Are the Jazz echoes of the Spurs?
Utah offers new template for building small-market contender
There are those who say watching the Utah Jazz’s rise from a small market to the top of the NBA standings is like looking at a mirror image of great Spurs teams from the past.
One NBA observer not buying it is Gregg Popovich.
“It’s almost unfair,” Popovich said. “The Jazz are the Jazz. They’ve done it their way.”
Still, there is little doubt the Utah team that ran roughshod over the Spurs 110-99 on Monday — even with two starting guards sidelined — gives off a vibe reminiscent of the San Antonio teams that lived among the league’s elite for the better part of two decades.
“They are a well-oiled machine,” Spurs forward Rudy Gay said.
Having assembled the team with the NBA’S top record at
48-17, the Jazz have made no bones about building themselves in the Spurs’ image. Dennis Lindsey, Utah’s vice president of basketball operations, cut his teeth as an assistant on R.C. Buford’s front office staff in San Antonio.
Jazz coach Quin Snyder made his first mark in the professional ranks as the coach of the Spurs’ G League affiliate in Austin. Together in Utah, the two have built a program based on chemistry, culture and playing the right way with players who have subjugated their egos.
In that, the Jazz have become the biggest threat from a small market to win an NBA championship since the Spurs did it in 2014.
“The biggest thing is (Snyder) and Lindsey have created a culture here,” said Popovich, whose team faces Utah again Wednesday at Vivint Arena. “You’ve got nothing without culture.”
The relationship between the Spurs and Jazz has come full circle. When Popovich took over as the Spurs’ general manager in 1994, he began to build the team with Utah as a model.
Popovich loved how no-nonsense coach Jerry Sloan ran the Jazz almost like a college program. It helped that Utah had stars in Karl Malone and John Stockton.
When the Spurs landed Tim Duncan in 1997, adding him to a roster than already included David Robinson then following that by drafting Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, it set the framework for a franchise that would rule the NBA for two decades.
As the Spurs now look to rebuild in the post-big Three era, Utah again provides the blueprint.
The first takeaway from the Utah’s rise in the West? Absent the ability to sign the Lebron James or Anthony Davis in any given summer, it takes time to construct a contender.
“You’ve got to stick to it,” Popovich said. “It doesn’t happen in one season. They’ve done that now for several years, and finally they are reaping the reward of all that hard work.”
This is a lesson Spurs fans might have trouble accepting.
The Jazz got swept by the Spurs in the first round of the 2012 playoffs to end Lindsey’s first season in Utah.
From there, the Jazz endured four seasons without a playoff appearance while Lindsey and Co. built the foundation.
Utah landed Rudy Gobert with the 27th pick in the 2013 draft. In 2017, the Jazz orchestrated a draft-day swap with Denver to get Donovan Mitchell — a deal that sent future Spur Trey Lyles to the Nuggets.
In Mitchell and Gobert, the Jazz had the closest equivalent to their Stockton and Malone since Stockton and Malone.
From there, it was about putting together just the right pieces around the two All-stars.
Utah signed Joe Ingles as a free agent in 2014. Mike Conley was traded from Memphis in July 2019, and Bojan Bogdanovic arrived as a free agent that summer. Jordan Clarkson came in a December 2019 trade with Cleveland.
“They’ve been together for a long time,” Spurs guard Dejounte Murray said. “They started all together. They’ve built chemistry on and off the floor.
“That’s what this league’s about. I doubt there’s a team that’s not together on and off the floor that’s considered a contender.”
This is the chemistry and familiarity the post-big Three Spurs are still trying to grow.
The difference was stark Monday at Vivint Arena.
Even with Mitchell and Conley out with injury, the Jazz played the way the Jazz play.
Bogdanovic had 25 points. Gobert was a terror, going for 24 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks, and generally spooking the Spurs out of trying anything near the rim.
Utah led by 25 points in the first half and never let the Spurs back within single digits.
It was the kind of inspired, short-handed win Popovich’s teams used to log against lesser opponents in a bygone era.
“They made it tough for us,” Gay said. “They moved the ball around and they made us play defense and really tried to guard everybody. That’s kind of how we want to play.”
The Spurs will have a chance to learn from the Jazz again Wednesday. The lessons could be tough ones.
The Jazz’s goals stretch beyond the third and final meeting with the Spurs. They have designs on playing for an NBA championship, a scenario that has been a pipe dream since Stockton and Malone left Salt Lake City in the early 2000s.
The Spurs are in 10th place in the Western Conference, with their best-case scenario being a play-in game for a chance to earn a full-fledged playoff berth.
The Jazz have won nothing yet, but as the Spurs can attest, they appear to be on the right track.
They have built a bona fide title contender in a small market, just as the Spurs once did and hope to again.
And if those across the NBA want to credit the Spurs’ model for Utah’s success now, only Popovich will disagree.
“They’ve probably learned things from all kinds of people just like we did,” Popovich said. “They put it together the way they need to for their players. They’ve got their own stamp.”