As the pages of the NBA calendar turn, teams begin to look shockingly different than they did just months earlier. Players change homes or teams force them to and what could be a rival one day is a teammate the next. Nearly everyone operates their team this way and it is now commonplace in the league. The Utah Jazz are the rare exception.
The starting lineup will be the same this year as it was the last and the rotation will be essentially the same with the likelihood of Grayson Allen joining the fold. This is no huge mistake. The Jazz starting lineup of Ricky Rubio, Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles, Derrick Favors, and Rudy Gobert had a +10 net rating and great 98 defensive rating.
With a likely improvement coming from Mitchell and the comfortability of a lineup who only had one year together, this lineup should get better. There is still some concern surrounding Favors and Gobert playing alongside one another. With shooting becoming as paramount as dribbling, having three non-shooters on the floor (Rubio, Favors, and Gobert), they may hit more snags as teams are better prepared for this clogged unit.
The most used fix was putting Jae Crowder in place of Favors. This lineup, unfortunately yet fortunately for the Jazz, did extremely well. It is fortunate because playing well should always be, though not always is, the goal. Unfortunately, because it makes this decision to create a starting lineup that much more troubling. The one caveat to this success is the limited time played. These five lined up next to one another 262 fewer minutes than the Favors lineup but had staggering numbers.
Discovering which lineup will be the “correct” choice should be one of the focal points of the season. Finding your best five is absolutely crucial in the playoffs, a tourney the Jazz will almost definitely join, and if the Jazz are still floundering for an ideal lineup, they may be in trouble.
The one, and most exciting, new piece on this team is Grayson Allen, the Duke product Utah selected in the first round of the 2018 NBA Draft. His shooting will need to improve in the majors but he is a clear floor general and his advanced rookie age will likely allow him to perform better than most rookies do in 2018. He has obvious limitations but being the 8th or 9th guy off the bench is a perfect role for him right now.
The necessity for shooting guards will be a theme for the Jazz this season. To match Rubio, Dante Exum and Alec Burks both are solid defenders with essentially no shooting for opposing teams to worry about. They also have the perk of extreme length as Exum had a lot of success against guys like James Harden in the playoffs even if that success is in the softest of definitions.
The lack of shooting on this team should be a frightful thought for many Jazz fans. It would take a simple injury to Joe Ingles for this team to have basically no room to operate. One of the Allen, Rubio, Exum, and Burks guards will need to learn to shoot at least adeptly to help this team’s great shooting problem. Allen shot well in the NCAA (shooting 38% from three in his career) but in Summer League he managed to shoot just 22.7% on 22 attempts.
Because of this lack of shooting, they will need to rely on their defense yet again. Luckily, the team possesses one of the best defensive players in the league in Rudy Gobert. This translated into the second best defense in the league and the roster is populated with awesome defenders. They will need this to remain a strong suit to lower the importance of their shooting impotence.
The Jazz have a lot of talent, a great coach, and a young star. They also potentially won’t go with their best starting five, a newbie who may not be prepared, and a team devoid of shooting. The Jazz will likely find themselves in the playoffs but they have plenty to figure out before they get there and it may just include something their offseason did not; change.
