This isn't being discussed enough.
There’s plenty of conversation surrounding the Utah Jazz entering the upcoming season, especially as it relates to their starting lineup and the first few pieces off the bench.
And it’s a strong group. The Jazz are going to be a much-improved team this season. There’s no question about it. But Utah made two quieter additions this offseason that aren’t being talked about nearly enough.
Josh Okogie and Josh Green aren’t players who are going to put up huge numbers. They’re not high-usage scorers, and neither is likely to be near the top of Utah’s box score on most nights. But both impact winning, make a difference on both ends of the floor and provide skill sets that should translate to meaningful basketball.
That’s exactly what the Jazz needed after finishing 29th in defensive rating last season.
Utah has been an offense-first team for quite some time and has struggled to find reliable perimeter defenders. Okogie and Green could help shift that narrative.
Okogie has built his NBA career around defense. At 6-foot-4, he has the strength and physicality to defend bigger wings while also possessing the quickness to bother smaller guards. He puts pressure on the ball, fights through actions and generally makes life difficult for opposing perimeter players.
And while defense is where Okogie shines, he also showed significant improvement as a shooter last season. He knocked down a career-best 38.5% of his 3-point attempts across 78 games with the Houston Rockets. If that shooting carries over, he becomes an extremely useful two-way role player who can defend at a high level without hurting Utah’s spacing.
Green provides a slightly different version of that same archetype.
The former first-round pick out of Arizona entered the NBA with plenty of upside and has since settled into more of a complementary role. But at just 25 years old, there’s still room for him to grow.
At 6-foot-6 with tremendous athleticism, Green can match up with multiple perimeter positions and gives Utah another player capable of handling difficult defensive assignments. He’s also already experienced meaningful postseason basketball as part of Dallas’ run to the 2024 NBA Finals and has started more than 125 games during his career.
Green also shot 42.0% from beyond the arc last season with Charlotte after hitting 39.1% the year before, giving Utah another defender opponents can’t simply ignore offensively.
Neither player needs plays called for him or a significant share of the offense to make an impact. That’s what makes them such intriguing additions.
The Jazz already have plenty of offensive talent throughout the roster. What Okogie and Green provide is defensive toughness, athleticism, shooting and versatility around those players.
They might not be among Utah’s most talked-about additions entering the season, but both could end up playing significant roles in making the Jazz a much more complete team.
