This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Conveniently, Kobe Bryant's career provides checkpoints for other people.
Bryant's Utah visit last weekend reminded everybody how long the Jazz have gone without winning a playoff game. He launched that run of futility by leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a sweep in the 2010 Western Conference semifinals after the Jazz beat Denver in the first round.
Thanks to Kobe's appearance, the Jazz's success/failure standards for 2015-16 have become clear to me. They have to win a playoff game this year. Not a whole series, just a game. That would represent progress. Anything else would make it a disappointing season.
The Jazz hit the halfway point of the schedule with Monday's 124-119 double-overtime loss at Charlotte, again demonstrating their knack for rallying just enough to end up disappointed. They're 5-10 in games decided by six points or fewer.
I'm labeling their 18-23 record acceptable, because of two factors: their volume of injuries and the degree of cooperation from the seven teams below them in the Western Conference standings.
Even if it requires less than a .500 record, making the playoffs would be an achievement. And then merely beating Golden State or San Antonio (which swept the Jazz in a 2012 series) once in the two games at Vivint Smart Home Arena would create a satisfying season, after everything the Jazz have absorbed in the first half of the schedule.
This team needs every bit of experience that even a brief playoff appearance could offer, and that opportunity would reward coach Quin Snyder for his persistence and adaptability. Amid all of the personnel issues, "You learn a lot about yourself and about your team," Snyder said recently. "It can get overwhelming at times."
No kidding. As of late November, the Jazz stood 8-7 and were a Rodney Hood shot away from delivering Golden State's first loss of the season. Hood missed, and the season began to crumble. Rudy Gobert sprained his knee in practice the next day and would miss 18 games, while the Jazz went 7-11.
That stretch included seven games when they also played without Derrick Favors and Alec Burks, who remain out. Favors' back injury sidelined him Dec. 26; Burks exited just before halftime that night after being fouled in the air and breaking his leg upon landing. Beginning with that loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Jazz have gone 6-8.
Burks is expected to return after the All-Star break in mid-February. Theoretically, the Jazz should have everybody together for about the final one-third of the 82-game schedule. The sobering aspect of this season is the Jazz will have wasted almost three months of development time as a group — and a full year, in the case of Dante Exum's absence. No matter what happens the rest of the way, they'll be starting over next season in many respects.
And matching last year's 24-17 record in the second half would be asking a lot of them. Anything beyond 21 wins should enable them to hold off Sacramento and Portland for the No. 8 spot in the West. That would fall short of my preseason projection of 43 wins. Then again, I never imagined a losing record putting them inside the playoff cut as of mid-January.
The lower tier of the West is giving the Jazz a chance, and they've done just enough to exploit it. Gordon Hayward has held the team together, Trey Burke and rookies Raul Neto and Trey Lyles have improved and the Jazz have played better at home lately. They're still only 12-9 at Vivint, and I've always used Frank Layden's formula that a .500 team should win two-thirds of its home games.
The Jazz have failed to produce a signature home win, with missed opportunities against Golden State, Oklahoma City and Houston. They have beaten Memphis and Miami, but their most memorable victory, strangely enough, came the night when they lost a 17-point lead in seven minutes vs. lowly Philadelphia. Hayward helped rescue a win, with Gobert, Favors and Burks injured.
If the Jazz can re-establish their aura in a building where they went 37-4 only eight years ago, that will accelerate their growth. They deserve credit for their competitiveness in tough circumstances, as they showed again Monday. The challenge remains for them to extend their season beyond Bryant's last scheduled NBA appearance, April 13 in Los Angeles. Playing an extra four games — maybe even five or six of them — would be a breakthrough for the franchise.
Twitter: @tribkurt