Utah Jazz: 3 areas in which the team needs to improve

At 8-5, it might be premature to call the 2021-22 Utah Jazz a disappointment to-date. At the same time, nobody could claim that this team has surpassed expectations either. There is too much talent on this squad to forgive losses against sub .500 teams like the Orlando Magic and the Indiana Pacers. On the bright side, this team sits 5th in the Western Conference with ample room for improvement. This NBA season is still young, and a savvy, veteran-heavy outfit like the Utah Jazz stand more likely to progress than regress as it advances.

Here are 3 areas in which the team could stand to improve as that happens.

Utah Jazz three-point efficiency

This is a point we’ve been forced to hammer home repeatedly. Maybe we’re beating a dead horse, but we’d be remiss not to identify three-point efficiency as an area in which the Utah Jazz could use improvement.

As it stands, this team’s 42.2 three-point attempts per game rank third in the NBA, while their 32.1% conversion rank places them 27th. That, to say the least, is a wide berth.

Counterintuitively, Their Offensive Rating of 113.65 ranks second in the NBA anyway. It lends significant credence to the validity of the three-point revolution: volume evidently leads to efficiency, regardless of accuracy.

Fine. Call us crazy, but we think it would be better if the Utah Jazz hit more of their threes anyway.

Three-point dominant offensive strategies lend themselves to a wider range of outcomes than other plans of attack. That feels like an appropriate explanation for how the Jazz managed to score a mere 100 points in their game against the Orlando Magic. The Jazzmen shot 8/42 from three-point range in that contest, good for 19%.

Shooting 19% on 42 three-point attempts might not get you a victory over the G-League Ignite. Either the Jazz need more of those attempts to start finding nylon, or they need to develop a plan for shifting gears when that’s simply not happening.