Utah Jazz (Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports)
An NBA team’s starting unit tends to receive the bulk of media and fan attention. This holds as true for the Utah Jazz as it does for any other team in the Association. Nonetheless, a deep bench can make for a deciding factor in the outcome of games, stretches or even entire seasons.
Injuries are professional sports’ version of death and taxes: nobody wants them, but they’re unavoidable anyway. The deeper a team’s bench, the more easily they can replace injured starters. Even with a fully healthy outfit, no player in NBA history has averaged 48 minutes per game (besides Wilt Chamberlain, who we’re not convinced isn’t a widely believed folklore legend).