Utah Jazz (ROBERT SULLIVAN/AFP via Getty Images)
The Utah Jazz are a proud, storied franchise with a rich history. Arguably the greatest franchise without an NBA title, a vast number of extraordinarily talented players have performed in front of Salt Lake City’s rabid fan base, which of course, makes constructing these All-Time lineups a little difficult.
The criteria for these teams was not entirely complicated or scientific. A combination of individual statistics and team success was considered in designating each selection. There are bound to be disagreements, and frankly, that’s part of the fun. Some selections were obvious enough for casual fans to predict, and some were truly painstaking. Ultimately, it’s worth remembering that any player who merits placement on this list had an absolutely outstanding NBA career.
Without further ado, here is the J-Notes’ Utah Jazz All-Time Third, Second and First Teams.
Utah Jazz</a> All-Time Third, Second and First Teams.</p>
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<p><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-84821 size-full" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/08/13/utah-jazz-time-teams/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_2300,w_3200/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F682296138.jpeg" alt="Utah Jazz" width="3200" height="2300" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/682296138.jpeg 3200w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/682296138-768x552.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 3200px) 100vw, 3200px"></p></div>
<h2>Utah Jazz Third Team C: Mehmet Okur</h2>
<p>First, a quick shout out to Honorable Mention Al Jefferson. Choosing between the ultimate throwback, low-post bruiser and the innovative Turkish stretch 5 was a chore. Ultimately, we went with Okur for non-stylistic reasons: he was just a little bit better for the Utah Jazz.</p>
<p>In 2006-07, Okur shot 38.4% from three-point range on 4.2 attempts per game. That’s a combination of volume and accuracy that any team would be pleased to receive from the 5 position in 2021. Scoring was undeniably Okur’s bag: he never averaged double digit rebounds, and he exceeded a block per game precisely once, swatting 1.1 per night over the 2009-10 season.</p>
<p>Still, the 18.0 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game he averaged in 2005-06 far exceeded the production expected of him as a second round draft pick. Okur was ahead of his time, and he deserves to be remembered in ours.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz Third Team PF: Paul Millsap</h2>
<p>Another second round steal for the Utah Jazz, few players in NBA history have steadily improved their game on a season-to-season basis the way Paul Millsap has. That improvement reached its zenith for the Jazz over the 2010-11 season, where he posted averages of 17.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game.</p>
<p>That type of well-rounded production has been Millsap’s calling card over the course of his career. Perceived as a rebounding specialist leading up to the draft, Millsap would spend his time in Utah proving he was a jack-of-all-trades, and even a master of some. A versatile defender who can check the perimeter and interior, solid three-point shooting threat and deft passer, Millsap would go on to have his best seasons as a member of the Atlanta Hawks.</p>
<p>Still, Utah Jazz fans certainly remember him fondly as well.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz Third Team SF: Gordon Hayward</h2>
<p>Five short years ago, Utah Jazz fans could be forgiven for thinking they had a franchise player of the future in Hayward. Coming off averages of 21.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, the well-rounded wing seemed like a lock to return to Salt Lake City.</p>
<p>Then, his beloved college coach Brad Stevens convinced him to move onto greener pastures and join the Boston Celtics as a free agent. A single game into his Celtics tenure, Hayward suffered a horrific injury that still impacts his production.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Hayward’s years as a Jazzman ended up being his best so far, and in all likelihood, the best of his career. With the Utah Jazz having found a new franchise face immediately following his departure in Donovan Mitchell, their fans should all be rooting for Hayward’s success.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz Third Team SG: Darrell Griffith</h2>
