The Jazz are clearly a better team than last year. Last year they went down by 20 and stayed down by 20. This year they actually make it a close game.
That being said, at the moment I feel the future of the Jazz is going nowhere. We, for the first time, swung for the fences by drafting Exum. We then basically un-swing for the fences by not playing him much at all, with the flawed logic that he is too young and raw.
We traded 2 draft picks for Trey Burke. I would trade those two draft picks and Trey Burke for Exum without hesitation. I wish we would for once completely swing for the fences. For example, I would throw Exum to the wolves and see what happens. If it ends up utterly failing so be it. If he was truly the player we think he can be, he would not fail. As it stands right now, having a Trey Burke at his ceiling will get us nowhere, so it's not like a failed Exum project is any worse.
And I can't see how Exum is getting any better by the way we are developing him now. First we send him with the second unit which has a hard time scoring. This takes away his main strength, passing/court vision. Since they know the second unit can't score well, they can pressure him or double him even if he decides to drive it in and be aggressive. In consequence, this now forces him to develop a pull up jump shot in order to get more playing time. Developing a pull up jump shot takes a LOT of time. This has resulted in less and less minutes for Exum as the season has gone on.
Second, a lot of times they will have either Burks or Hayward run the point instead. So the minutes he's on the floor when this happens are basically useless since I don't ever see him becoming even an above average shooting guard. A great shooting guard needs vertical explosiveness, something Exum doesn't have.
I wish our lineup was this:
Starting:
Exum
Hood
Hayward
Kanter
Favors
Subs:
Burke
Burks
Ingles
Booker
Gobert
By having the lineup this way, Exum will actually be able to operate efficiently and contribute immediately since the floor will be well spread out. He is also a better defender than Trey so we'd benefit defensively as well. Hood will also develop nicely, and I think this starting 5 in general would have good chemistry.
Then when the bench is subbed in we'd have offensive firepower with Trey and Burks. And Trey's crappy defense will not be as painful since he's going against bench players and will have Gobert protecting the rim.
Sadly, these lineups will probably never be tested. But just from watching all the games it makes the most sense to me.