If Jazz defense is Top 5 can they overcome lack of offense?

The question confronting Jazz fans with their newly formed roster is will they be able to score enough. Should the question instead be, can the defense be good enough to carry the Jazz?

Last year, the Jazz were the 3rd best defense in the NBA. The editions of Ricky Rubio, Thabo Sefolosha, Donovan Mitchell and Ekpe Udoh the Jazz have defensive upgrades across the board.

Locked on Jazz listener Jake Semmel looked at the last 15 years the NBA and broke down how top 5 defensive teams fared. Here are the highlights from Jake’s research.

• Only two teams out of 75 had a winning % less than .500 and both had the 30th ranked offense in the NBA
• The 12 teams who ranked in the top 3 defensively and had an offense between 15th and 20th all won over 49 games and averaged 53 wins as a group.

This is great work by Jake and it is much appreciated. The question is can the offense be adequate enough to support the great Jazz defense in 2017–18

NOTE — Feel free to send me your research at dlocke09@gmail.com and I will publish those that I think are worthwhile.