<p>If there’s one fact you need to know about Griffith, it’s the following: this man was nicknamed Dr. Dunkenstein.</p>
<p>With that said, you should also know that he essentially averaged 20 points per game for the Utah Jazz from 1980-81 to 1983-84 (with 19.8 points per game in 1981-82 being the narrow exception).</p>
<p>Griffith scored in droves over one of the franchise’s least successful eras. Having recently moved addresses from New Orleans to Utah, the Jazz needed a franchise face with Pistol Pete Maravich aging out of his prime.</p>
<p>They didn’t exactly find one in Griffith. Unfortunately, a foot injury in 1985-86 sapped him of his trademark explosiveness, forcing a somewhat premature retirement from the NBA five years later, after spending all 10 of his career seasons on the Utah Jazz.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz Third Team PG: Pete Maravich</h2>
<p>If we were going on pure name recognition, the legendary Pistol may have a case for Second or First Team honors. Furthermore, if we were counting his time on the New Orleans Jazz, he’d have an even stronger case, with MVP caliber averages of 31.1 points, 5.4 assists and 5.1 rebounds for the Jazz in 1976 during the era when the team was actually aptly named.</p>
<p>However, the two floor generals listed ahead of Maravich both submitted multiple similarly historic seasons for the Utah Jazz, and so they’re getting the nod over Maravich. Nonetheless, neither can surpass the Pistol’s all-time elite highlight reel.</p>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-84822" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/08/13/utah-jazz-time-teams/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_1046,w_1600/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F107106511.jpeg" alt="Utah Jazz" width="1600" height="1046" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/107106511.jpeg 1600w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/107106511-768x502.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px"><p class="wp-caption-text">Utah Jazz (Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images)</p>
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<h2>Utah Jazz Second Team C: Mark Eaton</h2>
<p>Mark Eaton was extremely close to cracking the Utah Jazz’s All-Time First Team. That’s how special the late, great Californian big man was.</p>
<p>Everything about Eaton was massive, starting with his unfathomable 7’4, 275-pound frame. Perhaps even more unthinkable were Eaton’s block totals. He averaged 5.6 of them per game over the 1989-90 season. If you just went directly to Google to confirm the validity of that statistic, nobody is here to blame you.</p>
<p>The majority of Eaton’s impact came on the defensive end, rejecting any shot attempt that dared make its way to the interior and collecting rebounds to the tune of a career average of 7.9 per (a number that is significantly lessened by the outliers of his first and last seasons). Over that same 1989-90 season, Eaton contributed 9.7 points per game, which would stand as his career high.</p>
<p>Still, no player is likely to ever get as close to blocking as many shots as he scored points again. Eaton is a Utah Jazz legend who tragically passed in a bicycling accident on May 28, 2021.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz Second Team PF: Carlos Boozer</h2>
<p>For Jazz fans around the globe, those two glorious words still illicit images of Boozer trapping some unwitting post defender in his spin cycle, only to bait them into contact and have them watch as the ball found its way into the basket:</p>
<p>“And one!”</p>
<p>Boozer was one of the most loveable characters in Utah Jazz history, but make no mistake, he was also one of their best all-time players. One of the last of the traditional power forwards, Boozer was a 20 and 10 machine throughout his heyday with the Jazz, with his best season coming in 2007-08 with averages of 21.1 points and 10.4 rebounds. Boozer didn’t shoot 3s, he wasn’t a great defender, and he didn’t have a ton of “guard skills”.</p>
<p>He just beat the heck out of anyone who crossed him on the low block. He also possessed great hands and a soft touch on inside shots, as well as a passable midrange game. He may not have been a <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/08/13/utah-jazz-time-teams/"https://bleacherreport.com/articles/930242-5-ways-for-tom-thibodeau-to-motivate-carlos-boozer-on-defense" target="_blank" rel="noopener">candidate</a> for Defensive Player of the Year, but he made up for it with droves of points and rebounds.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz Second Team SF: Andrei Kirilenko</h2>
