Look ahead: Who should the Utah Jazz try to avoid in the playoffs?

Los Angeles Lakers

Last but certainly not least, the Los Angeles Lakers are the team the Jazz should try to avoid for as long as possible.

When the Jazz chose to clear Derrick Favors‘ salary last summer in order to sign Bojan Bogdanovic, they gave up a lot of size on the roster. Ed Davis was signed as the replacement backup center, but his minutes haven’t been ideal for the Jazz this season.

This means for the vast majority of the time, Rudy Gobert is the only big on the floor for the Utah Jazz. This is exactly what the Jazz wanted coming into this season, playing a true four-out offense that can torch any opponent from the 3 point line.

On defense, the Jazz can usually survive thanks to the sheer dominance of Gobert in the paint. But when bigger opponents roll into town – specifically a team donning purple and gold – the Jazz’s small lineups struggle defensively.

The Lakers play 6-foot-10 Anthony Davis as their power forward, with either JaVale McGee or Dwight Howard as the center. The question is who do you want Rudy Gobert guarding in those lineups?

You could stick him on Anthony Davis, but that would pull Rudy out of the paint more often than we’d like. None of Gobert’s teammates, with all due respect, can put up a good fight against Howard and McGee when they catch a lob in the post.

You could have Gobert guard McGee/Howard, which is how it played out in the two meetings this season. When that happens, who is supposed to stop Anthony Davis from dropping 30? Royce O’Neale is an adequate defender to put on LeBron James, but other than that there’s a whole lot of uncertainty of who is supposed to guard whom.

There are two more games against the Lakers left on the schedule for this season, and it will be interesting to see if Quin Snyder experiments with the lineups in that game to see what works. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mike Conley play mostly with the second unit in order to maintain as much defensive integrity as possible.

Who knows? Maybe Snyder will pull Rayjon Tucker and Juwan Morgan out of the cupboard for more minutes than usual to throw something different against the Lakers and see if it works.

If these two teams met in the playoffs, I’d have to pick the Lakers in a quick five game series. Anything more would be going against my conscience and basketball knowledge.