The Utah Jazz built an identity. With the best defensive player on the planet down at Center, the Jazz had one of the best defenses in the NBA for several years. Quin Snyder took that strength and built a culture around it. Dennis Lindsey recognized that strength and tried to maximize it.
That focus gave the Jazz the #3 defense in 2017, #1 in 2018, and #2 last year. Utah won a lot of ball games because they could be absolutely dominate on that end of the court and prevent opposing teams from making a field goal for minutes at a time.