Jazz Rank 7th In ‘Watchability’ Rankings

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – How watchable are the Utah Jazz?

It depends on whom you ask. If you ask Jazz fans, they would tell you that their favorite team is must-see TV. Sure, Utah lost to New Orleans 128-127 on Friday night, but did you see the Mike Conley’s alley-oops to Rudy Gobert and Ed Davis? Or how about the sweet-shooting by Bojan Bogdanovic, Jeff Green and Royce O’Neale, who made 19 of 25 shots? Then there is larger-than-life, star-in-the-making Donovan Mitchell who chipped in 10 points and 7 assists. That sounds like a pretty watchable team.

Lakers fans may scoff and point out their team has LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Warriors’ faithful may say they still have Steph Curry on their squad. Knicks fans may actually watch the Jazz since their team is terrible, but Nets fans would trumpet their up and coming team with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.

If you were a basketball fan living in Los Angeles or New York or San Francisco, and your team wasn’t playing that night, would you turn on your television to watch the Jazz?

The 8th Annual League Pass Rankings, Part 2 — the top 15, including the 2019-20 League Pass Champions: https://t.co/WzZkgJgO18

— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) October 12, 2019

That’s what ESPN columnist Zach Lowe tried to determine in his annual 2019-2020 League Pass Rankings. Lowe rated teams on highlight potential, playing style, if normal people care about the team and other factors like uniforms, playing court and announcers.

With all that said, Lowe ranked Utah 7th overall. That’s three spots better than where he rated the Jazz last season. In 2018, Lowe almost sounded like he was pleading his case to readers that they should tune into Jazz games because they were a watchable team, ran great plays and had a nasty streak. His assessment was a bit different this season.

“Utah brings intricacy for the nerds and loud highlights for when you just want to see supernova athletes do cool stuff,” said Lowe.  

Lowe loves the fact that Gobert and teammates attempted more dunks than any other team last season, that Mitchell and Conley can break ankles and that Joe Ingles is irritating and a great passer. He also likes Royce O’Neale tenacity and the fact the Jazz are playing faster.  

1997 🔁 2019#MountainTime
» https://t.co/CyruuyacDM pic.twitter.com/8n3jto5saz

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) August 28, 2019

And Lowe was happy to see that the team is bringing back their purple mountain jerseys from the 90’s.

So why was Utah only 7th on this list? It really came down to mega-stars and interesting personalities.

Lowe placed Philadelphia #1 for the second straight season mainly because of their size and Joel Embiid’s trash talking. The Lakers are second because of the Big 2 of Anthony Davis and LeBron James and the Big 2 characters in JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard. Milwaukee is 3rd because of MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The Clippers, Denver Nuggets, and Dallas Mavericks come in at 4, 5 and 6.