The Utah Jazz recently traded away Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. During their era, why could those talented teams not take the next step? Derrick Favors: I think we just got hurt at the wrong time. That last year, when we went to the playoffs, and we lost to the Clippers, they were a good team, but I think we could’ve beat them, but Mike Conley ended up getting hurt. Donovan Mitchell also got hurt. We were down our two leading guys. You’ve also got to remember that we were going up against Houston and Golden State when they had the best record in the league and the best team. Houston had James Harden at the time, winning 65 games. I think some of it was matchups, going against two historically great offensive teams. We couldn’t match up with them, but who could in the league? If it wasn’t for Golden State, Houston probably would’ve won championships. If it wasn’t for those two teams, we could’ve won a championship. -via HoopsHype / October 14, 2023