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SALT LAKE CITY — They are one of the youngest teams in the NBA, with an average age of just 24 years old.
They have been in a perpetual state of rebuild since 2012, the last time they made the playoffs.
They have a roster full of young lottery picks with management waiting for one of those high draft picks to emerge as a star, worthy of building a roster around.
They have a promising young frontcourt, a top-three pick at power forward and a potentially elite rim protector currently out with injury.
They have a fan base on board with the rebuilding effort but hungry for tangible progress in the form of a trip to the postseason.
They are the Utah Jazz.
They are the Philadelphia 76ers.
Neither are very good basketball teams.
To be fair, currently, the Jazz appear to be headed to the playoffs in the Western Conference, while the 76ers are on pace to win roughly five games.
On Monday night, the difference between the two teams didn't appear to be that large.
The Jazz escaped with a 95-91 victory to improve to 13-16. The 76ers fell to 2-31 on the season. And yet, the 76ers are the Jazz's worst nightmare. Not necessarily on the court, though clearly the game was closer than Jazz fans are comfortable with, but overall as an organization.
The 76ers took a radical approach to rebuilding, stripping the team of most recognizable NBA talent in an effort to purposely lose games, land high draft picks and emerge with star talent.
In 2013, they selected Michael Carter-Williams with the 11th pick, in 2014 they selected Joel Embiid with the third pick, in 2015 they selected Jahlil Okafor with the third pick. Carter-Williams now plays for the Milwaukee Bucks, and Embiid, due to injuries, hasn't played in an NBA game. Okafor is off to a promising start, averaging over 17 points, and nearly eight rebounds per game. And yet, they've won just two games.
The Triple Team: 3 thoughts on Jazz vs. 76ers
Three thoughts on the Jazz's close 95-91 win over the Philadelphia 76ers from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.If the poor record alone weren't a sign that it's time to panic for the 76ers, recent front office moves might. Earlier this month, the 76ers hired the director of USA Basketball Jerry Colangelo to be special advisor to the managing general partner and chairman of basketball operations.
Essentially, Colangelo has been brought in to rescue a team that may be beyond repair.
The Jazz have taken a similar, albeit less radical approach to rebuilding. The Jazz moved on from their most established NBA talent when they let Marvin Williams, Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson walk in free agency in an attempt to develop young talent and improve their odds of landing a high draft pick to bring a star onto the roster.
So far, as a result of the Jazz efforts, they landed Trey Burke and Rudy Gobert in 2013, Dante Exum and Rodney Hood in the 2014 NBA draft, Trey Lyles in 2015, a 46 percent win percentage last season, and a 43 percent win percentage so far this season.
Despite the Jazz improved placement in the standings, they are on pace to finish with a worse record than they had last season.
Much of the Jazz's struggles can be attributed to injuries, both before the season started with the loss of Exum, and in season with the sprain to Gobert's MCL, and now the fractured fibula for Alec Burks.
You won't hear sympathy from surrounding NBA franchises.
Currently, the Jazz have a 1.5 game lead over the Sacramento Kings for the eighth spot in the West, and if they continue to play as poorly as they did against the Philadelphia 76ers, they may not have that lead for long.
The Jazz aren't at risk of losing games at the pace of the historically bad 76ers, but being a team that is perennially on the outside of the playoff picture looking in doesn't seem entirely far-fetched.
Like the 76ers, the Jazz planned to deconstruct a roster, let it hit a certain low, then expect it to bounce back based on talent acquired through the draft.
As the 76ers have shown, the best-laid schemes of mice and men, often go askew.
The Jazz plan to acquire a potential star in the highly touted 2014 NBA Draft was executed to perfection. The Jazz dropped 57 games, and landed Exum with the fifth overall pick.
As a rookie he displayed potentially elite defensive potential and had flashes of offensive brilliance.
He blew out his knee before his sophomore season.
The Jazz resisted making major financial commitments to any free agents this past offseason, highlighting the return of Burks to the lineup after missing the majority of last season after shoulder surgery.
The plan was working well for the Jazz through 28 games. Burks had returned to the lineup and had become the third-leading scorer on the team. Then he broke his ankle, and conservative estimates say Burks is out for the next six weeks.
As the Jazz have shown, the best-laid schemes of mice and men, often go askew.
Again, the Jazz aren't the 76ers, the talent on the roster, the overall record, and their place in the standings, all show that.
But they aren't entirely dissimilar.
Both teams entered into a plan to rebuild their roster through the draft, and both teams landed the top-billed talent. Then injuries changed those plans.
On Monday night, the Jazz showed they are better than the 76ers, but the game was too close for comfort.
In the current state of the franchises, the Jazz appear to be in better shape than the 76ers, but the similarities may be too close for comfort.
Ben Anderson is the co-host of Gunther in the Afternoon with Kyle Gunther on 1320 KFAN from 3-7, Monday through Friday. Read Ben's Utah Jazz blog at 1320kfan.com, and follow him on Twitter @BenKFAN.
