The Utah Jazz have been underwhelming of late. To some extent, injuries have reared their ugly heads again. It may be that, in the absence of a clearcut top 10 player, the Jazz need all hands on deck in order to properly steer their ship.
That’s a precarious place to be. After all, injuries are an inevitable part of life in the NBA. The Jazz may be missing Bojan Bogdanovic more than anybody else.
Can the Utah Jazz function without Bogey?
Bogdanovic’s absence from the team’s recent defeat at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks marked his eighth consecutive missed game. The Jazz lost five of those contests.
On the season, the Jazz are 3-8 in games that Bogdanovic misses. Their offensive output suffers dramatically in his absence. This team scores 114.2 points per game with Bogey, and 108.0 without him. That six point swing is the difference between an elite offense and an average one.
Is Bogdanovic that important to the Utah Jazz?
Utah Jazz sum is greater than its parts
Without intending to slight an offensively talented player: not exactly.
Quin Snyder’s system needs its pieces to function. It’s highly effective, but it’s inflexible. The layout is simple: a rim running/rim protecting big in the middle, two floor spacing wings, and a backcourt.
It’s worth noting that Danuel House Jr. has missed many of the same games as Bogdanovic. That leaves Snyder with a platoon of Eric Paschall, Rudy Gay and Juancho Hernangomez to cover one of the wing spots.
None of them quite fit the bill. Each is a capable floor spacer. Paschall is connecting on 37.4% of his 2.0 threes per contest. Gay is canning a less impressive 33.9% of his 1.5 tries per game. Hernangomez hits 36.7% of his 2.7.
Still, floor spacing is about reputation as much as raw numbers. Defenses don’t panic to cover any of the three in the same manner they do Bogdanovic.
It’s not strictly about spacing either. All three of Bogey’s replacements are bigger, less agile athletes. The Jazz aren’t able to get into sets as quickly without a pair of wings in the frontcourt.
In the absence of both Bogdanovic and House Jr., they’re simply not the same team.
Utah Jazz need Bogdanovic healthy for postseason
On the brightside, the games Bogdanovic has missed haven’t mattered nearly as much as the games that are soon to come. Specifically, playoff games.
Sure, the Jazz would like to have better seeding heading into the postseason dance. If they’re healthy when it gets underway, they probably won’t be thinking about that twice.
After all, that’s where legacies are made. The Utah Jazz should still be hoping to enhance theirs with the franchise’s first NBA championship.