<p>With Kirilenko for a front court mate, maybe Boozer didn’t feel motivated to play defense: AK-47 was playing it all for him.</p>
<p>His prime in the NBA was relatively brief, but from 2003-04 to 2006-07, the man named after the machine gun was the master of the STOCK (combined steals and blocks). In 2004-05, Kirilenko averaged 3.3 blocks, an absurd figure for a wing, to go with 1.6 steals per game. Those numbers were in-line with the numbers he consistently posted over the same stretch.</p>
<p>Kirilenko would likely thrive in the modern NBA, with the premium that it places on defensive versatility. Offensively, he was no slouch either, averaging between 15.3 to 16.5 points per game and 3.1-4.3 assists per game between 2003-04 and 2005-06.</p>
<p>Readers who played fantasy basketball during this era may be quick to defend Kirilenko’s worthiness of first-team consideration. Instead, he’ll have to settle for the second-team nod.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz Second Team SG: Jeff Hornacek</h2>
<p>The decision between Hornacek and Darrell Griffith was not easily made. One contributed a steady 20+ points per game for the Utah Jazz during arguably their least successful era, and the other provided auxiliary scoring during their most successful one. Ultimately, we went with the guy with 108.9 career Win Shares (WS) over the guy with 22.</p>
<p>Besides, Hornacek was only one of the very best three-point shooters of his era, exceeding 40% accuracy from deep in all-but-one of his 8 seasons as a Jazzman. Like any sniper from his era, Hornacek must salivate watching the NBA in 2021: the 3.2 threes he attempted per night over the 1992-93 season marked a career high.</p>
<p>There’s little question that he would double or even triple that figure if he were playing in 2021. Still, the man with the least printable nickname in NBA history splashed plenty of triples for the Utah Jazz, earning himself a placement on the franchise’s All-Time Second Team.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz Second Team PG: Deron Williams</h2>
<p>For a brief moment in time, Deron Williams was regarded as one of the two best point guard in the NBA. It almost feels surreal, like it must be some kind of Mandela effect. It is not.</p>
<p>Over the course of the 2010-11 season, Williams posted averages of 20.1 points and 10.3 assists per game. A look at his advanced stats over that season reflect an even stronger player. His PER of 22.1 and 7.3 Win Shares (which actually paled in comparison to his career high of 10.9) more accurately reflect the absolutely elite level of play he’d roughly maintained since 2007-08.</p>
<p>You may know the story from there, but just in case: midway through 2010-11, Williams was traded to the New Jersey Nets, and by 2013-14, his production had fallen off the world’s highest cliff.</p>
<p>For Jazz fans, it was like watching an ex’s life fall apart with their new partner: maybe a little sickly satisfying, but mostly, just sad.</p>
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<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-84823" src=https://thejnotes.com/2021/08/13/utah-jazz-time-teams/"https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/fetch/c_fill,g_auto,f_auto,h_680,w_1024/https%3A%2F%2Fthejnotes.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fgetty-images%2F2017%2F07%2F51657793.jpeg" alt="" width="1024" height="680" srcset="https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/51657793.jpeg 1024w, https://thejnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/getty-images/2017/07/51657793-768x510.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px"><p class="wp-caption-text">Utah Jazz (JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images)</p>
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<h2>Utah Jazz First Team C: Rudy Gobert</h2>
<p>As previously mentioned, the positional battle for the Utah Jazz’s all-time big man was a little closer than some younger readers may have expected. As valuable as Gobert has been for the Jazz on the point preventing side of the ball, another towering rim protector gave him a run for his money in the late, 7’4 Mark Eaton. In fact, Eaton bested Gobert in the area they’re both most-known for: rim protection. Gobert’s career high in Defensive Box Plus/Minus (DBPM) clocks in at 6.0. Eaton has two seasons with a higher grade, posting 6.7 in 1984-85 and 6.5 in 1988-89. His career block % also trumps Gobert’s, at 6.9 to 6.2 (and it’s worth noting that Eaton’s figure includes the outliers attached to him having finished a career and aging out of his prime).</p>
