Utah Jazz: Midseason report card for Royce O’Neale
By Caleb Manser
Offense
When you check the box score nothing really jumps out about Royce O’Neale. He averages six points per game and 2.5 assists, For comparison, Gordon Hayward as a rookie averaged 5 points and one assist per game.
According to Offensive Box Plus-Minus (which describes how many points per 100 posessions a player generates above an average NBA player), Royce O’Neale is only 0.1 points better than the average player offensively, which seems a little low to me.
But upon further thought, it seems accurate given that O’Neale isn’t really exceptional at creating offense. As mentioned earlier, he let’s all of the shot creating duties go to Bojan, Joe, Donovan, Mike, and even Jordan Clarkson when he’s on the court.
88 of his 93 shot makes this season have been assisted, so it’s obvious he relies on the Jazz system to get him buckets. His usage rating of 8 percent is by far the lowest of the regular rotation players for the Jazz.
Should that ding O’Neale’s grade though? Coming from this teacher, I’m gonna say no.
The Jazz’s offensive rating is 115.3 when O’Neale is on the court, and 105.6 when he is off the court. That’s a big difference that takes the Jazz offense from good to great.
Despite the fact that O’Neale isn’t helping with the points and assists in big volume, his three point shooting percentage speaks for itself how reliable he is. He knocks down 45 percent of his triples (50 percent from the right corner), and takes 2.9 per game with good selection.
His only fault offensively is being too hesitant to take shots that are there for him. Once every so often, O’Neale will drive the lane when he had an open three point shot which results in either a turnover or a contested shot at the rim.
Grade: B+