50 Years of NBA WAR — Day 6: Utah Jazz Top 50
Continuing the 21-day series of ranking the Top 50 players by WAR for every franchise that has played in all 50 seasons covered by my dataset (1976-77 through 2025-26), coming in at #6 are the Utah Jazz.
The Jazz franchise has accumulated 1,613.4 total WAR over the last 50 seasons — 1,520.0 in the regular season and 93.4 in the playoffs, narrowly finishing behind Portland for #5. The Jazz are the second team in the Top 6 to have not won a championship in this 50-year period.
One historical note: although I’m calling this the Utah Jazz, these rankings follow the franchise across relocation. The Jazz began in New Orleans before moving to Utah in 1979, so the first three seasons covered by this dataset (1976-77 through 1978-79) are from the New Orleans Jazz. That’s why players such as Pete Maravich and Gail Goodrich appear on the list.
For the full explanation of the methodology and Estimated RAPTOR/LAKER, see Day 1: San Antonio Spurs.
For a quick refresher: these rankings use total WAR = regular-season WAR + playoff WAR, and only WAR accumulated with that franchise counts. Since WAR is cumulative, longevity and playing time are naturally part of the metric — this is intended to measure total value accumulated for a franchise, rather than peak ability.
Here’s the Jazz Top 50:
Rank
Player
Seasons
RS WAR
Playoff WAR
Total WAR
1
John Stockton
19
252.0
25.2
277.2
2
Karl Malone
18
227.0
22.7
249.7
3
Andrei Kirilenko
10
73.8
2.2
76.0
4
Rudy Gobert
9
62.5
3.4
65.9
5
Jeff Hornacek
7
56.7
8.5
65.2
6
Adrian Dantley
7
62.6
2.5
65.1
7
Bryon Russell
9
39.5
8.3
47.8
8
Rickey Green
8
44.2
1.7
45.9
9
Deron Williams
6
40.8
4.1
44.9
10
Paul Millsap
7
42.0
1.9
43.9
11
Donovan Mitchell
5
35.4
3.8
39.2
12
Joe Ingles
8
36.3
2.5
38.8
13
Gordon Hayward
7
38.2
0.3
38.5
14
Carlos Boozer
6
33.5
2.6
36.1
15
Derrick Favors
10
32.5
2.1
34.6
16
Mehmet Okur
7
28.6
1.4
30.0
17
Mark Eaton
11
26.8
2.5
29.3
18
Greg Ostertag
10
21.1
1.6
22.7
19
Lauri Markkanen
4
21.1
0.0
21.1
20
Ronnie Brewer
4
19.9
0.8
20.7
21
Mike Conley
4
17.4
1.0
18.4
22
Al Jefferson
3
17.9
0.2
18.1
23
Rich Kelley
6
17.2
0.7
17.9
24
Thurl Bailey
10
17.3
0.2
17.5
25
Royce O’Neale
5
17.5
-0.1
17.4
26
Matt Harpring
7
17.1
0.0
17.1
27
Jordan Clarkson
6
15.1
0.8
15.9
28
Darrell Griffith
10
14.9
1.0
15.9
29
Tyrone Corbin
3
13.5
1.4
14.9
30
Bojan Bogdanović
3
11.1
0.4
11.5
31
Adam Keefe
6
11.0
0.5
11.5
32
Ben Poquette
4
10.7
0.0
10.7
33
Donyell Marshall
2
9.8
0.4
10.2
34
Rodney Hood
4
10.1
-0.4
9.7
35
Ricky Rubio
2
8.3
1.1
9.4
36
Collin Sexton
3
9.1
0.0
9.1
37
Walker Kessler
4
8.9
0.0
8.9
38
Kyle Korver
4
8.0
0.3
8.3
39
Jim McElroy
3
7.3
0.0
7.3
40
Gail Goodrich
3
7.0
0.0
7.0
41
Truck Robinson
2
6.6
0.0
6.6
42
Pete Maravich
4
6.1
0.0
6.1
43
Paul Griffin
3
6.1
0.0
6.1
44
Carey Scurry
3
5.6
0.1
5.7
45
Blue Edwards
4
5.5
0.2
5.7
46
George Hill
1
5.4
0.1
5.5
47
C.J. Miles
7
6.1
-0.6
5.5
48
John Collins
2
5.0
0.0
5.0
49
John Drew
3
4.8
0.1
4.9
50
Jeremy Evans
5
4.7
0.1
4.8