One goal for each Utah Jazz starter post All-Star break
Utah Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic: Improve defense
Bogey doesn’t figure to compete for any Defensive Player of the Year trophies for the remainder of his NBA career. That’s OK: the Utah Jazz have Rudy Gobert for that task. It would just make his life easier if Bogdanovic was competent on the defensive end.
He’s not. In fact, according to D-RAPTOR (a metric that uses play-by-play and player-tracking data to calculate each player’s individual plus-minus measurements and wins above replacement), he’s the worst defender on the entire team at -2.6. The more traditional Defensive Box Plus/Minus (DBPM) doesn’t do him any favors either at -1.7.
Many observers felt the Jazz should target a 3-and-D wing at this year’s trade deadline. They did not. An internal upgrade could make a world of difference towards the club’s point prevention. Since Royce O’Neale already does the bulk of the heavy lifting, that would have to come from Bogdanovic.
If he could just push those measures towards league average by season’s end, he’ll have met this goal handily.
Utah Jazz forward Royce O’Neale: Be more aggressive
Confession: identifying a goal for Royce O’Neale is difficult. Few players in the NBA identify and play within their role as well as O’Neale. He’s a consummate glue guy. The Utah Jazz couldn’t rightfully ask him to do much more than he already does.
He could just turn up the aggression a little on both ends of the floor.
That’s particularly true on offense. Currently, O’Neale attempts 5.6 field goals per contest in spite of a sterling 64.3 True Shooting % (TS%). Of course, his cautious shot selection is part of that outstanding efficiency. Nobody’s asking O’Neale to morph into teammate Jordan Clarkson overnight, but a couple more field goal attempts per night could boost this Utah Jazz attack.
O’Neale could also gamble just a touch more on defense. Earlier in the season, he was approaching the league’s leaders in steals per game. Now, his 1.3 pilfers per night rank 22nd in the NBA. He doesn’t even lead the Utah Jazz anymore, as Donovan Mitchell steals 1.6 balls a game.
O’Neale doesn’t even really need to set this goal. His high IQ, low maintenance brand of basketball suits the Jazz well. It would be interesting to see what happened if he asserted it just a little more.