The Trouble with the Jazz

The Utah Jazz are turning their attention towards improving on the defensive end, but is that actually making them worse?

It’s no secret that the NBA is trending in a direction in which teams focus on scoring rather than defense. A key reason the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors won the NBA Championship is the fact that they led the league in scoring the same season, averaging 116.5 points per game (PPG). In contrast the team that ranked last in scoring, the Dallas Mavericks at 97.9 PPG, had a record of 33-49 and finished 22nd in the NBA standings.

So with the NBA trending towards teams scoring over 100 PPG it would make sense that teams would focus on adding players who can score in bunches. But the Utah Jazz are taking a different approach to getting better: improving their defense.

Utah lost its top-two offensive players during the off-season in Gordon Hayward and George Hill, who combined for 39 PPG last season. But when Hayward and Hill left for other teams the Jazz chose not to replace their scoring and instead added Thabo Sefolosha and Jonas Jerebko, who combining to average 14.5 PPG this season which equates to a 24.5-point drop-off from last season to this. While Sefolosha and Jerebko are solid role players, they cannot be counted on to provide reliable scoring when the Jazz need it. To make matters worse, Sefolosha’s season is in jeopardy after suffering a knee injury.

The Jazz are 43 games into the NBA season and are averaging 100.6 PPG, which ranks 28th in the NBA. For a comparison, the defending NBA Champion Warriors, who currently own the best record in the NBA, have scored less than 100 points only six times this season and are averaging 115.9 PPG despite missing players like Kevin Durant and Steph Curry for extended periods of time.

To give you an idea how far behind the curve the Jazz are when it comes to offense, in a game on Nov. 10, 2017, against the Miami Heat the Jazz scored only 74 points for the game. Meanwhile, 6 days later, the Houston Rockets scored 90 points against the Phoenix Suns -- in the first half.

Furthermore, the Utah Jazz do not have a single player who averages more than 20 PPG. The Warriors? They have three.

The lone bright spot in an otherwise lethargic offense is rookie phenom Donovan Mitchell who is averaging 18.9 PPG and has been breaking Utah rookie records all season. The highlight of the year offensively for Mitchell and the Jazz was a 41-point outburst by the rookie in a Dec. 1 win over the Pelicans.

But while Mitchell has been fantastic the rest of the Jazz offense has looked out of sorts. Th next leading scorer has been Rodney Hood, who has been wildly inconsistent and is quickly losing the support of Jazz fans.

The emergence of Mitchell as a star in the NBA has been exciting to watch but for it doesn’t bode well for the Jazz this season. Only two teams in the NBA are led in scoring by rookies this season, one being the Utah Jazz and the other being the Los Angeles Lakers. As it stands neither team would be in the playoffs and the Lakers are near the bottom of the NBA standings. Additionally no playoff team has a rookie in their top-two scoring leaders.

Watching Mitchell has undoubtedly been fun but the Jazz will have a difficult time competing for a playoff spot if he is the only Jazz-man that can be relied on for scoring.

Utah’s defense is staunch and performing well – ranking sixth in defensive efficiency -- but their offense is struggling mightily and seem to be allergic to scoring, which in today’s NBA is a major problem. The solution is simple: trade for a player who can help the Jazz when it comes to scoring. Rumors have been swirling about Utah’s interested in Bulls forward Nikola Mirotic but the Bulls are asking for a first-

round pick in return, something the Jazz are unlikely to give up. But Mirotic is not the only answer. There’s no doubt that the Jazz need to make moves if they want to make a late playoff push but whether Utah GM Dennis Lindsey decides to make changes is still up in the air.