Let’s take an updated look at how each member of the Utah Jazz has done just over 20 games into their 2017-18 campaign. How would you grade each player?
Last year’s injury bug has seemed to strike the Utah Jazz again this season. While the injuries have seemed to temper expectations for this year’s Jazz team, they have also provided opportunities for players to step up and fill new roles. Just like last time, we will grade each Jazz player based on their role within the team.
Utah currently sits in eight place in a suddenly vulnerable Western Conference. Will their overall team GPA reflect that?
Disclaimer: Each player’s grade will be based off of their performance over Utah’s last 10 games. I will also track each player’s cumulative GPA for the season.
Need to catch up? Here is a link to my 10-game grades.
Let’s get right to it…
Overall GPA: 3.15 (B)
Rudy Gobert only played in one of Utah’s last 10 games as he was injured in the second half against the Miami Heat. Gobert averaged 14 points and 13.5 rebounds in those two games. The Jazz have struggled to find an identity without their star center and have gone 5-4 in his absence.
How then can I drop Gobert from a B-plus to a B?
Even when Gobert was playing, Utah was not the dominant defensive juggernaut that many believed they would be. The Jazz have actually seemed to find a sense of offensive rhythm as of late and have greatly improved on that end of the floor by featuring smaller lineups.
It isn’t time to turn on Gobert as he is still the heart of this Jazz team, however, his injury has given Coach Quin Snyder an opportunity to experiment with his depth.
Overall GPA: 2.50 (B)
Oh how quickly things can change. Ricky Rubio started the season as the poster boy for Utah’s surprising early offensive success. Rubio now finds himself as the scapegoat for an extremely inconsistent Jazz offense and sudden defensive struggles.
Rubio started November with one of the worst shooting slumps of his career. Rubio endured an eight-game stretch where he shot 2-of-27 from beyond the arc. While he has improved his shooting over Utah’s last four contests, going 7-of-13 for three, Rubio is still shooting a measly 25 percent from downtown in the month of November.
Shooting struggles should helped Rubio focus on his true strength of involving teammates by sharing the ball, right? Wrong.
Rubio hasn’t posted a 10-plus assist game since October 25.
Over his last 10 games, Rubio is only averaging 4.3 assists per game to go along with 2.5 turnovers.
If Rubio’s struggles continue, he may continue to see his minutes decrease in favor of Raul Neto.
Overall GPA: 3.00 (B)
Many, including Derrick Favors himself, believe the injury to Gobert would provide Favors his long-awaited opportunity to show that he can still be a featured big man in this league.
Since Gobert’s injury, Favors has posted all four of his 20-plus point games of the season. Despite the big scoring nights, though, Favors’ scoring has only improved slightly in November due to his inconsistency.
One interesting fact is that Utah is 4-0 when Favors scores 20-plus points.
Favors hasn’t been able to string together back to back 20-point nights and, until Tuesday’s win over the Denver Nuggets, hadn’t scored 10-plus in three straight games since October.
He has also posted an average of eight rebounds and 1.8 blocks per night over his last 10 games.
D-Faves’ performance seems to directly reflect upon Utah’s team success. The only issue here is that Favors seems to pick and choose when he is fully invested which could reflect Utah’s record hovering around .500 without Gobert.
It’s hard not to bump Favor’s grade due to his increased stats, however, his inconsistency doesn’t warrant anything over a “B”.
Overall GPA: 1.80 (C)
In my first team grades, Alec Burks received a D-plus which was the lowest on the team. With such a poor start to the season, Burks should have seen a decreased role going forward, right? Again, wrong.
Burks was one of the major recipients of minutes due to the injuries. Burks has proven to be a decent spark plug off the bench. While he continues to play with his trademark recklessness, Burks has shown that he can be an effective passer and rebounder when he slows down his game.
Despite shooting 1-of-10 on back-to-back nights against Philadelphia and Orlando, Burks has posted 10-plus points in five of Utah’s last 10 games.
If Burks can play under control and improves his ability to finish at the rim, he may just turn out to be a solid bench piece for a team desperate for shot creators.
Overall GPA: 2.35 (B-)
It is amazing how a change of role/expectations can really turn a season around.
Rodney Hood entered the season as the most likely member of the Jazz to fill the scoring void left by Gordon Hayward. A string of poor shooting performances and inconsistent play led Quin Snyder to make Hood Utah’s sixth man.
In his new role, Rodney has been just the spark that Utah’s second unit has been looking for. This move also allowed for Donovan Mitchell to start and help try to alleviate some of Utah’s struggles to start games.
Since the role change, Hood has shot 46 percent from three and has posted two 30-plus point games.
https://twitter.com/utahjazz/status/934643572195782658
While Hood may return to the starting lineup later on in the season, Utah may have found his true calling as one of the league’s most electric bench players.
Overall GPA: 2.50 (B)
A strong start to Ricky Rubio’s season and Utah’s commitment to developing Donovan Mitchell left Raul Neto without much of an opportunity to contribute to start the season.
Rubio’s recent slide and Coach Snyder’s willingness to experiment with different lineups and players has led to a sudden increase in playing time for Neto.
The numbers haven’t been striking, but Neto’s energy and strong defense have been a major positive for the Jazz as of late. Neto also seems to have much better command of the offense than Rubio and has yet to post more than two turnovers in a game all season.
Utah’s investment in Rubio may make Neto’s case for playing time an uphill battle, however, he has more than made the most of his opportunity this season.
