The state of the Utah Jazz - The Downbeat #1521

Apparently yesterday was "Treat yoself" Sunday for Jazz players:

New car!!! pic.twitter.com/4JTHngEtQ0

— Derrick Favors (@dfavors14) January 11, 2015

Best gift I got this year! My Eleven James watch membership. Thx @stinanovak ! #ELEVENJAMESHOLIDAY pic.twitter.com/3A9VbyPFxN

— STEVE NOVAK (@stevenovak16) January 11, 2015

Since joining the Jazz, Elijah Millsap has been pretty impressive. His shots aren't dropping (not many on the team's are), but his defense has been wonderful. Defensive impact is difficult to quantify anyway, but there just isn't enough data yet to prove what the eye sees. In Baby Sap's case, he has played 4 games against the Jazz and in those games he has had to matchup with players like Jimmy Butler, Kevin Durant, and James Harden. Welcome to the league, I guess.

Some small bits to keep an eye on:

Net +/-: +9

DRTG: 105, good for 3rd best. 2nd if you remove Jeremy Evans, who has only played 61 mins.

STL%: 4.6 is best among any Jazz player this year

These are cherry picked stats, but the point is to keep an eye on how he continues to play. He's stepped in to average 26 mpg over the last three games, so the coaching staff must see something in him.

Here's Coach Q, via Aaron Falk of the SL Trib:

You’ve got to figure out different ways to use players and sometimes you find something. You find an Elijah Millsap. … Sometimes necessity is the mother of invention."

Derek Favors has been quietly fantastic over the recent stretch. You have undoubtedly been watching a game and looked up stats, only to find Fav has 20/10.

With some of the things Gobert does, it can be easy to overlook Favors. But he's been rolling lately. Up to 18 & 6 in this one.

— Aaron Falk (@tribjazz) January 10, 2015

This was an hour and a half into the OKC game. He went on to have 22/11 and 3 blocks.

Since mid-December, after he missed two games, he has averaged:

17PTS, 9TRB, 1.5BLK, 54%FG, and the stunner: 73%FT

In that time, the Jazz have gone 7-6, with wins over Memphis and Chicago.

Currently, the Jazz have played 38 games. That's 45% of the season complete. Need to feel good about the direction of this team? Last year the Jazz only won a total of 25 games. Right now, the Jazz have 13 wins.

How many more wins do they have left in them? Running through the schedule of remaining games, I count 16 wins. That would put them at 29-53 for the year. Not great, but that's about a 20% increase in wins (right?). Over their last 10, they are 5-5. If by some miracle they went .500 the rest of the season, they would end up with 35 wins, which would be phenomenal improvement. The difficult thing about judging this team (besides all the injuries) is that it seems like they can beat any team, on any night.

Here's my predictions? What are yours?