Utah Jazz: 3 areas in which the team needs to improve
Utah Jazz ball movement
When the Utah Jazz are on offense, the ball is like Kevin Bacon after a bad day in Footloose: it’s got to move.
The Jazz’s lack of ball movement may have a direct correlation with their three-point inefficiency. Currently, the Jazz’s 20.4 assists per game rank 28th in the NBA, while their 266.2 passes per game rank 26th. It’s largely a function of design: Quin Snyder prefers to generate efficient offense by maximizing spacing in a pick-and-spread system. More passes lead to more turnovers, and the Jazz prefer to protect the rock while relying on unassisted threes.
Only, the rock isn’t exactly being well-protected, either. The Jazz’s 15.2 turnovers per game rank 21st in the NBA: not an atrocious mark, but surely not a strong enough one to justify the trade-off they’d hope for in their lack of passing.
Again, with the league’s second-best Offensive Rating, it’s not hard to make the case that the Utah Jazz don’t need to change a thing on the offensive end. On the other hand, this offensive strategy may contribute to the overall streakiness of this squad. This offense may be capable of reaching staggeringly high heights, but it’s also completely unreliable.
Analogously, the Jazz play like a ball-hogging volume scorer. Sure, he may drop 50 on occasion, but on those nights that he goes for 13 points on 5/20 shooting from the field, you just wish he’d pass the ball.
The suggestion here is not for Quin Snyder to overhaul the entire offense, but perhaps he doesn’t need to be so steadfastly devoted to his plan of attack either. A few wrinkles in his pick-and-spread offense may generate more open looks. Maybe Gobert keeps an eye out for corner shooters more regularly as the roll man, or astute passer Joe Ingles is granted a larger role in the offense.
It’s hard to prescribe an exact solution, but when your team is averaging 0.1 more assists per game than the 1-12 Houston Rockets, there’s a decent chance that a change of plans may be in order.