Overall GPA: 2.30 (C+)
Struggling with a lingering tendon issue in his hand, the savvy, veteran hasn’t played since October 30th in a Utah win over the Dallas Mavericks.
Upon his return, Johnson should provide this team with another threat in their half court offensive sets as well as give them a proven and reliable scoring option in crucial moments of games.
Johnson gets an incomplete for this stretch of the season.
Here is my grade for Johnson over Utah’s first ten games.
Overall GPA: 3.20 (B)
Mitchell opened the season by setting an extremely high bar for himself. I gave Mitchell the highest grade on the team over Utah’s first team games with an A-minus.
The rookie now finds himself in the Jazz starting lineup with a new role and level of expectations. Mitchell continues to show that he was one of the draft’s top steals with his play making ability
In the second month of his NBA career, Mitchell has improved his field goal and 3-point percentages as well as his rebounding and assists.
Mitchell’s improvement in many aspect of his game is extremely promising, however, the highs don’t come without their lows. While Mitchell continues to provide the Jazz with his ability to score from all over the floor, he has also make his fair share of rookie mistakes.
Utah’s 101-106 loss on the road to the Knicks provided a perfect example of this. Despite an explosive first half, Mitchell couldn’t get anything going in the second half and had a few costly turnovers.
I think Utah is making the correct decision by riding Mitchell, however, Jazz fans will need to take the good with the bad while keeping the end result in mind.
Not much has changed since my initial grade of Tony Bradley.
Here is my first analysis of the rookie:
Tony Bradley has split time between the Jazz bench and the Salt Lake City Stars. Bradley got his first minutes in Houston.
The jury is still out on Bradley’s NBA future, but the Jazz seem to be high on the North Carolina product. Until we see more from him against NBA competition, an incomplete is all we could give to Bradley.
The same reasoning still applies this time around.
Overall GPA: I
Overall GPA: 2.85 (B-)
Jonas Jerebko was another player that has greatly benefited by the extra minutes due to injury.
Up until a strong performance against Minnesota where he scored 13 points on 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc, Jerebko had a very minor role in Utah’s rotation.
Jerebko has since logged at least 14 minutes in each of Utah’s last eight games.
Along with the increase in minutes, Jerebko has also proven to be a reliable stretch big off the Jazz bench. Jerebko has shot 50 percent from the field and 50 percent from three in November.
Jerebko’s future in the rotation may be shakier upon Gobert’s return, however, his recent play will make it hard for the Jazz to simply stash him back on the end of their bench.
Overall GPA: 3.00 (B)
45 percent from the field and 44 percent from three don’t quite sound right when talking about a “defensive specialist”.
That is what Sefolosha has done in November.
While Sefolosha doesn’t take a heavy load of shots, he has become one of Utah’s most efficient offensive weapons. This is a pleasant surprise as many believed he was brought here solely to play lock down defense.
Sefolosha has also provided the Jazz with good looks when the team is struggling to find their shot. In a league that has become centered around being able to shoot, it is refreshing to see Sefolosha constantly slash to the hoop with or without the ball.
He has also continued to be an excellent mentor for Mitchell, especially on the Defensive end.
Overall GPA: 2.15 (C+)
One player who I initially believed would benefit from the increased opportunities due to the injuries was Royce O’Neale. Until the Nuggets game, that hadn’t seemed to be the case.
While he has appeared in eight of Utah’s last 10 games, most of O’Neale’s minutes have been limited to garbage time at the end of games.
Include me on the list of fans who would like to see more Royce O’Neale. He scored a season-high 11 points on Tuesday, but has yet to gain a foothold in Coach Snyder’s rotation.
Overall GPA: 2.70 (B-)
Ekpe Udoh was a plus/minus anomaly in the early parts of the season.
He has since been less dominant in that area, however, he has continued to provide a steady defensive presence in the paint for Utah’s bench unit.
While Udoh’s defense has been as advertised, at times at is down right painful to watch him on the offensive end.
Before falling flat against Denver, Udoh was 8-of-13 over the previous four games. Maybe he has found some consistency on the offensive end? If Udoh can add six to eight points per night and slightly improve on the boards, his grades will soar as the end of the year approaches.
Overall GPA: 3.00 (B)
Ingles is shooting the three ball at a clip of 47 percent on the season. He’s also been as consistent of a player as the Jazz have had this season. However, he seems to pass up too many open looks to try to get teammates involved.
Ingles is averaging 5.1 attempts per game from beyond the arc. That number should be somewhere closer to eight or nine per game in my opinion.
The increase in attempts will not only improve Ingles’ scoring average, it will also open things up in the paint for his teammates.
It seems as though the Jazz may be thinking the same thing, as Ingles had taken eight three-point attempts in consecutive games before an off-night on Tuesday. Ingles added nine assists to his 15 points Saturday night against the Bucks.
Team GPA: 2.73 (B)
Analysis:
This Jazz team seems like a team who may be finally figuring things out. Winners of four of their last five games, Utah has a chance to show that their recent play isn’t a fluke.
While a “B” may seem generous for a team that currently has a losing record, remember, these grades are based on each player’s individual expectations.
The Jazz are still a couple “A” players away from truly contending, but the amount of “B” players is a sign that Utah still has a core a players that is just waiting for a star or two to emerge.
Next: Utah Jazz Report Card: Player grades through Utah’s first 10 games
How would you grade the Jazz at the quarter-season point? Leave your grades in the comments section below.
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