Utah Jazz: Ranking the 5 most important players on the 2021-22 roster

Some Utah Jazz fans reading this article could potentially be upset about this placement. How can we say that Joe Ingles is more important to the Jazz’s cause if Bojan Bogdanovic plays the same position, and typically receives the starting nod?

Even more astute observers may have an additional gripe. It isn’t difficult to guess who the top 3 players in this article will be. So, how can we say that Joe Ingles is more important than Jordan Clarkson, when both men led Quin Snyder’s second unit last year, and only the latter was awarded the Sixth Man of the Year?

Well, the advanced stats mostly tell us that this placement is accurate. Ingles bested Bogdanovic in all 3 of the markers we identified at the beginning of this article. His BPM of 3.4 decimates Bogey’s -0.8, his VORP of 2.5 is significantly stronger than Bogdanovic’s 0.7, and his PER of 15.9 comfortably edges Bogdanovic’s 14.0.

Meanwhile, Clarkson did surpass Ingles in PER last year, with a mark of 17.1. We’re still comfortable with our decision here. PER notoriously favors players who rack up stats (as, relevantly, does the Sixth Man of the Year award) and Clarkson does more of that by virtue of his role. Not to be discredited, Clarkson’s 18.4 points per game off of the Utah Jazz bench were critical to the team’s success.

Nonetheless, there’s a reason Ingles’ other two advanced metrics heavily outweighed Clarkson’s.

The reigning Sixth Man of the Year was fairly mediocre in terms of BPM and VORP last season, posting figures of 1.4 and 1.1 respectively. Those are acceptable numbers, but they lag behind Ingles’. In all likelihood, we can attribute this discrepancy to Ingles’ considerably more well-rounded game. He’s a better defender, passer and floor-spacer.

It’s a little cliche to say that a player “does a little bit of everything”. With that said, Joe Ingles really does do a little bit of everything for the Utah Jazz. For that reason, we consider him their fourth most important player entering the 2021-22 season.