Utah Jazz second-best lineup: Rudy Gobert, Eric Paschall, Joe Ingles, Jordan Clarkson, Mike Conley
It’s hard to account for the relative success of a Jazz lineup featuring Eric Paschall. He’s been solid in Salt Lake City, but also unremarkable. His Box Plus/Minus of -2.3 does not suggest that he’s been the key to unlocking this group’s success.
Nonetheless, it’s been successful. This lineup’s differential of +17.3 puts them in the 81st percentile, per CleaningtheGlass. It’s worth noting that they’ve been so successful in spite of a grisly 18.2 turnover percentage that lands them in the 8th percentile.
If you’ll pardon the pun, perhaps cleaning the glass has been the key to this unit’s success. Their 31.7 offensive rebounding percentage puts them in the 90th percentile, and their opponent’s Offensive Rebounding percentage of 19.1 is in the 88th. Gobert might just benefit from playing alongside a big bodied forward like Paschall.
That would also help to explain the dominance of the Jazz’s best lineup in 2021-22 to date.
Utah Jazz best lineup: Rudy Gobert, Rudy Gay, Joe Ingles, Jordan Clarkson, Mike Conley
One thing immediately jumps out about this lineup: it does not feature Donovan Mitchell. It may be an uncomfortable truth that the Jazz’s most successful lineup this year doesn’t feature Spida, but numbers don’t lie.
At the same time, numbers do require close examination. This group has played a total of 142 possessions together, the smallest number of any of these lineups. There may be some small sample noise in this stat.
Still, the results do speak for themselves. This unit’s differential of +24.5 is in the league’s 92nd percentile. Also interestingly, the Jazz again seem to be most successful when Gobert is paired with a purer modern 4, as opposed to a wing playing up a position.
Utah Jazz fans need not riot: nobody is suggesting that this team is better off without Donovan Mitchell. Those two lineups may indicate the best type of 4 to pair with Gobert, and Quin Snyder may want to take note of their successes. Regardless, this team isn’t going anywhere without its leading scorer.