3 concerns for these Utah Jazz as the playoffs approach

Utah Jazz playoff concern #2: Perimeter Defense

The Utah Jazz needed a perimeter defender at this year’s deadline like plants need water, or Kanye West needs Kim Kardashian. They didn’t get one, and it may cause them to wither away (or, depending which analogy you prefer, aggressively post on Instagram).

FiveThirtyEight’s D-RAPTOR is a metric that “uses play-by-play and player-tracking data to calculate each player’s individual plus-minus measurements and wins above replacement”. We’ll preface our next point by adding that defensive metrics are inherently limited.

That doesn’t mean they’re meaningless. According to D-RAPTOR, the three best defenders on the Jazz in 2021-22 have been Rudy Gobert, Hassan Whiteside and Udoka Azubuike.

Are you seeing a trend?

The best non-big defenders on the team have been Royce O’Neale and Mike Conley. Both men deserve credit for their defensive intensity. Both men are also positionally undersized.

They play hard, smart defense, but they’re limited. The deeper the Jazz advance in the playoffs, the more likely they are to draw a matchup that spells trouble for at least one of them. Outside of the players named here, no rotation regular on the team clocks in as even a neutral defender.

Expecting Rudy Gobert and his backups to clean up the mess their perimeter defenders inevitably make has only worked to a degree this season. The Utah Jazz have a 111.23 Defensive Rating, good for 9th in the league. That’s solid, but it feels low for any team with Rudy Gobert in the middle.

The blame fall squarely on the shoulders of roster construction. These Jazz could desperately use a big wing with real defensive prowess. Without such a player, these Jazz defenders will have to adjust. Otherwise, the team may find themselves on the golf course sooner than they’d like.