The J-Notes
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Five Biggest Concerns Facing the Utah Jazz Ahead of the Playoffs

By Jared Woodcox

Mar 8, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) stretches out prior to the game against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 8, 2017; Houston, TX, USA; Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert (27) stretches out prior to the game against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jan 28, 2017; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz guard Alec Burks (10) hits the floor after a shot in the fourth quarter at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Utah Jazz 102-95. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 28, 2017; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz guard Alec Burks (10) hits the floor after a shot in the fourth quarter at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Utah Jazz 102-95. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports /

Bench/Depth

Speaking of the Jazz relying on all of their parts to step up in order to elevate the whole, Utah’s bench has actually become a significant area of concern. Despite the fact that the Jazz reserves were pinned by some prior to this season’s start to be the best in the league, they’ve fallen quite short.

Of course, much of the hype surrounding Utah’s bench was based on assumptions that this season would see the likes of Trey Lyles, Alec Burks and Dante Exum take enormous leaps, but that truly hasn’t been the case as each has struggled.

It wasn’t long ago that Dante started to show glimpses of getting his game turned around, but all of a sudden he seems to have found his way back into Coach Snyder’s doghouse as he’s played limited minutes of late including a DNP in last night’s game against New York.

With each of Utah’s backup point guards – Shelvin Mack, Dante Exum and Raul Neto – exchanging playing time throughout the season without any single one stepping up as the bonafide second option, that situation has turned into a bit of a mess as well. That point guard carousel has undoubtedly been detrimental and will most certainly have to be fixed come playoff time.

Of course injuries have caused problems with Utah’s depth as well, as guys like Joe Johnson and Joe Ingles who have been the best of Utah’s reserves have actually been forced to play significant time as starters to replace Hood and Favors. To be quite honest, both has a case for remaining in that starting spot even if Favors and Hood do come back healthy, but the most likely scenario is that they would be inserted back into the bench unit to finally help shore up Utah’s reserves.

So while in some ways Utah’s depth and health have been interconnected, the hard reality also is that many of the guys who were supposed to step up on the Jazz bench have failed to do so. And while Utah has been able to get away with that at times in the regular season, in the grind of postseason play, a reliable and productive bench is an enormous necessity.

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