page_title: Utah Jazz
section_title: 2017–present: Mitchell/Gobert era
hierarchical_section_title: Utah Jazz / Franchise history / 2017–present: Mitchell/Gobert era
caption_attribution_description: English: Donovan Mitchell makes an impressive underhanded layup shot in March 15, 2018 game against Phoenix Suns.
context_page_description: The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association as a member of the league's Western Conference, Northwest Division. Since 1991, the team has played its home games at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The franchise began play as an expansion team in 1974 as the New Orleans Jazz. The Jazz moved to Salt Lake City in 1979.
  The Jazz were one of the most successful teams in the league in their early years. Although 10 seasons elapsed before the Jazz qualified for their first playoff appearance in 1984, they did not miss the playoffs again until 2004. During the late 1980s, John Stockton and Karl Malone arose as the franchise players for the team, and formed one of the most famed point guard–power forward duos in NBA history. Led by coach Jerry Sloan, who took over from Frank Layden in 1988, they became one of the powerhouse teams of the 1990s, culminating in two NBA Finals appearances in 1997 and 1998, where they lost both times to the Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan.
  Both Stockton and Malone moved on in 2003.
context_section_description: On June 22, 2017, Donovan Mitchell was selected with the 13th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft by the Denver Nuggets, who immediately traded Mitchell's rights to the Jazz in exchange for Trey Lyles. The Jazz also acquired veteran Ricky Rubio to play the point guard position.
  The Jazz began the 2017–18 season poorly, with an injury to Gobert and a lack of scoring leaving them with a 17–21 record by the end of December. In the second half of the season, the Jazz made rookie Mitchell a starter, and he subsequently led the team and all rookies in the league in points scored. Mitchell went on to break the record for the most three-pointers ever made by a rookie. The team improved drastically as a scoring team, and with the return of Gobert and improved play of Rubio, the Jazz finished the season on a 32–13 run and ended with a 48–34 record. The late season burst earned the Jazz a no. 5 seed in the 2018 NBA playoffs, where they went on to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 4–2 in the first round before losing in the Second Round to the Houston Rockets in five games. After the season, Rudy Gobert was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Donovan Mitchell was runner-up in the Rookie of the Year voting, Quin Snyder was runner-up Coach of the Year, and general manager Dennis Lindsey was runner-up Executive of the Year.
  The 2018–19 season began with promise for the Jazz after the surprising success of the 2017–18 season. However, by the end of November they were 11–12 and in 10th place in the Western Conference standings. This continued in December as Mitchell struggled with his shot, and the Jazz record continued to be around the break-even mark.
  However, in the New Year, Mitchell's performance improve as he was averaging 27.7 points in January and 25.4 in February, and the Jazz improved down the stretch, closing out the season with a 32–13 run to finish 50–32 and earned the fifth seed in the Western Conference playoffs. In the first round, they played against the Houston Rockets, who were on a run of their own, going 33–14 in 2019 after a slow start. Houston proved to be too much for the Jazz, taking the series 4–1.
  On May 10, 2019, the Jazz announced the promotion of Dennis Lindsey to executive vice president of basketball operations and Justin Zanik to general manager.
  During the 2019 off-season, the Jazz added several players by trade and free agency, including Jeff Green, Mike Conley Jr., Ed Davis, Bojan Bogdanović, and Emmanuel Mudiay, while Derrick Favors, Kyle Korver, Jae Crowder, Raul Neto, and Ricky Rubio left the team. Sports media viewed the changes as positive.
  On the opening day of the 2019–20 season, a press conference was held, announcing that Utah will host the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, which will be the second time the Jazz have hosted this event; the prior time was in 1993.
  On December 24, 2019, the Jazz announced that they had waived forward Jeff Green, signed G-League free agent Rayjon Tucker, and traded Dante Exum to the Cleveland Cavaliers for shooting guard Jordan Clarkson, whose trade in particular was seen as overwhelmingly positive by the media, if also bittersweet for Jazz fans who hoped that Exum would eventually mature into the franchise cornerstone he was drafted to be.
  On January 30, 2020, Gobert and Mitchell were named reserves for the 2020 NBA All-Star Game. This marked the first time since 2007 that multiple Utah Jazz players had been selected to the All-Star game, and the first time since 2000 that multiple Jazz players had actually appeared in the game (Mehmet Okur had replaced an injured Carlos Boozer in 2007). In March 2020, Jazz players Gobert and Mitchell were diagnosed with COVID-19, making the Jazz the first major sporting franchise in North America to be directly affected by the disease, and resulting in the suspension of all remaining NBA games of the season.
  Following the  suspension of the 2019–20 NBA season, the Jazz were one of the 22 teams invited to the  NBA Bubble to participate in the final 8 games of the regular season.  The Jazz were mediocre in the eight seeding games, posting 
caption: Donovan Mitchell was picked 13th overall in the 2017 NBA draft
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