Utah Jazz: Rodney Hood has found true calling as 6th Man

Since being moved out of the starting rotation and into a bench role, Rodney Hood of the Utah Jazz has found renewed life as a scoring sixth man.

Heading into the 2017-18 NBA season, the Utah Jazz believed Rodney Hood could take the mantle from Gordon Hayward as the de facto No. 1 option for their team. It made sense; on offense, he has all the talents that you would expect out of your go-to player. He can be a volume 3-point shooter, can pull up off the dribble and can post-up smaller players on switches.

Pretty quickly they’ve learned that Hood is not a player that you can not rely on night-in and night-out to score the basketball. He just has too much variance in his scoring. He’ll drop 30 points on you, and then won’t even score in double digits the next night.

One of the biggest gripes from Jazz fans was his lack of a killer instinct. There were obvious moments where it appeared that he wanted no part of the ball. When you are on the court with Ricky Rubio, Thabo Sefolosha and Ekpe Udoh, you should be demanding the ball on offense.

During the second half of the November 7 matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers, that lack of offensive aggression prompted Quin Snyder to insert rookie Donovan Mitchell into the starting lineup, who has no qualms about shooting the ball.

Since then, an interesting phenomenon has taken place with Hood. He has looked much better as the sixth man off the bench. He is more aggressive, and is not being shy about taking his shots. Maybe, just maybe, Hood has found his calling in the NBA as a Lou Williams, Jamal Crawford type scorer off the bench.

Hood started the first nine games of the season, and Saturday versus the Milwaukee Bucks will be his ninth game coming off the bench. As a starter, Hood was averaging 29 minutes per game, and as a reserve, that average is still close to 28 minutes per game. So we have ourselves a great opportunity at a side-by-side comparison.

Since his move to the bench, Rodney Hood’s offensive numbers have shown improvement across the board. Not only has he been more aggressive (as shown by his increased Usage Rate), but he has been more efficient. He’s adjusted to do more of what he does best, which is shooting the three. In nine games as a starter, he attempted 125 shots, and 55 of those were 3-pointers. In the eight games off the bench, he has also attempted 125 shots, but 66 have been 3-pointers.

That averages to about two additional 3-point shots per game, which is a terrific development when you have been shooting 42.4 percent from behind the arc over that stretch.

Those of us who have watched Hood over the last few seasons have come to recognize his off and on play. Throughout his career though, he has never experienced a better stretch of basketball. It reached its apex in a 40-point drubbing of the Orlando Magic on the road. Hood finished the game with 31 points, and connected on seven three pointers.

Some players are just better coming off the bench, and it is becoming more and more clear that Rodney Hood is one of those players. Not everyone is willing to accept that type of role, but Hood has seemed more than willing to take on the challenge. In an interview with Deseret News, he outlined his approach:

"“Just being a professional and not taking a step back and don’t think nothing less of myself. I know I can play with the best of them, regardless of when I’m getting in I’ve got to put in work so that’s how I approach it.”"

Coming off the bench has allowed him the chance to observe the opposing team’s game plan, and he can start evaluating ways that he can attack them offensively. It also allows him to first play against second unit players on the opposing team, and makes it easier to get into a rhythm.

An NBA team’s starting five, is not always composed of the top five players. It has often been said, “It’s not who starts, it’s who finishes.” Hood is a good example of this. Currently, we have players like Manu Ginobli, Jamal Crawford, Andre Iguodala, Lou Williams and the most recent Sixth Man of the Year winner, Eric Gordon.

Historically, we’ve had capable starters in Toni Kukoc, Michael Cooper and Vinnie Johnson come off the bench for championship teams. Even Hall of Famers like John Havlicek and Kevin McHale started their careers off the bench.

If Rodney Hood is willing to embrace and magnify this role off the bench, it would not just benefit the Utah Jazz, but based on the career high numbers he has been putting up during this stretch, it would be for the benefit of his career. He is a free agent this next offseason, so he should be more motivated than ever to accept this role and to play to the best of his ability.