<p>Still, Gobert gets the nod for his superior utility as a two-way player. He’s posted positive Offensive Box Plus/Minus (OBPM) scores in every season besides his rookie campaign; a feat Eaton never accomplished.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz First Team PF: Karl Malone</h2>
<p>If you were expecting anyone else, you must have missed a memo. Just don’t blame The Mailman.</p>
<p>Karl Malone is the NBA’s second all-time leading scorer, finishing up his career with 36, 928 points. Renowned for innovating the pick-and-roll as a finisher (alongside another Jazz legend who, spoiler alert, you’ll be reading about shortly), Malone was a bruising inside scorer with an array of face-up and back-down low posts move. He was also the owner of a deft mid range touch. His 27% career shooting from three-point range, while not inspirational, is also a solid figure for a power forward playing in Malone’s era.</p>
<p>Malone is the best power forward in Utah Jazz history, and it isn’t even remotely close.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz First Team SF: Adrian Dantley</h2>
<p>The distinction of second-best scorer in Utah Jazz history may be somewhat dubious, but it’s one Adrian Dantley earned unambiguously. When your competition is the second-leading scorer in NBA history, you’ll have to live with that result.</p>
<p>We’re hoping Dantley is comfortable with his place in Utah Jazz lore, because the man was a certified, capital-B bucket. From 1980 to 1984, only four things were certain: death, taxes, oddly large perms, and Adrian Dantley scoring 30 points per game in a Utah Jazz uniform.</p>
<p>That’s exactly what Dantley did in four consecutive seasons between 1980-81 and 1983-84, with averages of 30.7, 30.3, 30.7 and 30.6 points per game respectively. Arguably the all time master of the mid range, Dantley was no low-efficiency gunner either, as his career field goal percentage of 54% can attest to.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz First Team SG: Donovan Mitchell</h2>
<p>If it feels odd to see two active Utah Jazz players on their All-Franchise First Team, remind yourself that the Jazzmen just claimed the NBA’s best regular season record for the first time in franchise history. They tied the Chicago Bulls for that distinction in 1997-98, and two members from that roster feature on the first team as well. All of which is to say: winning matters.</p>
<p>Luckily, the Utah Jazz have been doing their fair share of it since drafting Mitchell in 2017. He started his career scoring 20.5 points per game and he hasn’t looked back, bumping that average up to 26.4 over the 2020-21 season.</p>
<p>A preternatural three-level scorer, Mitchell has the look of a franchise player for the foreseeable future. He’s already the best player on the current Utah Jazz. The only question left is how far he can climb up the franchise’s all-time leaderboards.</p>
<h2>Utah Jazz First Team PG: John Stockton</h2>
<p>The NBA’s all-time leader in both assists and steals, with considerable room to breathe in each category. It almost feels like a waste of energy to justify John Stockton’s position as the best point guard in Utah Jazz history. This page has already referred to him as <a href=https://thejnotes.com/2021/08/13/utah-jazz-time-teams/"https://thejnotes.com/2021/04/15/utah-jazz-50-greatest-players-history/">the best Jazzman</a> in history, and it’s hard to find a counterargument.</p>
<p>Everyone knows the NBA’s all-time leader in assists could get dimes, and Stockton’s career high 14.5 per game over the 1989-90 season look like a typo. However, a glance at the league’s all-time assist percentage (AST%) leaderboard drives home Stockton’s propensity for passing even more.</p>
<p>AST% is a statistic designed to measure how many of a player’s teammates field goals that player assisted on while he was on the floor. Stockton is the all-time leader at 50.4%, with Chris Paul checking in at second with a 45.31% mark. That separation is roughly the same as that between Paul and Magic Johnson, who sits seventh on the same leaderboard at 40.86%.</p>
<p>More than just a passer, Stockton was a reliable three-point shooter (with a career 38.4% 3P%) and a stalwart defender, which contributed to his #1 position on the NBA’s all-time steals leaderboard.</p>
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