SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz finished the preseason with a perfect 5-0 record, winning every game by double digits and getting a healthy dose of their younger players and roster hopefuls in the games' closing minutes.

It’s a promising start to the season, though anyone close to the team would tell you preseason records don’t matter. After all, the Golden State Warriors, the overwhelming favorites to win a third-straight championship, won just one of their five preseason games and should casually flirt with another 60-win season.

But those who watched closely may have found some telling signs about the Jazz season that could be accurate predictors of what to expect in 2018.

First, the Jazz struggled against their better opponents' starters. Against Toronto, the Jazz found themselves trailing 58-49 at the half at Vivint Arena. Kawhi Leonard, the newest Raptor, torched the Jazz for 17 points in 18 minutes, but didn’t play in the second half.

Likewise, All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry didn’t play after the game’s first 24 minutes. The Jazz backups outscored Toronto 56-32 and appeared to coast to a dominant victory. But the Jazz won’t see games where their backups face other backups for an entire half, so there wasn’t much positive to take away from this game.

Against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Jazz found a similar formula: trailing 61-50 at the half, the Jazz outscored Portland 73-51 in the second half and won by 11 points. The Jazz struggled to slow the hot shooting of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum before simply outlasting the Blazers' lack of depth in the second half.

Although a concern for the Jazz, it does highlight the roster’s depth. With the emergence of Dante Exum, promising play from rookie Grayson Allen and Alec Burks, plus the versatility of Jae Crowder, Thabo Sefolosha and Ekpe Udoh, the Jazz can go deeper into their bench than just about any team in the league.

This will help the Jazz when opposing teams are forced to rest their starters. And in the case of injuries, the Jazz have starting-caliber players backing up their everyday starters.

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Balanced Jazz overwhelm Sacramento to finish undefeated preseason

The Utah Jazz wrapped up the NBA preseason with a perfect record. Now, the games get real.

In their final preseason outing, the Jazz absolutely demolished the Sacramento Kings, leading by 30-plus points through the majority of the game. The Jazz played a suffocating defense, limited a young Kings lineup to bad mid-range jumpshots and exploited easy baskets at the rim with lob after lob to Rudy Gobert.

This victory was just as revealing as their struggles against the league’s better teams. Simply put, the Jazz should crush the majority of the mediocre teams in the NBA, winning games handily against half of the league’s teams.

Young teams, or teams lacking chemistry, will be outexecuted by a veteran Jazz team that brings back a nearly identical roster from last year. The Jazz's unrelenting defense and consistent offense will slowly suffocate bad teams throughout games, leading to relatively easy wins.

But when the Jazz play the league’s better teams, they may once again struggle to compete with offensive star power. They'll be forced to rely heavily on second-year guard Donovan Mitchell and a supporting cast to rotate big offensive outputs to stay competitive.

Between Gobert, Derrick Favors, Joe Ingles and Ricky Rubio, the Jazz likely have enough firepower to stay competitive; and the deep bench will outlast some top-heavy teams who are trying to avoid overplaying their stars during the long regular season.

That formula may be less successful come playoff time when rotations shorten and depth becomes less impactful.

For the Jazz to take the next step in the postseason, the team's starters will have to prove they’ve improved offensively, while relying less on a talented group of backups to carry them in their most important games.

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