Utah Jazz guard Mike Conley: B
Mike Conley has earned the reputation of being a rock for both of the franchises that have hosted him throughout his storied NBA career. He’s looking that part for the Jazzmen again in the 2021-22 NBA season.
Conley’s consistent shooting efficiency is borne out of his elite shot selection. This season, he’s averaging 16.3 points per game while shooting 48.6% from the field, 48.7% from three-point range, and 91.7% from the free throw line. Accumulatively, that’s an elite 65.1 True Shooting % (TS%).
Conley loses points on two measures. Firstly, his 3.3 assists per game across seven games leave much to be desired: Jazz fans should hope for that number to increase as the season wears on. More playmaking from their best playmaker should juice what’s already the league’s 5th best offense. Secondly, he’s already missed a game for the sake of load management. Seven games into the season, that has to count.
Utah Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic: B
Much has been made of the shooting woes of certain key members of the Utah Jazz. Bojan Bogdanovic’s slump has gone comparatively unnoticed, which makes sense, because it’s been comparatively less severe.
The generally consistent three-point assassin has struggled to find his mark from deep so far throughout 2021-22, shooting an unimpressive 31.6%. On the bright side, he’s shooting a solid 45.5% from the field overall. Appropriately, he’s down about one three-point attempt per contest from 2020-21. It’s almost as if Bogey knows he’s slumping, but equally understands that he needs to shoot 3s for Quin Snyder’s offensive machine to function.
Bogdanovic earns points for keeping his shot selection in check, and then he earns a few more for his 104 Defensive Rating. If that figure holds, it’ll be the best of his career.
Utah Jazz forward Royce O’Neale: B+
When assessing such a three-point reliant team, it’s difficult to divorce a player’s overall effectiveness from their three-point efficiency. Viewed through that lens, O’Neale would earn a failing grade. His 25.0% accuracy from three-point land is an ugly sight to behold.
Fortunately for O’Neale, he’s a 3-and-D wing who puts an emphatic emphasis on D. To that end, he’s been fantastic this season. His 1.6 steals per game lead the team, and his 100 Defensive Rating trails only big men Rudy Gobert (90) and Hassan Whiteside (92).
O’Neale is doing most of what is expected of him throughout 2021-22 so far. If he can knock that three-point efficiency up a few notches, he’ll earn an A+ the next time we go to grade the Jazz.
Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert: A+
As if there was any doubt.
We recently speculated that Gobert may be vying for MVP consideration, and he’s done nothing to lead us to soften that stance. His numbers so far this year are reminiscent of Bill Russell: 15.7 points, 17.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game. Oh, and he’s shooting 72.3% from the field.
Advanced metrics paint a similar picture. His BPM is 5.2 and his Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is 27.1. In a sense, Gobert is only doing what he does every season. He’s simply doing it better than he’s ever done it before.
There are hardly words that do Gobert’s performance to-date justice. He’s been the best player on the Utah Jazz, and he’d earn an A+++ if we weren’t sticking to traditional letter grades.
Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell: B
We struggled with this grade like Jordan Clarkson behind a three-point line (sorry). On the one hand, Mitchell has been generally inefficient this year. He’s turned it around over the course of his last two games, but he’s still shooting 41.6% from the field and 32.9% from three-point range this far into the 2021-22 season. His 3.6 turnovers for every 4.9 assists he’s averaging per game also reflect a significant inefficiency.
On the other hand, Mitchell is tasked with more offensive volume than any other member of the Utah Jazz. In light of the struggles that have afflicted several of his teammates, he deserves credit for shouldering the load. He’s still averaging 24.9 points per game on a team that is 6-1.
In weighing Mitchell’s subpar efficiency with his tremendous offense responsibility and the team’s results to-date, we tried to split the difference.
The Utah Jazz have had a tremendously successful 2021-22 season to date. That success is simply due to the individual play of some team members more than others.