The strength of the team is the team. That phrase was commonly heard coming from Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder last year. He was adamant that the collective talent of this roster would eventually come out. After falling to the lottery-bound Atlanta Hawks on the road, however, the Jazz hit a low point of their season at 19-28. Gordon Hayward was long in the rear-view mirror, Rudy Gobert had played in less than half the games, and Ricky Rubio was struggling to fit in.

Then the turnaround happened.

Something clicked and the Jazz found themselves finishing the season 29-6. That momentum carried into the offseason by defeating the OKC Thunder with MVP Russell Westbrook and newcomer Paul George in the first round of the playoffs. Rudy was dominant and would go on to win the Defensive Player of the Year despite playing in only 56 regular season games. Rookie Donovan Mitchell looked like the best player on the court in that first round series and would certainly improve. Joe Ingles became a 3 point assassin and perfect glue guy. And Ricky Rubio started to look like the Jason Kidd 2.0 that GM Dennis Lindsey was hoping for.

It wasn’t too surprising that Lindsey opted in to this version of the Jazz and gave the roster another chance this season. He preached continuity over the summer and hoped that internal development would supersede talent acquisition. This was absolutely justified at the time. He even reported to studying the data behind it and was convinced it could work. He wanted to see how sustainable that win rate to end the season really was.

Spoiler: it wasn’t.

Basketball Reference tracks roster continuity from season to season. It should come as no surprise that Utah had the 4th highest continuity from last season. The only true change made was letting Jonas Jerebko’s contract expire and drafting Grayson Allen. These minor tweaks meant that the Jazz were bringing back 97% of the minutes played from 2017-2018. Here’s how the entire league looked in regards to roster continuity.

The entire historical data can be found here.

Look through the current Western Conference standings this year and you’ll find a pretty consistent trend of teams improving.

1. Denver Nuggets: None
2. Los Angeles Clippers: Great draft pick in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Mike Scott and Marcin Gortat both providing good rotational minutes
3. OKC Thunder: Dennis Schroder, Nerlens Noel, loss of Carmelo Anthony
4. Golden State Warriors: Jonas Jerebko (didn’t really need to add talent)
5. Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James, Javale McGee, Lance Stephenson, Rajon Rondo
6. Memphis Grizzlies: Garret Temple, Kyle Anderson, Jaren Jackson Jr., Shelvin Mack, Mike Conley health, and not intentionally tanking
7. Portland Trail Blazers: Nik Stauskas, Seth Curry (up against the cap)
8. Dallas Mavericks: DeAndre Jordan, Luka Doncic
9. Sacramento Kings: Nemanja Bjellica, Marvin Bagley III, Iman Shumpert
10. Minnesota Timberwolves: Josh Okogie, Anthony Tolliver (and now Dario Saric and Robert Covington)
11. New Orleans Pelicans: Julius Randle, Wesley Johnson (plus a full season of Nikola Mirotic)
12. San Antonio Spurs: DeMar DeRozan, Dante Cunningham, Marco Belinelli
13. Houston Rockets: James Ennis and Gary Clark?
14. Utah Jazz: None. (Finally an addition in Kyle Korver last week)
15. Phoenix Suns: DeAndre Ayton, Trevor Ariza, Mikal Bridges, Jamal Crawford

The only team in the western conference that brought back more of their roster than the Jazz is the Denver Nuggets. They were able to resign Will Barton and had Paul Milsap coming back from injury. Add that into Nikola Jokic’s and Jamal Murray’s expected growth and I’m not surprised they brought the band back. The Blazers hardly changed as well, but they were backed up against the cap in the offseason.

The Jazz find themselves 11th in the conference at 12-13. Sure, they are only 1.5 games out of the playoffs. Yes, their schedule has been absolutely brutal so far. Yeah, they lead the league in road wins. And no I don’t believe they will end the season 14th. But something feels off. The team just doesn’t look the same despite being identical to last year. Should Dennis Lindsey have sought out free agents or a trade to add talent to this roster?

Early season results point to yes. It feels like the West may have left the Jazz behind. Instead of giving over 26 million a year to Derrick Favors and Dante Exum, maybe Utah should have explored more free agent options. The quick trade for Kyle Korver indicates that Lindsey might agrees as well. What else might he have planned for the rest of the season and into next summer?