Jazz Fan Vote Reveals MVP, Future Stars and the Team's Most Chaotic Personalities
NBA awards season is here, and we wanted to hear from YOU, Utah Jazz fans.
Who is your team's MVP? What about its next first-time All-Star? Which player is on the best contract? How about the worst?
Which player is most likely to have a burner account? Who's the best athlete? And, perhaps most importantly, if you had to choose one player to team up with during a Zombie apocalypse, who's your guy?
You helped us make sense of the Jazz's season by casting a ballot for each of these awards—and more!
Who Is the Most Valuable Player?
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Winner: Lauri Markkanen
Keyonte George finished with about a dozen more games and 300 more minutes than Lauri Markkanen, but the latter topped all of his teammates in Value Over Replacement Player and ran away with the most Estimated Wins. It's remarkable that a team this bad has two 20-point scorers with true shooting percentages north of 60.0 percent.
There was so much mixing and matching with the rest of the roster during Utah's tanking effort that virtually no one else profiled as a serious candidate. And that's exactly how fans saw it, giving Markkanen 50.0 percent of the vote and George 48.0 percent.
Who Is Most Underrated?
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Winner: Keyonte George
George probably hasn't made it onto the national radar to the extent he should, as the developing guard made a leap this season and looks like a cornerstone going forward. It's hard to overstate the significance of the point guard's offensive improvement, as it wasn't at all clear after last season that George was even a future starter.
He made up for his narrow MVP loss by walking away with this award, narrowly edging out Brice Sensabaugh.
Who Is the Best Athlete?
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Winner: Ace Bailey
Markkanen moves off the ball like a guard rather than a 7-footer, and his straight-line drives always seem to catch defenders by surprise. He didn't amass 70 dunks in his first 42 games of the season by accident.
George has jitterbug quickness with the ball, Bailey is as springy as you'd expect from a 19-year-old and Collier has the speed-power combo you'd most closely associate with a bowling ball rocketing down the lane.
Voters overwhelmingly preferred Bailey's youthful bounce.
Who Is Most Likely To Be a 1st-Time All-Star In the Next 5 Years?
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Winner: Keyonte George
George was averaging 23.8 points, 6.5 assists and 3.9 rebounds on a 45.8/37.5/89.4 shooting split at this year's All-Star break, numbers that might have earned him his first nod if they'd come on a competitive team.
He had to be first in line among potential Jazz first-time All-Stars, with Bailey, Walker Kessler and Cody Williams (just to choose one more young player) coming in behind him.
Who Has the Best Contract?
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Winner: Keyonte George
If George keeps up his new level of play, he'll be in line for a massive rookie extension. For now, with just $4.3 million coming to him this season and $6.6 million next year, he's wildly underpaid.
Mykhailiuk ($7.9 million total over the next two years) got some consideration, along with Collier and Filipowski.
Who Has the Worst Contract?
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Winner: Jaren Jackson Jr.
Cody Williams could have his fourth-year option declined this coming offseason, which is a pretty good sign he hasn't lived up to his relatively modest rookie deal so far. It was still too hard for voters to choose him over Jaren Jackson Jr., whose $205 million extension clearly concerns a lot of Jazz fans.
Both Markkanen and Jackson need to perform like surefire All-Stars to deliver real value. That's a high bar to clear.
Rounding out the other considerations: Jusuf Nurkić, whose $19.4 million salary is expiring after ranking third highest on the team this season.
Who Is the Best Trash-Talker?
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Winner: Will Hardy
Does head coach Will Hardy count? Voters say yes!
He got into it with officials as well as his own team in heated huddles. That's not technically trash talk, but better options were hard to find on a squad with as little to chatter about as this one.
If the preseason was fair game, several Jazz players were on the receiving end of some trash talk from Kevin Durant. Other options included veteran Kevin Love, whose wry sense of humor is a useful trash-talk tool, and Nurkić, who's been involved in more than his share of confrontations throughout his career.
Who Is Most Likely To Have a Burner Account?
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Winner: Kevin Love
If Kessler had a burner, he probably would have used it to complain about Utah not extending his contract ahead of restricted free agency. Kevin Love has long been among the league's savvier social media users, but he's reached the stage of veteran comfort where he doesn't really care what others think.
Voters apparently viewed that argument as little more than a good cover story, giving him the win here.
Collier and Kessler combined for nearly half the vote, suggesting the youngsters might still be sneaky burner candidates.
Who Are You Taking With You Into the Zombie Apocalypse?
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Winner: Kevin Love
Jackson Jr. has a great left hand around the basket, which indicates he's resourceful. Love has the veteran experience to stay calm in a crisis, Kessler possesses natural protective instincts and Markkanen can snipe from a distance with the best of them.
Love's savvy and wisdom got the job done for him in this category.
Almost no voters believed Cody Williams' ability to go completely unnoticed would make him good at avoiding zombie attention, which seems like an oversight.
Who Is Most Likely To Be Playing Overseas In 2 Seasons?
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Winner: Mo Bamba
Love and Nurkić are Utah's higher-profile free-agents-to-be, but both seem likely to catch on with another NBA team (maybe for the minimum in Love's case). Lonzo Ball is technically on the Jazz's payroll, despite never playing for them before being waived. If his career continues, it might have to be overseas.
Voters could have chosen any number of the 10-day "wait, he's on the team?" options who've cycled through Utah this season. Bez Mbeng got some consideration, but Mo Bamba, a former lottery pick, wound up with a victorious 55.0 percent of the vote. Ouch.
