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Utah Jazz Power Rankings Round-Up: Week 23

Power Rankings from CBS, ESPN, FiveThirtyEight, SB Nation, Sports Illustrated, NBC, Nylon Calculus, Yahoo!, and NBA.com

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Past Rankings! Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12, Week 13, Week 14, Week 15, Week 16, Week 17, Week 18, Week 19, Week 20, Week 21, Week 22

Two weeks ago the Utah Jazz didn't look so hot, limping to a 1-3 week. The jazz turned it around and went 3-1. Actually, if not for some "creative" refereeing, the Jazz probably should have gone 4-0. Utah took care of business against the Minnesota Timberwolves (on the road), the Denver Nuggets (at home), lost by a poor call against the Phoenix Suns (on the road), and beat the Sacramento Kings (on the road). Pretty solid work for our guys against fellow Western Conference lotto teams. But that's just me talking. How did the National writers feel?

Welll....................

1 Site: CBS Sports Record: 35-42 The Jazz are young, exciting, have a franchise center, a developing point guard and two star players in Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors. You'd think they'd be a lock for the playoffs next year. But tell me who's falling out of the West top nine?
Author: Matt Moore This Week: 19
Date: 4/6/2015 Last Week: 12
2 Site: ESPN Record: 35-42 Rating: 101.315
Author: Hollinger This Week: 13
Date: 4/6/2015 Last Week: 13
3 Site: ESPN Record: 35-42 Put Quin Snyder in the same club with Milwaukee's Jason Kidd and Boston's Brad Stevens. The club of coaches whose teams might well be sporting sub-.500 records but who merit a mention somewhere in the COY discussion thanks to the overachievement they've coaxed out of their youngsters.
Author: Marc Stein This Week: 12
Date: 4/6/2015 Last Week: 13
4 Site: FiveThirtyEight Record: 35-42 OFF RTG: -0.7, DEF RTG: +3.4, TOT RTG: +2.7, Expected Wins: 37.7
Author: Neil Paine This Week: 11
Date: 4/7/2015 Last Week: 16
5 Site: NBA.com Record: 35-42
Pace: 92.5 (30) OffRtg: 102.4 (15) DefRtg: 102.0 (13) NetRtg: +0.4 (17)
The Jazz are, by far, the most improved team since the All-Star break, 11.2 points per 100 possessions better than they were before it (12.9 better on defense, 1.7 worse on offense). But for a harsh dose of reality, note that the team that showed the most post-break improvement last season was Charlotte. And the season before that, it was Sacramento.
Author: John Schuhmann This Week: 14
Date: 4/6/2015 Last Week: 16
6 Site: NBC Record: 35-42 Interesting discussion around the NBA now is what the much-improved Jazz should do this summer to build on their defense and second half surge. History suggests there will be patience, looking for growth out of the guys they already have, and maybe one or two trades but not a blockbuster. They just need the right guys.
Author: Kurt Helin This Week: 15
Date: 4/6/2015 Last Week: 16
7 Site: Nylon Calculus Record: 35-42 The only non playoff team in the top 10. Of course. The Jazz continue to be a top 5 team since the All-Star break behind a record setting defense if they could keep it up for the whole year. Their being this good doesn’t have any long term bearing, but holy cow, that they managed to pull this high is incredible.
Author: Hal Brown This Week: 9
Date: 4/7/2015 Last Week: 20
8 Site: SB Nation Record: 35-42

Oh my. Rudy Gobert had NO interest in adding to Andrew Wiggins' rookie highlight reel. Monster block incoming:

Author: Drew Garrison This Week: 15
Date: 4/6/2015 Last Week: 18
9 Site: Sports Illustrated Record: 35-42 Trey Burke believes the Jazz can make the playoffs next season, an opinion that might become trendy come next fall. Utah’s youngsters continue to impress in the second half—particularly the front court duo of Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert—leading the NBA in defensive rating (93.2) since the All-Star break and going 16-8.
Author: Matt Dollinger This Week: 15
Date: 4/6/2015 Last Week: 19
10 Site: Yahoo! Sports Record: 35-42 Keep an eye on rookie Rodney Hood, who can be inconsistent but has had three games of at least 20 points since March 12.
Author: Marc J. Spears This Week: 17
Date: 4/6/2015 Last Week: 17

Yup, overall the Jazz went up +20 spots, and as there were 10 rankings this means an average of going up two spots. Last week the Jazz were #16.0, and this week #14.0. Not bad, Jazz. Keep it up!