How do the Utah Jazz compare to the Phoenix Suns?
Utah Jazz vs Phoenix Suns: Offense
Any discussion about the narrow margins separating the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns has to start with a discussion about the narrow margins separating their two star off-guards. If the discussion ended there, the Jazz would walk away the superior offense.
Mitchell bested Booker in just about every category you could imagine in the 2020-21 season. His basic counting stats of 26.4 points and 5.2 assists per game surpassed Booker’s 25.6 and 4.3. He was also better than Booker according to most key metrics, including Player Efficiency Rating (21.3 to 19.2), Offensive Box Plus/Minus (4.1 to 1.4) and Offensive Win Shares (3.9 to 2.9).
Offensively, Donovan Mitchell was better than Devin Booker last season, full stop. Accordingly, the Utah Jazz were better at scoring points than the Phoenix Suns, albeit marginally. Utah’s fourth-rated 116.5 Offensive Rating narrowly edged Phoenix’s seventh-rated 116.3 mark.
Looking at each team’s roster, last season’s results correspond with any objective observer’s expectations. Both teams roster a somewhat-offensively-limited rim-runner at the starting 5 spot, but Rudy Gobert’s veteran guile allowed him to post a higher Offensive Box Plus/Minus (OBPM) than Deandre Ayton last season at 2.0 to 0.9.
At the forward spots, Mikal Bridges and Royce O’Neale are similar 3-and-D archetypes who effectively cancel each other out. On the other hand, the Phoenix Suns also started Jae Crowder, a similar model. He’s a highly-effective role player, but he lacks the offensive polish of Bojan Bogdanovic, as reflected by his superior Offensive Win Shares (OWS) last season (2.7 vs 1.4).
Chris Paul, uncontroversially, is better than Mike Conley. He’s just not better by a large enough margin to lift the Phoenix Suns’ offense to higher heights than the ones reached by the Utah Jazz. It’s a close call, but the Jazz had a better offense than the Suns last season, and they figure to do so again in 2021-22.