SALT LAKE CITY – At media day, Jazz and Mammoth owner Ryan Smith explained how Utah is perceived differently amongst the NBA and NHL circles.
He pointed out the differences in team building between the leagues as the main contributing factor.
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Starting with the NBA, Smith said that recent contenders have built their teams mostly in-house.
Which is mostly true. Oklahoma City acquired Shai Gilgeous-Alexander before he was a star, and drafted Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, and other key contributors. Going back further, Boston drafted Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Denver drafted Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, Golden State drafted Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
Although these teams make moves to trim up the edges, the cores of these recent title-winning teams grow within the city.
“We’ve got to grow our talent here,” Smith said. “If you look at every championship run right now, they’ve grown their talent. Every single one has grown their talent. The thing about Boston is that no one wants to play there. They’ve never gotten a free agent. It came down to Jayson (Tatum) and Jaylen (Brown).”
Comparing to Utah’s other big four sports team, Smith pointed out that the franchise has already generated major interest from NHL players.
Although some of this may be because the Mammoth is the newest thing in the league, the point stands. And it almost directly contrasts what the Jazz have gone through.
“Hockey is a little different,” Smith started. “Our name is coming up. Every free agent that comes out there, they’re thinking Utah, Utah, Utah. Hopefully, that’ll happen, but also these teams aren’t very interested in giving up their stars either.”
Smith went over the difference in the NBA, and he used the 2020-2021 season as an example.
The Jazz finished first in the Western Conference that year, but Smith said the team still had no luck in free agency as they looked to re-up to try and take another shot at a deep run.
“It’s super competitive in the NBA,” Smith explained. “Getting back to winning can help. Even when we were number one in the league, I remember going into that offseason where we had been bounced the first time. We were trying to get something. The list was long. It wasn’t five minutes in before we were down at the bottom half of the list, going, ‘Ok, how do we augment this list?’ It was super difficult.”
With that said, Smith and the Jazz front office haven’t lost any faith.
A big reason for that is the recent shift in what’s seen as the best way to rebuild. If you look back about ten years, NBA teams were able to buy themselves a ticket to a deep playoff run. Great examples of this were the Miami Heat with LeBron James and the Golden State Warriors with Kevin Durant.
The new CBA in the league is much more team-friendly, specifically in terms of keeping drafted players.
“The (NBA has) changed. There is a way to build. Part of that is through the draft because you get a chance to grow and develop these young players and have team options going forward. That’s the benefit.”
The Jazz have faith in the future, and all signs point to them being on the right path.
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Chandler Holt is a co-host of the Jazz Notes podcast, a Locals In The NFL Insider, and Digital Sports Producer for KSLSports.com. Follow Chandler on X for Utah Jazz and Locals In The NFL updates.
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