Game Preview: Utah Jazz vs. Portland Trail Blazers— Battle of the Most Improved Players

SB Nation

The Jazz (12-22) roll into Portland tonight to face the Trail Blazers, (16-20) looking to get back to their winning ways. Or, perhaps, continue their tanking ways? Utah is 3-7 in their last 10, which is bad,

but still amounts to 50% of the Indiana Pacers’ win total and 33% of the 4th-worst Washington Wizards’ wins. So, maybe the Jazz aren’t tanking. They’re sort of “Bradley-ing.” A Bradley is an armored fighting vehicle that looks like a tank. It has armor, it has tracks, it has some pretty big guns, (see video below) but it’s not a tank and it’s not built to win a fight against a tank. It appears that the Jazz, as currently constructed, are not built to defeat the tank in Indiana. They’re not even built to defeat New Orleans, who aren’t even tanking, as Atlanta owns their pick—they’re just very, very bad.

Battle of the Most Improved: Deni Avdija vs. Keyonte George

Blazers’ small forward Deni Avdija started to appear on NBA junkies’ radar during the 2023-2024 season in Washington. He jumped from 9.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game to 14.7/7.2/3.8. Then he did it again the next season, averaging 16.9/7.3/3.9 for Portland. He has come into his own this year, making an even bigger and more visible jump to a whopping 25.7/7.3/7.1. 13/4.4. He’s a joy to watch. In short, he gets buckets and he helps other people get buckets. He can posterize you, but he usually doesn’t need to.

Keyonte, for his part, has made a similar ascent in a shorter amount of time in the League. He started as a rookie with a per-game average of 13.0/2.8/4.4. Last season he improved to 16.8/3.8/5.6, but he still had doubters, yours truly included. This season he is turning heads, throwing a wrench into the tanking plans, and leaving more fans thinking more carefully about offering him as some afterthought piece in a trade built to make the team worse. He is currently putting up 24.5/4.2/6.9. Like Avdija, he is now a critical part of his team’s offense and has improved in every season since 2023. He is a walking bucket and has improved his distribution skills considerably. While trying to remain as neutral as possible, if I had a vote in the MIP awards I would give ithe nod to Avdija, but if you’re a Jazz fan it’s still pretty cool that this is a conversation at all.

Injury Report:

According to ESPN, it looks like the Jazz are trying to win tonight, with a probably starting lineup of Keyonte/Svi/Brice/Lauri/Flip. As always—as dumb as it sounds—the Jazz have to outscore the Blazers, because they will probably find it difficult to get stops. But hey, it’s pretty fun to watch them get so many buckets, which has made them something of a cult League Pass follow in recent weeks.

Jazz: Ace Bailey: day to day (hip), Georges Niang: out (foot), Jusuf Nurkic: day to day (foot), Walker Kessler: out for season (shoulder).

Portland is far more afflicted by injuries than Utah, also according to ESPN:

Trail Blazers: Scoot Henderson: out (hamstring), Matisse Thybulle: out (thumb), Jrue Holiday: day to day (calf), Blake Wesley: out (foot), Jerami Grant: day to day (achilles), Robert Williams III: day to day (knee), Damian Lillard: out for season (achilles).

If this turns into an offensive, defense-optional slugfest, the Jazz have a chance. If not, the Blazers probably take it.