Is there a second scorer on this Jazz team?

It’s no secret the Jazz are going to rely heavily on Donovan Mitchell this season. The second-year player out of Louisville is coming off the best rookie season in the history of the Jazz franchise and has cemented himself as a cornerstone in Utah for the foreseeable future. But while Mitchell will most likely finish the season as the leading scorer for Utah, the question remains, who else on this Jazz team can be relied on to score?

Every great team in the NBA has at least two options on the offensive end of the floor. Houston has All-Stars James Harden and Chris Paul. Oklahoma City has Paul George and Russell Westbrook. Boston has Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. The Golden State Warriors have what seems like infinite amounts of scorers, with 5 All-Stars in the starting lineup.

So who is the Jazz second option?

The case could be made for numerous Jazz players. But does a solid option exist? Rudy Gobert, Ricky Rubio, Joe Ingles, and others all bring something unique to the table on the offensive end for the Jazz. But each is not without their weaknesses.

Rudy Gobert

Over a year ago I wrote about how Gobert was the future of the Utah Jazz. And then Donovan Mitchell happened. Something I decided to focus on in my post last year was the fact that Rudy was one of the most efficient players in the NBA in shots within 3 feet of the basket. Most of that is thanks to his 7’2 frame and his record-breaking 7’9 wingspan. But not everyone who is tall and lanky can step into the NBA and make the same kind of impact Gobert has had (see Shawn Bradley.) Gobert has worked tirelessly at his game and in building his muscle mass. That work has not only turned Gobert into the 2018 NBA Defensive Player of the Year but has also turned him into a force to be reckoned with the offensive boards, something that has led to easy buckets for the center.

But that is not the only thing Gobert has worked on. This summer the French center spent countless hours working on his outside shot, something that has not come as naturally to Gobert. But while his shot is noticeably improved, it’s nowhere near reliable. Many centers work on their outside game and, while it looks better in a shoot-around with no defenders, it still fails to make a difference in a real game. Gobert may look better in an open gym from outside but until he starts consistently knocking down outside jump shots with the likes of Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns guarding him then it probably won’t help Gobert on the offensive end. As everyone knows, this era of basketball is played inside-out, limiting the offensive production of big men like Gobert. So while Gobert is easily Utah’s second best player, and the best defender in the NBA, it’s a far stretch to consider him the second option on this offense.

Ricky Rubio

The former Timberwolves point guard reignited his career following a trade from Minnesota to Utah. Much like Gobert, Rubio has spent a lot of time in the gym refining his shot. But unlike Gobert, Rubio is actually seeing a noticeable difference in real games. The Spanish point guard had a reputation for being a phenomenal passer but an inconsistent shooter during his time in Minnesota. And when he first joined the Jazz that was still the case. But as Rubio continued to work on his shot throughout the season with Jazz coaches something happened. Rubio started to become a reliable shooter from the perimeter and from mid-range.

Prior to joining the Jazz, Rubio had never shot higher than 40% from the field or 34% from three. But in his first season with the Jazz, Rubio set career highs in both FG% with 42% and in 3P% with 35%, all while taking a career-high amount of shots from the field and from three. So while Rubio showed last season that he is capable of knocking down shots, a question still remains. While some would question if what Jazz fans saw during the second half of last season by Rubio is sustainable (I believe it is), I am more concerned about if it will take time for Rubio to find his shot. It was obvious to everyone who followed the Jazz last season that the emergence of Ricky Rubio helped to ignite a second-half surge that helped the Jazz to make the playoffs for the second consecutive year. It was also no secret that the Jazz, and Rubio, struggled in the first half of the season. So the question remains, will it yet again take Rubio the first half of the season to find his shot? Or will he maintain the same level of offensive success as Jazz fans saw the second half of the year?

Joe Ingles

Ingles stepped into the role of starting small forward almost seamlessly following Gordon Hayward’s departure last summer. Ingles had always been the best pure shooter on the Jazz last season, and we saw games where it seemed like every time Ingles would put up a shot it would go in. Which is why I was surprised to learn that his career high in points is only 24. Now while there are plenty of people who would kill to score 24 points in an NBA game, for a veteran player like Ingles who shoots lights out from 3 most games, the number seemed a bit low, especially when you consider that players like Brandon Jennings, Terrence Ross, Corey Brewer, and Mo Williams all have career highs of over 50 points. So it may be confusing to some that Ingles’ career high in points doesn’t even crack 30.

