This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
As the Jazz reopened the doors of Vivint Smart Home Arena for summer league basketball Monday evening, the reality of life in a small market hit home.
Kevin Durant's move from Oklahoma City to Golden State creates an even bigger obstacle in the Jazz's quest to become the NBA's Western Conference champions. So as of Independence Day, the long-term view of the Jazz's chances of competing at the highest level became blurry. Not all professional sports markets are equal, as Utahns know.
Yet if you realistically judge the Jazz's outlook in the West, Durant's move helps them. In the fallout of free agency this summer, the Jazz can wish for two possible results: They can improve themselves, and they can hope one or more of the teams above them is significantly weakened. Golden State's raid of Oklahoma City accomplishes one of those goals.
Fans around here should demand a lot of the Jazz. They also should grasp a sign of hope where they can find it, and Trey Lyles emerged Monday as a major offensive threat — for a while, anyway.
Lyles, the Jazz's second-year forward, scored 11 points in the first six minutes of a 90-69 loss to San Antonio. He finished with 13 points (and 12 rebounds), missing his last nine shots. The Jazz's steadiest player was Aaron Craft, who scored eight points in establishing himself as yet another point guard to watch among seemingly a dozen of them in the Jazz's operation, even after the trade of Trey Burke.
Personally, my takeaway was the postgame interview of second-round draft pick Marcus Paige, another point guard, who became the first player in Jazz history to use "conceptualize" in the proper context.
Paige summarized his first pro night as "just good to get the first one out of the way, get the nerves out … playing in front of a real crowd."
Utah is the kind of place where the Salt Lake Bees could conduct a fireworks night at Smith's Ballpark — while the team was playing in Las Vegas. Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainment's flagship team actually staged basketball games, featuring mostly rookies and other young players.
The attendance of 7,124 was down from last July, but none of those games had to compete with 4th of July observances. The summer league is another example of why having an NBA team in town is good stuff, even if some would say that only having a genuine chance to win a championship makes the effort worthwhile.
If you awakened Monday morning believing the Jazz could win a title someday soon, the Durant news was disturbing. Otherwise, it should be encouraging.
After the Jazz went 0-12 against Golden State, San Antonio and Oklahoma City last season, any breakthrough against those teams in 2016-17 would represent improvement. And now they not only have a better chance of beating the Thunder a couple of times, but the Jazz can think about catching them in the standings. The gap from 38-40 to 55-27 is 17 wins. Could the Jazz find nine more wins and the Thunder suffer eight more losses this season? That's hardly inconceivable.
In the big picture, Durant's move is somewhat sobering to the Jazz, OKC or any small-market franchise; I get that. I usually decry the conglomeration of superstars in any sports, having cheered against Miami for the four years that followed LeBron James' Decision. But just this once, I'm taking the short-term view. If the Jazz ever wanted to overtake the Thunder, they needed Durant to move.
Ideally, for the Jazz's sake, he would have gone to the Eastern Conference, landing in Washington or Boston — especially Boston, where he may have filled Gordon Hayward's potential spot in 2017 free agency. Everything the Jazz do this summer, such as trading for George Hill and signing Joe Johnson so far, should be designed to make them better right away and impress Hayward.
In terms of Durant's destinations in the West, Golden State is preferable. Who among us believed the Jazz were going to leapfrog the Warriors in Steph Curry's lifetime? Oklahoma City is within sight now, and that's an advancement for the Jazz.
Twitter: @tribkurt