.
That led to everybody saying the same thing about the Jazz, namely, that they have no clue how to tank. Here were some of the best tweets.
the Utah Jazz traded away their best players in a year that one of the best draft prospects in basketball history is eligible to be drafted.
And yet, they've won their first two games of the season.
Now… why would they do that… pic.twitter.com/RMUOFQ3VAG
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) October 22, 2022
Tank better, Jazz
— Josh Furlong (@JFurKSL) October 22, 2022
https://twitter.com/bretthew/status/1583658249844187137
https://twitter.com/scott_tobias/status/1583642464706969601
big Little Giants vibes from this Utah Jazz team.
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 22, 2022
Other astonishing statistics are going viral about Utah’s stunning start to the season as well.
The Utah Jazz since trading Gobert and Mitchell:
— Undefeated
— 1st in total points
— 3rd best offensive rating
— 1st in 3-pointers
— 3rd in 3P%While sitting on 15 first round picks. pic.twitter.com/q4E0n5Ao9x
— StatMuse (@statmuse) October 22, 2022
Though the Jazz blew up so much of their roster, they still have some nice pieces like former All-Star guard Mike Conley and ex-Sixth Man of the Year winner Jordan Clarkson. Meanwhile, recent trade acquisitions such as Malik Beasley, Collin Sexton, and Walker Kessler are making noise off the bench too. That is before even mentioning floor-stretching bigs Lauri Markkanen and Kelly Olynyk, who have combined for 35 points per game thus far.
The bottom will still likely fall out for Utah at some point, especially over a larger sample of games. But for now, they are sitting pretty under first-year head coach Will Hardy and the other notable names they hired this summer.
