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INDIANAPOLIS — The same narratives have sprung up again around the Utah Jazz.
All the talk entering the season was about how bad the team was going to be. It was so prevalent that team executives even answered questions about top prospects before the first game had even been played. It may have been hard to find any media member (and this reporter is as guilty as any) who'd even entertain the thought of this team even being decent, let alone good.
After a 10-3 start and a scrappy season ... well, the Jazz proved a lot of people wrong.
Last week, the Jazz traded Mike Conley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker for two players who have yet to see time in a game. The prevailing thought was that Danny Ainge had finally done it; he's made it so the team will definitely slide into the lottery.
Not so fast.
The Jazz are now 2-1 since the trade deadline after a 123-117 win in Indiana and are still hanging on to the final play-in spot. Oh, and they're just 2.5 games out of fourth place and homecourt advantage.
Lauri Markkanen has averaged 27 points in those three games and has fought off more double teams and more physical defenses to continue his star-making season. Collin Sexton and Talen Horton-Tucker have had big moments running Utah's offense, Jordan Clarkson had an eclectic game against the Pacers, and Walker Kessler has continued to impress.
"I feel like we've got a bunch of guys out to prove something," Sexton said.
That was the case at the beginning of the season; it's still the case now.
In short, the team isn't going to lie down and just let the lottery happen — no matter how many think that's a foregone conclusion.
"That's a very easy button for me to push for the team," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "The media makes that very easy. When the narrative around the team is that you're not supposed to be good, or you make some changes and these guys aren't good now and they're supposed to lose, as a coach, that's a very easy button to push."
Clarkson, though, understands where the narrative comes from. It's clear the Jazz are looking more to the future than the now, but that doesn't mean they won't try to win games.
"We're building a culture for the future, especially with young guys and everyone playing," he said. "That's not saying we're not competing or trying to win games, or none of that. We're playing hard, we're in the games every night, we're finishing, trying to do the same thing we've been doing earlier in the year, and hopefully run off some (wins). You never know where we'll end up."
He admits, though, that it gets old seeing his team cast aside like it won't accomplish anything this season.
But "it's the NBA," he concluded.
Utah will just continue to use it as fuel. All that talk early on created a collective chip on Utah's shoulder — a chip that only looks to be getting bigger.
"That's not going to change. I believe in our team," Hardy said. "I think these guys have shown that they're capable of winning games. We have to obviously adjust to some new faces being in the locker room and some faces being gone — like that's a natural thing to do, but the collective focus and competitiveness and that chip, the hope is that we can maintain that."
Especially because it is a lot more interesting to be in a playoff battle than a race to the bottom of the standings.
"It's a lot of fun to be a part of a group that's a little bit pissed off every night," Hardy said. "And that definitely fuels us."
