Utah Jazz: When did expectations change?

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SALT LAKE CITY — What a season and in my opinion an awesome season. Lock out, no training camp, young team, young coach and so many things up in the air. The Jazz played hard and 90 percent of the games were exciting to watch and broadcast.

They have talent in certain position and they are young in key position. Because of that they had to grind a lot of games out to win.

The season started with expectations not extremely high on most critics' lists. We all were thinking 20 to 25 wins would be commendable. With a 66 games schedule and no room for practice time it was going to be hard to improve quickly enough to scare anyone. Coach Ty Corbin started the season off with a lineup that I thought would work - Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, Al Jefferson, Devin Harris and Raja Bell - but Derrick Favors was too young to handle it at that time, with veteran Paul Millsap coming off the bench, and not happy about it, the Jazz struggled, winning just one of the first four games.

Utah Jazz's Enes Kanter (0), DeMarre Carroll
(3), Alec Burks (10) and Derrick Favors (15)
wait on the sideline. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) — Utah Jazz's Enes Kanter (0), DeMarre Carroll (3), Alec Burks (10) and Derrick Favors (15) wait on the sideline. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

By the end of January, Millsap replacing Favors in the starting lineup, the Jazz' heavy home schedule produced a 12-7 record. This is what makes the season so intriguing, every team has its ups and downs, they have injuries and the Jazz had their fair share, but with every injury it gave another player a chance to shine and throughout the season every player that replaced a teammate responded for Coach Corbin.

With Millsap playing his best basketball, pairing up well with Jefferson, instantly the Jazz got better, benefitting from a very favorable schedule. A schedule that helped the young team develop. The internal problems that every team has the Jazz were able to right the ship and struggle through them.

As Coach Corbin got to know his team and his players' talent level, the lineup continued to change until he found one he could live with. But with any team comes playing time and rotation issues, not to mention the youth on this team. There's nothing usual about a player wanting more time on the court. In fact, it's fair to say, every player in the history of the game has wanted and thought they deserved more playing time.

After playing with the starting lineup Coach Corbin inserts Josh Howard and immediately he started to play well until the injury to his knee. So, these are things as a head coach you deal with and yes, that mean another starting five. Fortunately the home schedule was keeping them in the race for the playoffs. A team without league superstars was able to stay in ball games by grinding on defense, grinding on offense and not giving up. They won a number of buzzer-beaters, but lost a few as well. The Jazz played more overtime games than I have seen in years because of their ability to stay close.

Now by doing the small things to win the young player are starting to develop. Hayward, Favors, Alec Burks and Enes Kanter were not ready at the beginning of the year, but did show flashes of brilliance. At the time, it wasn't often enough.

As the season moved on and the condensed schedule taking its toll on players and the team, Coach Corbin was forced to give more and more playing time to the young talent and they started to demand and deserve even more minutes. By the end of the year Hayward, who was already in the starting lineup, saw his minutes increase. Favors and Burks, who became a part of Corbin's regular rotation, were now a part of the success of the team.

Utah Jazz's Paul Millsap (24) scores as San
Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan, right defends. (AP
Photo/Eric Gay) — Utah Jazz's Paul Millsap (24) scores as San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan, right defends. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

You would have to say the season was a success after finishing 36-30 and an impressive 25-8 in the EnergySolutions Arena. Like I said, expectations were not very high at the beginning of the year. So when did the expectations for this team change?

When did we start looking at the Jazz with both eyes open?

According to Coach Corbin, he realized he had something special going on after the four-overtime road loss to Atlanta. Even though the Jazz lost, Corbin was impressed with the way his players fought to the very end; every player left it on the floor. But his impressions were confirmed the following night, when Utah played the Nets. The team didn't arrive in New Jersey until 3 a.m. and no one expected them to come out with anything in the tank. But the Jazz shot an impressive 52 percent from the field. Millsap led the way with 24 points, Big Al dropped in 19 and Alec Burks scored 15 off the bench as Utah won 105-84.

I started to worry March 2nd realizing the Jazz were going to play 18 of the next 32 games on the road. That night they played at home before going out on the road for five consecutive games and things didn't look good. But, before a sellout crowd the Jazz beat the best team from the east, the Miami Heat, at home 99-98. At that time the Jazz record on the road was 3-12. They ended up winning two of five on that trip. That's when I started to feel there was a chance.

So from March 1 to April 26 the Jazz finish very strong going 20-12, with an 8-10 road record, and finished the season winning five in a row to make the playoff.

What we expected and what we got was a team that saw past expectation by grinding, and grinding until the threads were stripped.