Utah Jazz Need More Power Forward Productivity

While overall the Utah Jazz have looked excellent to start out the 2016-17 season, power forward play from the likes of Derrick Favors and Trey Lyles is a key area that still requires improvement.

The Utah Jazz got their five-game road trip started on a high note with a 114-109 win over the New York Knicks on Sunday afternoon. Of course the biggest highlight of the game was Gordon Hayward’s return to action after missing the first six games of the regular season with a broken finger.

He put up a dazzling performance logging 28 points for the game, 14 of which came off of free throws, a credit to just how relentlessly he attacked the basket.

Yet beyond Hayward, there were so many other reassuring takeaways from this game for the Utah Jazz as a whole. First, though they came out a little sluggish and trailed by double figures early, the team was able to keep their composure and come back to grab the W.

Also, while it’s been something I’ve harped on incessantly so far this year, it was so great to see Utah once again take care of business and close out the game in the fourth quarter. The Knicks made a handful of big plays in the final period that may have caused a lesser team (such as the Jazz of the past two years) to collapse down the stretch and give the game away.

But such was not the case in Sunday’s victory.

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Aside from Hayward, George Hill had yet another impressive night with 23 points and nine assists, Rodney Hood was exceptional, especially in the fourth quarter, and finished the game with 18 points and Gobert filled his role perfectly with a solid 13-point outing while also posting three blocks in an exceptional defensive game.

With Hayward officially back in the lineup, the Jazz now have three guys who are realistically capable of going off for 20 points each on any given night in Hayward, Hood, and Hill (H cubed anyone?). That’s going to be a scary trio for any team to contain.

Yet despite all these positive signs that the Jazz displayed in Sunday’s win over the Knicks and throughout the first seven games of the season, one consistent link has been missing both among the starters and from off the bench – power forward play.

Derrick Favors missed the Jazz’s first game of the season against the Portland Trail Blazers as he was dealing with IT band soreness. But in his first game back, which was against the Lakers, Favors looked phenomenal and posted what has been his best game of the season so far, a 15-point, 9-rebound performance in just 20 minutes of action.

Yet while he did have a decent game in Sunday’s win over the Knicks, overall Favors has struggled considerably since his season debut.

So far this year he is averaging just 8.8 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, both of which are well under his career average and significantly less than his numbers from a year ago of 16.4 points and 8.1 rebounds.

Though perhaps the most concerning part of Favors’ game so far has been his inability to find his shot. Favors is currently shooting 38.5 percent from the field despite being a career 51.1 percent field goal shooter. His mid-range game that looked encouragingly improved last season has been almost non-existent this year as he’s currently shooting just 30 percent (6-of-20) from 5 to 19 feet away from the basket.

It’s quite possible that his injury may still be bothering him somewhat or perhaps he just needs time to return to game shape, but whatever the case, Favors has certainly been the weak link among the starters in the early part of the season.

And unfortunately his back-ups off the bench haven’t provided much lift either. Of course the now sidelined Boris Diaw’s struggles were easily noticed by Jazz fans due to the fact that in his three games of play he put up a dismal stat line of 0.7 points on 9.1 percent field goal shooting, two turnovers and no threes while playing 23 minutes per game.

Time and health will likely help improve Diaw’s stats drastically, but Trey Lyles, who had a promising offseason, has also yet to show that he’s the up-and-coming power forward many thought he would turn into this season.

In Utah’s road win over the Spurs, Lyles had a phenomenal game posting 15 points on 40 percent shooting while also grabbing seven rebounds and undoubtedly was a key part of Utah’s stunning win in San Antonio. Unfortunately, beyond that game, Lyles has struggled to find his shot or make much of an impact.

He’s currently averaging just 6.3 points and 4.1 rebounds while shooting 29.6 percent from the field and 26.9 percent from deep. While Lyles isn’t necessarily intended to be the key scorer off the bench, after his fabulous summer league performance, it’s not unrealistic to expect more out of him than what he’s done so far.

Once Lyles begins making better decisions and taking smarter shots, he’s likely to see his effectiveness increase dramatically.

So while most of what we’ve seen out of the Jazz in this young season has been positive, power forward play is an area where Utah will need to see marked improvement in order to jump to the next level.

Derrick Favors has shown in multiple occasions what he’s capable of and I don’t think it will take him much longer to adjust and get his game back on track. Once his legs are back underneath him and his mid-range jumper starts falling, he’ll be much more able to unleash his wide repertoire of offensive weapons.

Though not as experienced as Favors, Lyles also showed encouraging signs of improvement prior to the regular season and his shooting percentage is bound to increase beyond this early-season slump.

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This Jazz team is playing well and is slowly but surely coming into its own. There’s no doubt that opposing teams are already aware of just what kind of challenge the Jazz pose. With solid two-way players in Hayward, Hood, and Hill, a monster rim protector and put-back menace in Rudy Gobert and a stalwart bench that features the likes of Iso Joe and Dante Exum, the Jazz create nightmare match-ups across the board for any opponent.

And once Favors and Lyles begin to throw their names into that ring, this squad will only become all the more daunting.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com