Utah Jazz first-quarter grades: Derrick Favors leads crowded PF spot

The Utah Jazz have quite the selection of power forwards led by Derrick Favors who remains in a somewhat odd position with a team searching for the right solution at the four-spot.

The power forward position has long produced an interesting quandary for the Utah Jazz. Although there’s no arguing that Derrick Favors is among Utah’s top five players, there’s certainly healthy debate about whether or not he’s the best fit among Utah’s group of five starters. Meanwhile, Jae Crowder started the year as one of Utah’s most reliable players, but has since largely fallen back to his ways as overly trigger happy and a questionable decision maker.

Then there’s Thabo Sefolosha and Georges Niang who are in an apparent battle for playing time as neither one can quite solidify himself as the best option to be in Quin Snyder’s rotation. Niang has shown more of a hot shooting touch (though even that has declined lately) while Sefolosha is a better defender that brings veteran experience, but he’s been far from reliable thus far.

So how do we even begin grading the slew of power forwards? Especially when Snyder’s ideal model of a stretch-four – one that can hit the three but also switch and defend reliably – is nowhere to be found on the roster?

That’s harder to do than it sounds, but I’ll go ahead and give it a try. Here are my quarter-season grades for Utah’s quartet of power forwards.