Grading every player on the Utah Jazz at the midway point
Fresh off of All-Star weekend, the Utah Jazz are sitting pretty. At 38-22, they’re fourth in the Western Conference. Some Jazz fans probably expected more from them at this point. If not for a rash of injuries, they’d likely have gotten it. All things considered, this feels like a solid outcome for the Jazz so far.
Some members of the team have outperformed expectations, while others have fallen short of them. Meanwhile, some have just plain delivered what we expected.
Here are our player grades for every member of the Utah Jazz at the midway point of 2021-22. There are a couple of caveats. We’re not grading availability: nobody wants to get injured. We’re also grading relative to expectations: just because one player receives a lower grade doesn’t mean they’re a worse player.
Finally, we’re not including the players acquired at the deadline, or Danuel House Jr. They’ve provided too small a sample size to be effectively graded.
Here’s where we think each member of the Utah Jazz stands at the midway point of the season.
Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert
15.6 points, 14.8 rebounds, 2.3 blocks per game
If you expected more from Rudy Gobert this season, you should reevaluate how you set your expectations. We’re willing to bet it’s having an adverse effect on the people you love.
All he’s doing is leading the league in rebounds per game and field goal percentage (70.4%) while providing his usual brand of elite rim protection. There’s no margin to dock this Utah Jazz star any marks.
Grade: A+
Utah Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic
17.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists per game
Before the season began, we set 3 goals for Bogdanovic. Unfortunately, he’s failed to meet any of them so far.
His Defensive Box Plus/Minus (DBPM) is actually almost whole point lower than last year’s (-1.7 vs -0.7). His three-point shooting has marginally regressed (he’s hitting 37.4% of his 6.4 attempts per game). He has not set a career high in assists per game.
Bogdanovic provides much of what was expected of him heading into the season: floor spacing, a pinch of shot creation, and little else. It just would have been nice to see him make some strides.
Grade: C-