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SALT LAKE CITY — Rudy Gobert’s famous words are nearly a year old.
On Jan. 5, 2018, Gobert sent out a four-word tweet: “We will be fine.”
The Jazz were 16-23 at that point of the season, but everything would soon change. Utah went on a historic end-of-season run, Donovan Mitchell became, well, Donovan Mitchell, and Gobert won the Defensive Player of the Year award.
In short, the Jazz were indeed just fine. Here are the top storylines from 2018.
Donovan Mitchell!
It’d be easy to make a top stories list just for Donovan Mitchell’s year alone.
- He won the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, boosting his national profile in the process.
- He led a playoff team in scoring — then upped that average in a playoff series win over the reigning league MVP.
- He won an ESPY
- He continued to win the collective heart of Utah by attending fan Fourth of July BBQs and doing spontaneous good deeds.
- He capped off the year by getting his own signature shoe from Adidas. Not a bad year, Mr. Mitchell.
Jazz end season on historic run and win playoff series
On Jan. 22, the Jazz were beaten by the lowly Atlanta Hawks to fall to 19-28. After that, everything changed.
An overtime win in Detroit was followed up by a road win over Toronto and the wins just kept coming and coming. The Jazz had winning streaks of 11 and nine games and finished the year by winning 29 of the final 35 games.
During that stretch, Mitchell catapulted himself into the national spotlight with a strong push (and a fun Adidas’ campaign) for Rookie of the Year and Gobert established himself as the premier defender in the league.
The late-season surge continued into the playoffs where the Jazz beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in a series filled with memorable performances. Derrick Favors' series-altering performance in Game 2, Ricky Rubios’s triple-double in Game 3, and Mitchell going shot for shot with Russell Westbrook in the Game 6 series finale were just a few.
Rudy Gobert wins Defensive Player of the Year
Gobert may have known the reason why the Jazz would be just fine: They had him.
Once Gobert fully returned from injury, the Jazz became a different team. Gobert was the man behind Utah’s league-best 97.5 defensive rating and the main reason why the Jazz held opponents to just 43 percent at the rim in the second half of the season. Those type of numbers made him the easy choice for the 2018 Defensive Player of the Year.
"I want to thank Quin (Snyder) for believing in me since he got here," Gobert said at the awards ceremony. "The owners, the staff, the city, for embracing me and making it feel like home. I'm very excited for the future and proud to be representing the Jazz."
Jazz Bear fired
The man who performed as the famous Jazz Bear was fired in October.
Jon Absey, who performed as the Bear for 24 years, was let go by the organization just before Utah’s 2018-19 home opener.
“Jazz Bear will continue to be one of the most iconic mascots in the NBA,” Jazz spokesman Frank Zang said. “Out of respect for his character, which is separate from any employee ever associated with it, we have never discussed his identity. We do not discuss individual personnel matters.”
The Bear has continued to be part of the Jazz’s home-game production, but the stunts that helped make Bear such a known commodity among fans and around the league — like sledding down lower bowl steps onto the court — have been less frequent.
The Cavs-Jazz trade connection
The Jazz made two trades with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2018.
The first was when the Jazz sent Rodney Hood to Cleveland in exchange for Jae Crowder as part of a three-team deal in February. Then on Nov. 30, the Jazz sent Alec Burks to the Cavs in exchange for Kyle Korver.
Crowder has been a part-time starter for the Jazz and was a key part in Utah’s turnaround last season.
As for Korver, he has provided some much-needed floor spacing since being acquired from Cleveland, shooting over 40 percent from 3-point range in his first month back with the Jazz.
Honorable mentions
Jazz take Grayson Allen in NBA Draft
The Jazz took one of the most polarizing players in college basketball when they took Duke guard Grayson Allen with the 21st pick last June. Allen had been just as well-known for his number of on-court incidents as his stellar play while at Duke. The Jazz selected him for the latter.
"Because he can dribble, pass and shoot, because he's smart, because he's highly competitive, we're very confident he fits the program almost seamlessly," Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey said. "We wanted to get tougher. We wanted to get more competitive. You guys saw what the playoffs are like. Your skills don't come out unless you can stand your ground."
Assistant coach heads to Suns
In May, Jazz assistant coach Igor Kokoskov was hired to be the new head coach of the Phoenix Suns, becoming the first European-born head coach in NBA history. Kokoskov had been with the Jazz since 2015.
"I’ve told him for a number of years that I think he’s a head coach in the NBA," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "It’s taken him some time to see himself that way because he’s just been focused on doing his job."
