This article is part of our NBA All-Quarter Century Team series.
The Utah Jazz made history this past season in the way you don't want to make it. Their 17-65 record was the worst in franchise history, and the team failed to make the playoffs for the third straight season.
The franchise is in the doldrums now, but the past 25 years have not been all bad for the Jazz. The days of Stockton and Malone have long since passed, but Utah made the playoffs 14 times over the past quarter-century. During that span, there have been several good (and some very good) players to don the Jazz jersey. RotoWire, your home for sports betting sites, chose these top five.
Utah Jazz Quarter Century Team Members
This team of top Jazz players since 2000 has a traditional starting lineup – two guards, two forwards and a center. We didn't use specific stats in picking the players. Instead, we considered their overall production and impact on the team. RotoWire has basketball analysis plus top NBA betting promos for you.
Deron Williams (2005 to 2011)
The Jazz traded three first-round draft picks to the Portland Trail Blazers to get Deron Williams with the third pick in the 2005 draft. While that was a hefty price, the Jazz still won that trade as the former Illinois guard averaged 17.3 points and 9.1 assists per game in five-plus seasons with the Jazz. He ranks fourth all-time among Jazz players with 4,003 assists, and his 46.7 win shares are ninth-best in team history.
Donovan Mitchell (2017 to 2022)
It seemed like Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert would become the next Stockton and Malone, and for a while, they were. The Jazz made the playoffs in all five seasons Mitchell played with the team, and the former Louisville star emerged as one of the league's top scorers. Unfortunately, Gobert and Mitchell never developed the same kind of relationship as the two Jazz icons and that led to the team trading them both ahead of the 2022-23 season, beginning the current rebuild. Mitchell averaged 23.9 points a game and made three All-Star teams with Utah. That scoring average ranks fourth all-time in franchise history. The only players ahead of him are Adrian Dantley (29.6 ppg), Karl Malone (25.4 ppg) and Pete Maravich (25.2 ppg), all of whom are in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Mitchell is now with the Cleveland Cavaliers and his stat props at NBA betting sites are usually worth a wager.
Andrei Kirilenko (2001 to 2011)
The Russian was never a star player, but he was an essential piece who helped the Jazz make the playoffs six times during his 10 seasons in Salt Lake City. His 68.2 win shares are fifth best for the franchise. He also ranks in the franchise's top 10 in rebounds (ninth, 3,836), assists (sixth, 1,919), steals (fourth, 960) and blocks (second, 1,380). Kirilenko finished third in rookie of the year voting in the 2001-02 season. After that, he was among the top vote getters for sixth man of the year and defensive player of the year over the next eight seasons. At just 6 feet 9, he was among the best shot blockers during his tenure in the NBA, leading the league with 3.3 blocks a game during the 2004-05 season.
Carlos Boozer (2004 to 2010)
A free agent signing after two years in Cleveland, Boozer developed into a top player with the Jazz. He averaged 19.3 points and 10.5 rebounds per game over his six seasons with the team. He made the All-Star Game twice and was on the All-NBA Third Team for the 2007-08 season. The former Duke star finished in the top 10 in the league for rebounding four times while with the Jazz, and twice he ranked among the top 20 scorers. He also stepped up his game in the postseason. In the four times the Jazz made the postseason with him on the roster, Boozer averaged 20.3 points and 12.5 rebounds per playoff contest.
Rudy Gobert (2013 to 2022)
The lanky 7-foot center's name can be spotted throughout the Jazz record book and he's still worth monitoring at NBA betting apps. Rudy Gobert is third in franchise history in win shares (86.6), third in blocks (1,357), second in rebounds (7,119), second in field goal shooting (65.3%) and 10th in points (7,592). He also won three Defensive Player of the Year awards and led the league in field goal shooting three times during nine seasons in Utah. However, Gobert is more likely to be remembered for how he ended a press conference in March 2020, just days before the league and the rest of the country shut down as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation. That, too, would be the downfall of the last good Jazz teams. Gobert tested positive for the virus shortly after playfully touching all the microphones at the press conference. Mitchell, too, got the virus, and the pair's relationship strained from that. Now, Mitchell is in Cleveland, where the Cavaliers finished with the Eastern Conference's best record. Gobert is in Minnesota, where the Timberwolves have reached the Western Conference final two straight seasons. Meanwhile, Utah finished this season with the league's worst record. Despite that, the Jazz missed out completely in this year's NBA Draft Lottery, subjecting them to pick fifth in this month's draft.
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