3 Big Concerns From Jazz's 1-2 Start
The rollercoaster Utah Jazz are off and running this season. With the first weekend in the books, the Jazz sit with a 1-2 record.
After a shellacking at the hands of the Sacramento Kings in the season opener, the Jazz bounced back in a big way to grab a win over a talented Los Angeles Clippers team. That win was short-lived, as the team got boat-raced by the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night.
What have we learned about this team thus far? Here are my biggest Jazz takeaways through the first three games.
Guard Woes
We knew the Jazz had a giant question mark hanging over the backcourt this season. With a handful of candidates, though, the hope was that Will Hardy and his staff would be able to accentuate the strengths of these guards to give the team a fighting chance. So far, it has been ugly.
Talen Horton-Tucker — the starting “point guard” — is averaging 7.3 points, 4.3 assists, and 1.3 rebounds per game. He's shooting 26.9% from the field, 33.3% from deep, and 66.7% on free throws.
The one positive is that Horton-Tucker has made a real effort to distribute the ball; his best game was undoubtedly against the Clippers where he dished out eight assists. With that said, the THT experiment is failing... hard. He would be better suited coming off the bench.
Collin Sexton is another guard who has struggled despite being in the mix for the starting gig. He's shooting 37.9% from the floor and has yet to make a three-pointer this year.
I'm less concerned about the shooting splits, as Sexton has a track record of becoming an efficient bucket-getter. What has concerned me are the blinders he’s seemed to play with. I think it’s fine, especially given his role off the bench, but it’d be nice to see him play with some patience every now and again.
Kris Dunn shot 18-of-21 from the field in the preseason — 85.7%. It was an absurd run, and it made me excited for what he had in store for the season. So far, though, he’s shooting 35% from the floor and hasn’t made a three-pointer yet. Dunn has been solid, especially defensively, but it does seem like he’s best suited as a disruptor off the bench.
Rookie Keyonte George has been the lone bright spot for the backcourt. The 19-year-old Baylor product is the most poised and the best passer of the group despite his inexperience.
George truly has an excellent feel for the game already, averaging 9.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in 19 minutes per game. He's shooting 45.5% overall, 35.7% on threes, and is a perfect 100% on free throws.
As with all rookies, there are going to be growing pains, but I’m no longer sure the Jazz can afford to bring George along slowly. He adds too much to the offense to be on the bench.
Defense?
The Jazz have been horrible on defense so far, comfortably ranking dead last in the league with a defensive rating of 122.2. Interestingly, the Jazz have rebounded very well and haven’t turned the ball over that much, both good signs.
What the Jazz haven’t done is force teams out of what they want to do. Defensively, the Jazz rank 30th in points allowed, 28th in three-point attempts allowed, 26th in turnovers forced, and 24th in free throw attempts surrendered.
Bad defensive teams don’t win many games, and the Jazz desperately need to improve on this end.
Side note: the zone the Jazz have been running needs to be put in a vault and thrown away. I have no data to back this up, but teams have gotten open look after open look when the Jazz try to get cute.
Sophomore Slumping
This is something I was not expecting — Walker Kessler put together a forgettable first week. Kessler was supposed to take a leap in Year 2 after a summer with Team USA.
He's only played 22 minutes per game and has hardly had an impact when he’s been out there. The Jazz asking him to stretch the floor, a ripple effect from the John Collins trade, seems to be throwing him off his mojo.
Kessler is averaging just 5.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game and has more turnovers (four) than blocked shots (two). The lack of a true point guard has definitely had an impact on Kessler, but regardless, the Jazz need their center to bounce back in a major way.
Ochai Agbaji has not played big minutes so far this season; part of this can be credited to him tweaking his knee against Phoenix. I have liked Agbaji’s activity levels throughout the early season.
He's one of Utah's best cutters and draws the toughest defensive assignments when he’s on the court. I would like to see him force his way into more minutes, but he needs his threes to start falling.
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