That is until you look at the numbers a bit deeper. There were 35 players in the NBA last season that attempted an average of 15 or more shots per game. Joe Ingles, on the other hand, attempted more than 15 shots just 6 times all of last season. Which accounted for 6% of the times in which a member of the Jazz attempted 15 or more field goals in a single game. So how can someone who rarely shoots the ball be the second option on offense? For starters, the Jazz would need to change the way Joe Ingles plays the game and force him to take more shots. But simply put, that isn’t the way Utah does things. They play to the strengths of their players. And Joe Ingles is more than happy to pass the ball to an open teammate, and it’s something he is very good at. So why would the Jazz force Ingles to increase his amount of shots per game when they have proven they can win without the Aussie taking 20 shots a game? They wouldn’t.

Derrick Favors

The Jazz spent their summer focused on one thing, resigning their own free agents, a free agent group that included Favors. Favors, the longest-tenured Jazzman, has been through all the ups and downs of Utah for the past several seasons. He was here when Ty Corbin was the coach and the Jazz seemed to be playing without an identity. He was here through the Devin Harris era, the Mo Williams era, the Trey Burke era, the Shelvin Mack era, the George Hill era, and even the Jamal Tinsley era. Favors has embodied Jazz basketball for years. During his time with the Jazz, Favors has finished the season in the top three on the team in scoring three times. However, over the past two seasons, Favors has found himself at sixth and fifth, respectively, in scoring.

It’s no surprise that Favors has seen his scoring production dip over the past two seasons. After all, the Jazz are a much better team with much better players the past two years than any other time during Favors career, which tends to lead to a decrease in individual stats for most players on the team. A decrease in numbers is not to say that Favors is not as good of a player as he once was, in fact, quite the opposite. Favors has done a tremendous job in giving up personal stats and accolades for the betterment of the team. Favors’ unselfish play is actually a large reason as to why the Jazz have been able to make the playoffs each of the past two seasons. So the biggest concern around Favors’ offensive ability and output isn’t that he is incapable of putting up big numbers, but that he isn’t asked to do so. And just like the situation with Joe Ingles, the Jazz won’t be changing their game plan any time soon.

The Bench

The Jazz bench is probably the best it’s been in a very long time this season. The resigning of Dante Exum and Raul Neto helped the Jazz to keep their bench intact over the summer and are now geared up to make a deep run into the postseason. But can any player on the bench be one of the top scorers on this Jazz team? Since the 2010-11 season, only Alec Burks in 2013-14 started in less than 50% of games in which he appeared in, and still finished in the top two in scoring for the season. So can a bench player really be a main contributor to an offense? It’s not unheard of. Rodney Hood was on course to do so last season before he was moved to Cleveland in return for Jae Crowder.

Speaking of Crowder, the stretch-four played major minutes for the Jazz last season, coming off the bench for Favors and being paired with Gobert in hopes that he could stretch the floor and open up the interior for Gobert. The main issue for Crowder is his inconsistent shooting. Another name that comes up when thinking in terms of playmakers off the bench for the Jazz is Dante Exum, who the Jazz resigned this summer. While Jazz fans are still hoping the fourth-year guard can finally make the type of impact so many had hoped he would when the Jazz took him fifth overall in the 2014 draft, Exum still has a lot to prove in the NBA. Can he be a dynamic offensive weapon with his combination of size, length, and speed? Certainly. But ‘will he?’ is another story. Other players like Grayson Allen, Alec Burks, and Royce O’Neale will be important contributors for the Jazz this season, but none of them will be relied on heavily to win games for the Jazz.

Conclusion

In the words of Jazz coach Quin Snyder, “the strength of the team is the team.” Meaning that the Jazz play as a TEAM. There’s a reason the Jazz beat the Thunder in the first round of the Playoffs last season, despite the Thunder boasting three of the best scorers in the NBA. There’s a reason the Jazz excelled in 2017-18, while teams like the Timberwolves struggled to find an identity despite being led by All-Stars Jimmy Butler and Karl-Anthony Towns. And it’s no mystery why the Jazz are considered dark horse contenders while teams like the Wizards are labeled as “overrated” despite having one of the best backcourts in the NBA. It’s because the Jazz play team basketball. Much like the Patriots in the NFL, the Jazz have a ‘do your job’ mentality, where every player is accountable to each other and they win, or lose, together. So maybe the Jazz don’t need a reliable second scorer. Maybe one night Ricky Rubio will score 28 points while Joe Ingles will pour in 22 the next. Maybe, just maybe, if everyone on the Jazz does there job, the offense will be fine, and Utah could find themselves deep in the Western Conference Playoff race.