Utah Jazz: For Rodney Hood, Year Three is Go Time

Now in his third season, Utah Jazz wing Rodney Hood may be on the cusp of breaking out as one of the premiere shooting guards in the NBA.

Make no mistake about it–business is picking up for the Utah Jazz. After three consecutive losing campaigns, the club looks poised to leapfrog several of its conference rivals and take its place among the best in the West this coming season.

While some of the strides that have been made can attributed to key acquisitions this offseason, internal growth has been equally important in changing the perception of the Jazz. The team’s young core is growing up, getting better and is ready to lead the team into the playoffs.

A lot of the attention surrounding Utah’s homegrown talent has centered on Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert, and rightfully so–they’re undeniably the best players on the team.

Getting Joe Johnson, George Hill and Boris Diaw is nice, but without their “Big 3,” the Jazz would more closely resemble the Sixers than the Spurs.

Nevertheless, the continued development of Rodney Hood could end up being the difference between the Jazz just scraping into postseason and establishing themselves as one of the top teams in the conference.

Last season, the former Duke star gave us glimpses of what could lie in store. During a 10-game stretch in late January/early February, Hood averaged 22 points per contest, hitting 20-plus points seven times. He was one of the most dangerous deep threats in the league and helped lead the team to seven straight wins in that span of games.

It’s probably unrealistic to expect those kinds numbers over the course of an 82-game season, but in his third year as a pro (and second as the full-time starter at shooting guard), it’s reasonable to believe that it’s the kind of streak that could become more of a regularity than an outlier.

He hasn’t put it all together yet, but Hood has been trending upward since he was overlooked by the majority of the league in the 2014 NBA Draft and the evidence suggests that the best is yet to come for the former No. 23 overall pick.

Believe it or not, Hood is one of the best isolation players in the league, ranking in the 95th percentile of players last season. His mark of 1.08 points per possession in iso situations placed him just above players like Stephen Curry, Dirk Nowitzki and Blake Griffin among league leaders.

If you single out players who used 75 or more possessions in the iso, Hood comes out as fourth best isolation player in the NBA last year. His shooting, playmaking ability and length have been good things for the Jazz, but his effectiveness in isolation borders on the elite.

With another year under his belt, more maturity, a better familiarity with Jazz coach Quin Snyder’s offensive schemes and more talented players surrounding him, “Iso Rod” could be on the cusp of a breakout.

More from The J-Notes

Competing with the Select Team at the USA Basketball mini-camp in Las Vegas this week, Hood talked about using his experience there as a jumping off point toward bigger and better things. Via Kurt Kragthorpe and The Salt Lake Tribune—

"“It’s a steppingstone. You’ve got to take the right steps every summer, every season, and see where that leads you.”"

The steps he’s taking now may be leading toward a spot as one of the premiere two-guards in the Association and a key component to a Jazz team primed to make some noise in the Western Conference playoff picture.

The first two years were cute, but now we’ve reached year three. He’s done the work, he’s paid his dues–it’s go time for Rodney Hood.

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