Will the Utah Jazz Be Healthy Come Playoff Time?

As the Utah Jazz continue to battle with injuries, one can’t help but wonder if the team has any hopes of finally reaching full strength come playoff time.

You’ve really got to hand it to Coach Quin Snyder and the Utah Jazz for what they’ve been able to do this year.

Despite the fact that the five guys that make up Utah’s projected starting lineup have missed 90 combined games this season (not to mention several missed games from additional guys on the bench) and have played in just 13 total games as a complete five-man unit, the Jazz are right in the thick of the Western Conference playoff mix with an exceptional chance to earn home court advantage in the first round.

The Jazz are an impressive 11-2 in those 13 aforementioned games when the starters are all in action and that’s even with starting power forward Derrick Favors struggling to find any sort of rhythm all season long due to lingering knee issues. That minuscule number of games played together is the result of the vast number of games each starter has missed at different points all throughout the season.

Rudy Gobert‘s been the most healthy as he’s missed just a single outing all season long. Gordon Hayward‘s been the second most durable, sitting out for a mere eight contests on the season, most of which came early in the year as he was recovering from a broken thumb suffered during the preseason.

But it gets much worse from there.

Rodney Hood has missed 21 games at various points throughout the season, primarily with hamstring and knee issues. His case has been an odd one as he’s never missed a long string of games, but his common absences have had him popping in and out of the lineup incessantly and greatly hindering his ability to get into a rhythm.

Then there’s the aforementioned Favors and George Hill who have both missed 30 games each. Favors’ knee issues have been apparent throughout the season and he has stated himself that he’s been “playing on one leg” this year.

Hill has essentially been playing “head, shoulders, knees and toes” with injuries as he’s been sidelined with everything from a sprained toe, to a sprained thumb, to a concussion, to his teeth going through his lips preventing him from eating solid food.

Simply put, it’s been a crazy year injury-wise for the Utah Jazz, which makes it even more absurd that they’ve put themselves in the position that they’re in – in fourth place in the West and a mere three victories away from a 50-win season.

The ongoing health concerns have undoubtedly produced the oft-repeated mantra in Jazz land: “Just imagine what this team would be like if it could stay healthy.” As that 11-2 record that I noted earlier would seem to indicate, they’d be one heck of a daunting squad.

Yet, with time ticking down on the regular season, it’s becoming more and more clear that Jazz fans likely won’t be able to see that full strength unit during the 2016-17 campaign. However, that in turn begs the question, is there any chance that the Utah Jazz will be healthy in time for the playoffs?

That’s of course an inquiry that the media has wanted to know as well and when asked about the the possibility of Derrick Favors returning in time for the postseason, according to the Deseret News’ Jody Genessy, the answer that came from Quin Snyder was simply, “I’m hopeful.” Snyder then continued to say the following:

"“Those are things that are out of our hands or out of Fav’s hands. All he can do is continue to do what he’s doing and try to prepare himself when he’s able to come back.”"

"“He’s tough. He’s going to play if he can, but we have to have him effective, too.”"

In that same Deseret News article, Gobert showed the same kind of cautious hopefulness about Favors in the following response:

"“He’s working really hard. He’s getting a lot of treatments, still working on his game, so hopefully we’ll get him back as soon as possible.”"

Those responses show that a Favors return by the start of postseason play certainly isn’t out of the question, but it would appear that the situation most certainly could be somewhat brighter. Quin Snyder pointed out effectiveness and that truly is the key. Even when Favors has been on the court this season, the majority of the time he hasn’t looked right, so there’s a big difference between having him back in action and truly having him back healthy.

Snyder also recently touched on effectiveness as it related to George Hill. Prior to sitting out the last three games with a groin injury, Hill had been wildly inconsistent throughout the entire month of March, putting up as many as 34 points on 10-of-12 shooting (against Brooklyn) to as little as two points on 1-of-3 shooting (against Minnesota). Concerning Hill’s recent injury, Snyder added the following:

"“You can see just he’s fighting through everything, but he’s not effective. We need those guys not only to be out there but to be in a place where they can be effective.”"

That observation is spot-on and largely explains why Hill has been sidelined during such a vital stretch of the season. It’s likely that he could have been out there for these past three games, but rather than play him at 50 percent and risk hampering him further, the Jazz are taking the cautious approach and hoping that he can be back to full bore by the start of postseason play.

The team has made it clear that while the fourth seed, a division title and a 50-win season would all be remarkable achievements, their main objective is to arrive to the postseason healthy and achieve in the playoffs, even at the cost of regular season accomplishments.

The final guy that has been the most worrisome injury-wise has been Rodney Hood. After a putrid performance against the Clippers on March 25th, Hood bounced back and put up three straight solid games where he averaged 16.3 points on 53.1 percent shooting from the field and 75 percent shooting from deep.

Those performances had many fans believing that Hood was officially back, recovered from injury and ready to go strong. However, then in the bout against San Antonio, Hood reverted back to being “the invisible man” who didn’t look engaged or energetic and had little impact in the contest.

Combine that with the fact that it was reported prior to the game against the Spurs that Hood continues to play through pain and was experiencing significant knee soreness after Wednesday’s win over Sacramento and it’s easy to presume that he is far from 100 percent as well.

And unfortunately, that oft-injured combo of Favors, Hill and Hood is running out of time to make a recovery before the stakes reach their absolute highest in the postseason. Clearly all three are dealing with issues largely out of their hands and there’s likely no way of knowing exactly how close to 100 percent they each will be, but hopefully it’s enough for them to be, as Snyder put it, effective.

My guess would be that unless any new injuries take place (knock on wood), even if Hill and Hood are experiencing some discomfort from prior woes, both will be in action and very much able to contribute in the playoffs. Favors, on the other hand, very well could not be.

To be quite honest, even if he is “feeling good” at the end of the regular season, I’d rather see him start off in the playoffs primarily at the backup center position taking over Jeff Withey’s minutes so that he can slowly work his way back into the rotation and prove little by little that he is indeed back and able to produce – that buzz word again – effectively.

If after Game 1 and Game 2 of the first round he looks active and is clearly contributing, at that point I’d have no problem expanding his role to what it likely will have to be for the Jazz to have success.

The fact of the matter is, though, even if Favors were to magically undergo a total recovery by the end of the regular season, given how long he’s been out of the lineup, he’s certainly going to experience some rust and discombobulation once he’s reinserted into the rotation. Therefore, the Jazz will need to give him some time to adjust so that he can have the most meaningful impact and so the team isn’t thrown out of their rhythm.

Nevertheless, given Favors’ struggles all season long, I find it improbable that he will indeed be back and fully healthy by the time the postseason rolls around.

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So unfortunately, while this season has undoubtedly been thrilling for the Utah Jazz as they’ve taken monumental strides, we may never know just how daunting they could have been if they had been able to stay fully healthy.

While it would be nice to see that full strength team emerge in the playoffs, given that the Jazz are far from that point with just five games left in the regular season, I’d definitely say it’s a long shot.

But even with all those setbacks, the Jazz have played admirably well this season. With a talented, deep, and well-coached squad, regardless of what the injury situation looks like at the end of the regular season, this team is still very much poised to be a formidable playoff threat.

All stats courtesy of NBA.com