The Utah Jazz Are Becoming Healthy, Where Do the Minutes Go?

After 33 games of injuries that saw bench players becoming starters, and unexpected talents stepping up, the Utah Jazz are now on the verge of being healthy and need to re-evaluate their rotation.

George Hill returned to the lineup Thursday night with an incredible 21 point performance to push the Utah Jazz over Philly. Meanwhile, Alec Burks is hitting the practice courts and preparing for a hopeful return this coming week. Dante Exum could also be back in the action soon; when that happens, the Jazz will be fully healthy for the first time in years.

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The joy Jazz fans and the organization will feel knowing they can put their best team on the floor notwithstanding, a problem arises with Quin Snyder having to squeeze 12 players into his rotation. Namely, the distribution of minutes.

Utah’s depth chart currently goes as follows –

Point Guard – George Hill, Shelvin Mack, Raul Neto

Shooting Guard – Rodney Hood, Joe Ingles

Small Forward – Gordon Hayward, Joe Johnson

Power Forward – Derrick Favors, Trey Lyles, Boris Diaw

Center – Rudy Gobert, Jeff Withey, Joel Bolomboy

After the upcoming insertion of Alec Burks and Dante Exum, it then reads –

Point Guard – George Hill, Shelvin Mack, Dante Exum, Raul Neto

Shooting Guard – Rodney Hood, Alec Burks, Joe Ingles

Small Forward – Gordon Hayward, Joe Johnson

Power Forward – Derrick Favors, Trey Lyles, Boris Diaw

Center – Rudy Gobert, Jeff Withey, Joel Bolomboy

With the addition of Burks and Exum, you can probably take away three players who only ever play in the absence of injured starters. Those players are Raul Neto, Jeff Withey and Joel Bolomboy; even now the trio has a difficult time getting on the court.

Sep 26, 2016; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz guard Alec Burks (10) during Media Day at Zion Bank Basketball Center. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports /

Nevertheless, as a coach, it can’t be easy to limit their minutes. These players have all come into the season with the attitude of working hard to help the team. They have all given their best efforts every second they’ve been on the court and their contributions should not be forgotten.

In any event, you are then left with 12 players that are simply too good to be getting DNP’s and need to be on the court. We now know we have 240 minutes to be divided up among Hill, Mack, Exum, Hood, Burks, Ingles, Hayward, Johnson, Favors, Lyles, Diaw and Gobert.

Beginning with the starters, Gordon Hayward, the team’s best player has played 35.4 minutes per game to this point, but has been heavily relied on due to injuries to other players. If the Jazz are healthy, Hayward shouldn’t go over 35 minutes per game.

George Hill has had an incredible season by his lofty standards and can be counted on to play 32 minutes of great basketball a night.

Although Rodney Hood has been inconsistent shooting the three, he has shown the ability to score the basketball in a variety of ways and is a much-improved defender. I see Hood playing around 30 minutes per game.

Rudy Gobert is a dominating presence in the paint and is one of the best players in the NBA at his position. I rank him second in the league, not behind Cousins or Gasol, but behind Andre Drummond. That’s another story for another day, but Gobert is good for 33 minutes a night.

Derrick Favors hasn’t gotten his legs under him as of yet, but he is working really hard on both ends, he just isn’t getting any whistles. When Faves does get his legs back, he should go for around 30 minutes, playing a lot of them with the second unit.

The minutes distribution chart is now –

Point Guard – George Hill 32

Shooting Guard – Rodney Hood 30

Small Forward – Gordon Hayward 35

Power Forward – Derrick Favors 30

Center – Rudy Gobert 33

This leaves us with 16 minutes at the point, 18 minutes at the two, 13 minutes at small forward, 18 minutes at power forward and 15 minutes for the man in the middle.

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We have seen the Jazz play two point guards at the same time previously, but with Burks back, it hardly seems likely. I expect Mack to go 10 minutes with Exum playing just six until he starts to show some real improvement. Exum’s shortened minutes aren’t thrilling to me, but it is more beneficial for the Jazz this season to have Mack running the second unit.

Alec Burks and Joe Ingles are the hardest pair of players to separate in terms of minutes because they are just so good for that backup role. This is why I’m cutting five minutes from the backup small forward position to help. There’s now 23 minutes for the two to share. Burks will likely take the slight upper hand and take 13 of them leaving Slow-Mo Joe with 10.

It seems that now I only have eight minutes for seven-time All-Star Joe Johnson. We have seen him play the stretch four, however, so I have him logging eight minutes at power forward, leaving Johnson with 16 minutes overall.

Now the last two rotation players, Lyles and Diaw have to split 25 minutes. Lyles’ growth seems really important in the eyes of Coach Quin and I’m right with him. Lyles should go for 16 with Diaw logging nine.

The final distribution chart looks like this –

Point Guard – George Hill 32, Shelvin Mack 10, Dante Exum 6, Raul Neto 0

Shooting Guard – Rodney Hood 30, Alec Burks 13, Joe Ingles 10

Small Forward – Gordon Hayward 35, Joe Johnson 16

Power Forward – Derrick Favors 30, Trey Lyles 16, Boris Diaw 9

Center – Rudy Gobert 33, Jeff Withey 0, Joel Bolomboy 0

Next: Utah Jazz Close Out Philadelphia 76ers for 20th Victory

It’s not an easy thing to do because there is just so much talent on the roster. The good thing is that if the Jazz do suffer any more horrible injuries, they are well equipped to deal with them.

If you have your own ideas for a way to deal with the talent overload I’d love to hear it. Just sign off below in the comments section.

Statistics courtesy of ESPN

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