Surprisingly successful Jarred Vanderbilt key to Jazz's surprisingly hot start

Ask any Kentucky fan which former Wildcat they expected to be a starter on one of the best teams in the NBA and very few would have picked Jarred Vanderbilt. Similarly, no one projected the Utah Jazz to be the best team in the loaded Western Conference this year, but roughly 20% through the NBA season, here we are.

Since 1999-2000, no team with a preseason win projection fewer than 25 (the Jazz’s was 23.5) has started better than 7-6 through their first 13 games. This year’s Utah Jazz team started 10-3, and even after dropping a game to the Washington Wizards on Saturday, they still sit atop the Western Conference standings.

The Jazz traded away both Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell for a haul of young talent and draft picks and seemed primed to set themselves up for success in the future. Instead, they appear to be competitors right now and one of the key reasons for their success is Kentucky’s own, Jarred Vanderbilt.

The term Vanderbilt is a four-letter word for Kentucky fans this weekend, but the basketball player version is worthy of praise.

Jarred Vanderbilt is the Utah Jazz’s do-everything player

When Vanderbilt left Kentucky after one season, most fans rolled their eyes, as they viewed him as a player who left for the pros on potential alone without contributing much to the school. Vanderbilt underperformed during his time in Lexington, was oft-injured, and managed his return from said injuries very conservatively.

Fast forward a few years and many Utah Jazz fans viewed the man they call the Vandolorian as a throw-in for salary-matching purposes in the massive trade that sent Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves, but Vando has been proving to be much more valuable than that.

The versatile and lanky 6-foot-19 forward is averaging career-highs in nearly every statistical category this season, with 8.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.4 blocks. More impressively, Vanderbilt unveiled a newfound 3-point shot this season, something that not even the most astute of prognosticators saw coming. Out of his 14 attempts from behind the arc this season, Vando has connected on seven of them, good for a whopping 50%. No one is going to mistake him for Devin Booker, but his ability to make an open 3 drastically opens up the offense for the Utah Jazz.

Vanderbilt’s trajectory has been there for a couple of years. When he was teammates with Karl-Anthony Towns in Minnesota, he served as the perfect athletic big man complement to KAT’s outside shooting. Now with Utah, he is a do-everything, lengthy, high-energy guy that has been a huge factor in the Jazz’s success, ranking third on the team in win shares.

To tank or not to tank

Pessimists might say the Jazz picked a bad year to be surprisingly good. With generational talent, Victor Wembanyama, awaiting the winner of the NBA lottery next season, many experts assumed the teams in rebuild mode would be in a race to the bottom in an attempt to gain the best ping-pong ball odds. Utah was chief amongst this group, but don’t tell that to their players.

Vanderbilt and company are proving they don’t need a traditional max player to win. The question will be, what happens if the team comes back down to reality a bit? Last year, the Washington Wizards got off to a surprising 10-3 start as well but finished 25-44. Does that same fate await this year’s Jazz?

Again, it wouldn’t be the worst thing for their lottery odds, but as of now, losing is not a tune Jarred Vanderbilt and the Jazz plan on playing anytime soon.