Three things Utah Jazz fans need to see from their team in regular season opener
A return to stingy defense and DPOY-caliber play from Rudy
To put it lightly, the Utah Jazz defense stunk in preseason. Among all 30 NBA teams, the Jazz had the very worst defensive rating, and that’s including the cakewalk game against the Adelaide 36ers. Remove that bout from the equation and it’s even uglier.
The Jazz gave up 133 points to the Milwaukee Bucks, 128 points to both the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings, and 126 points to the Portland Trail Blazers. Those are absolutely unacceptable figures and, quite frankly, those overall performances were not ‘Jazz-like’ at all.
Under Quin Snyder, the Salt Lake City squad has built a reputation as an elite defensive force that can make life difficult for even the best of the best offensively. However, with the loss of Derrick Favors, Jae Crowder and the crafty Ricky Rubio, along with the insertion of newcomers still learning the defensive schemes, the defense looked even worse than the work-in-progress one might assume it would be. Quite frankly, under most circumstances the players looked lost.
That’s to be expected to some degree as guys like Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley, Jeff Green and Ed Davis get accustomed to a new coach and system, but the Jazz still desperately need them to get up to speed at an accelerated pace if they are to avoid getting off to a damaging slow start.
But the blame shouldn’t be placed solely on the newcomers, as Rudy Gobert – the anchor of Utah’s defense – had a rough preseason as well. Gobert seemed a step slow in several crucial moments and didn’t protect the rim with the same timing, aggressiveness or intensity that Jazz fans have become accustomed to. Sure, some of that may have been due merely to fatigue from FIBA World Cup play or lack of high stakes since it was preseason play, but there’s still no questioning that Gobert has to be better.
Utah’s defense revolves so crucially around him that even if others are off or still learning their role, Gobert should still be able to pick up the slack so long as he’s playing up to his potential. Gobert has gotten off to slow starts defensively in recent years past which has correlated with his Jazz team experiencing sluggish beginnings to seasons as well. In a year where the Jazz are eyeing a high seed and a potential championship run, they absolutely can’t fall victim to such complacency.
Rudy has to bring it from game one to game 82, and that starts on Wednesday night against OKC.
In fairness, one player in particular that should be highlighted for avoiding the trend of his teammates and actually playing solid defense is Donovan Mitchell. All summer, Mitchell harped on his desire to make defense more of an emphasis this upcoming season, and he delivered both in FIBA play and in preseason.
If he can keep that up, beginning with the season opener, while Rudy gets back to playing DPOY-caliber D and the rest of the gang catches on, Utah should yet again be a thrilling defensive squad.
They got off to a slow defensively start last season, but ultimately wound up as the second best defensive team in the league in terms of defensive rating. Ideally that development will start earlier in the year this time around.