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Favorite Non-Finals Jazz Team

SoberasHotRod

SoberasHotRod

Well-Known Member
2025 Award Winner
I was listening to Zach Lowe on the way to work this morning and he had a podcast about favorite non-Finals NBA teams. It made me think of what my favorite non-Finals Jazz teams were. I think some good candidates are the 83-84 team that had the franchises first winning record, the 91-92 team that made it to the conference Finals for the first time, the overachieving 03-04 team, the 06-07 Booz/Deron team that went to the conference finals, or maybe the 17-18 Mitchell/Gobert team that upset Paul George and OKC in the playoffs. Or maybe you just like train wrecks and so the 04-05 season or the 13-14 seasons or this past season are your favorite.

I'm going to think about it a little bit more, but I think I know which one I'm going to pick.
 
I think the Mitchell/Gobert era is still too fresh/raw for me to look back on it with nostalgia. Those playoff losses, the way it got pinned on Rudy (and Donovan agreeing with it despite his defense never improving), the way we never built our team properly, the way we underachieved -- really really tough stuff. I haven't recovered over the 2021 collapse yet, idk if I will until we are back in the playoffs. The year with Rubio was fun for sure but idk -- I personally enjoyed 2010 when we beat the Nuggets more (maybe in part because it was my first year really following). That game 3 vs. the Lakers was unbelievable. Korver ripping threes, Fisher and Odom making unbelievable shots, Matthews missing at the buzzer. We had injury issues (Okur out iirc, Kirilenko came back) but i never felt like that core underachieved. Offensive powerhouse with key limitations but they tried and they worked with eachother with exception to the misuse of AK

- George
 
The 2003-04 team. The guys were so locked in and played well above their individual abilities. AK, Harpring, Arroyo, Bell, Collins. They were unselfish, working extremely hard and not backing away from any challenge - a complete opposite to the Jazz teams from the last couple of years. We also had a coach and the front office who did not lie through their teeth to everyone.
 
Mitchell's rookie year was really fun. Rudy was at his most dominant, and the future felt really bright. I really wish we hadn't pushed all-in when we did (it was a year or two early); and I wish we hadn't pushed all-in with Conley (it should have been a 3-and-D powerwing).... I could keep ranting........... Mitchell's rookie year was fun.

The DWill-Boozer-Okur era was always frustrating for me because of how consistently bad they were on the road. I believe that reflects a leadership problem / problem with focus. So I was not surprised when they topped-out short of a real championship threat. The game 7 win over the Rockets was super fun, though.
 
83-84 season was a great one for young me, finally seeing them climb the ladder into being a decent team- it was a special year. Just another cherry on top of the best year in history for all things American culture/sports.
 
JazzFever said:
83-84 season was a great one for young me, finally seeing them climb the ladder into being a decent team- it was a special year. Just another cherry on top of the best year in history for all things American culture/sports.
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AD, The Golden Griff, Big T, The Fastest of them All: that was a memorable team.
 
Here's my top 3:

2017/2018 - The height of the Favors/Gobert duo. #1 defense in the NBA. We went in to the season thinking that Rodney Hood was going to take over for Hayward and then Donovan Mitchell happened. Then capping it all of with a win against OKC in the playoffs. It was just a story book season, starting with tragedy and then ending with an underdog playoff run. I truly loved how good we were on defense with Favors/Gobert, and even the next season (18/19) was great until it wasn't. I remember going in to the last day or two of the 18/19 season and there was like a 1 in 10,000 chance of playing Houston and then literally everything went wrong. It was painful to watch Ricky Rubio brick all of those open jumpers in that series, but I really think we swung too hard the wrong way with Conley and Bogey, giving up our defensive first identiy.

2007/2008 - My two favorite Jazz players were on this team (Deron and Millsap). There was also the hilarious Kyrylo Fesenko on this team. Owning the Yao/McGrady Houston Rockets during this era was awesome. With Okur and Boozer forming one of the worst defensive front courts in the NBA, we never really felt like a contender, but this team was still great.

1988/1989 - This is around the time when I first remember watching the Jazz. I admittedly don't 100% remember this exact team, but I wanted to pick one from this time range as this was a formidable time for me as a Jazz Fan. In 88/89 Mark Eaton was still a very good player (DPOY) at this time and not the stiff I remember him as a little bit later in his career. Thurl Bailey was one of the best 6th men in the league, and Stockton and Malone were putting up crazy numbers. According to basketball reference this was the best Jazz defensive team in Jazz history with an insane -6.3pts relative defensive rating. This was also the year that Jerry Sloan took over as head coach mid season.
 
07/08: Loved this team, pretty mediocre start going 16-16, but after the Korver trade went on a tear the rest of the season. Lakers were always just in the way.
03/04: The most over performing team we've ever had. Everyone thought we'd win like 10-15 games and we win 41.
17/18: Everyone was pretty down coming into the year since losing Hayward over the Summer, but rookie Donovan gave this franchise so much life and knocking off the "big 3" of OKC was probably my favorite playoff series I've ever been to (game 6).
94/95: Maybe the best team we've ever had. 60 wins, but running into the newly healthy Rockets was our doom. We're right there for a title if we win that game #5.
20/21: Even though the end of the season was super disappointing it was still a great regular season run being at the top of the standings for pretty much the entire season.
 
jazznik said:
The 2003-04 team. The guys were so locked in and played well above their individual abilities. AK, Harpring, Arroyo, Bell, Collins. They were unselfish, working extremely hard and not backing away from any challenge - a complete opposite to the Jazz teams from the last couple of years. We also had a coach and the front office who did not lie through their teeth to everyone.
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The only correct answer. What a season for my dad to figure out how to hack Dish Network cards. I must've watched 65-70 of the games that year.
 
I have a hard time narrowing it down. I was an avid fan and even traveled back to Utah from time to time just to watch the Jazz play while I was living in Chicago and Houston. For me the hallmark of the Jazz organization - prior to the Ryan Smith and Danny Ainge period - was always overachieving by being a well run organization with great coaching and an emphasis on playing team ball. I even loved the year post Stockton and Malone where they played .500 ball by just busting it every night and gutting out wins. Being crappy on purpose and playing the game of trying to get lucky has no appeal to me.
 
JazzFever said:
83-84 season was a great one for young me, finally seeing them climb the ladder into being a decent team- it was a special year. Just another cherry on top of the best year in history for all things American culture/sports.
Click to expand...
Same for me. Definitely my favorite season. I was young too at this period :).
 
I honestly don't even remember the finals seasons much at all so they aren't my favorite anyway.
That was during my peak drug abuse years. Lots of acid, coke/crack, weed, alcohol and anything else I could get my hands on during that time. It's all hazy. Can't remember much from that time.

I love the d will, boozer, memo, AK teams. I loved the core 4. Loved the gobert and Donovan years.

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