2020-21 Regular season- The tax team

[url]https://www.deseret.com/2021/4/26/22403719/instant-analysis-utah-jazz-blow-early-lead-minnesota-timberwolves-for-second-straight-game-nba[/url]

[QUOTE]Georges Niang really played a pretty excellent game. Early on he was strong and feisty on the offensive glass, getting rebounds and tapping out the ones that he couldn’t get two hands on. He defended well and he was largely responsible for getting the Jazz back into the game, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.

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and instead of playing him more it was just more Clarkson bricks. Nice coaching!

[QUOTE]Quin Snyder made some out of character rotation changes and brought in Ersan Ilyasova to play with Niang, Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert and Jordan Clarkson. I liked that big lineup, which gave the Jazz some length on the perimeter and a different look inside on the defensive end. And, Ilyasova hit some 3s while he was in which was great.

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A big lineup! Too bad he went back to his usual crap including Forrest

[QUOTE]I said this last time and I’ll say it again, the Timberwolves are an ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ team and they deserve a lot of credit for continuing to feed the hot hand of D’Angelo Russell. He hit big, timely buckets and finished with 27 points.

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Imagine COTY going with the guys playing well or trying someone else if a guy is sucking

[QUOTE]Midway through the first quarter Royce O’Neale landed awkwardly on his left arm and was rubbing his shoulder quite a bit after. Hopefully that’s not something that lingers.

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He's always banged up. Too bad they don't have PF's on the team they could play so he could play his position instead :facepalm

[QUOTE]“To have a situation where we weren’t making [shots] but we continued to shoot, and we also found other ways to get to the rim, I thought was an important thing for our team to understand. And then to be able to hang into the game.” —Quin Snyder


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Clarkson being allowed to continue to shoot lost you the game

[QUOTE]The Jazz usually open up a lot of their 3-point shots with drive-and-kicks and it works...usually. But, when Bogdanovic or Clarkson are driving the ball really slowly in mostly isolation, with the defense not coming over to help, and make sloppy passes out to guys who don’t have a ton of room to actually get a shot off — then to complicate things there’s no off-ball movement — it just makes for horrible possession.

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those two names again...hmmm


[QUOTE]When the Jazz are getting open shots, they have to shoot them. This feels like beating a dead horse. I don’t know how many times I can say that O’Neale or Bogdanovic or anyone else are passing up wide open looks before it feels like I’m just a broken record. Maybe I’m already there.

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Bojan shouldn't even be in the game if he's not taking and hitting open shots and even then he probably shouldn't be

[url]https://sircharlesincharge.com/2021/04/27/brooklyn-nets-biggest-threats-west/[/url]

[QUOTE]The Jazz is a lot bigger team than the Nets and will be able to bully the team on the inside, while also having great ball movement to keep them on their toes. While Brooklyn clearly has more star power and look better on paper, the Jazz is definitely a team on the same level.


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They aren't bigger. Harden and Durant? :facepalm

[QUOTE]According to Vegas, [URL="https://thef5.substack.com/p/all-injuries-everything?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNjkxNTY4LCJwb3N0X2lkIjozNTI3MDc5OCwiXyI6IjgyM2NBIiwiaWF0IjoxNjE5NjIwNzU0LCJleHAiOjE2MTk2MjQzNTQsImlzcyI6InB1Yi00NzQzMCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.hpH7iojFRMQxROzRYiXQd3OIRjHdTvp_UYJAjdgHb28"]the frontrunners for this season’s Coach Of The Year award are Quin Snyder in Utah, Monty Williams in Phoenix, and Tom Thibodeau in New York.[/URL] The one thing all three coaches have in common is that each of their teams have exceeded expectations. Usually, when we can’t explain why a team is better than we thought they’d be, we assume it must have something to do with the coaching.
– via [URL="https://thef5.substack.com/p/all-injuries-everything?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNjkxNTY4LCJwb3N0X2lkIjozNTI3MDc5OCwiXyI6IjgyM2NBIiwiaWF0IjoxNjE5NjIwNzU0LCJleHAiOjE2MTk2MjQzNTQsImlzcyI6InB1Yi00NzQzMCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.hpH7iojFRMQxROzRYiXQd3OIRjHdTvp_UYJAjdgHb28"]Owen Phillips @ Substack[/URL]



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Conley's D is the big difference in Utah not Snyder. Snyder is keeping the Jazz from their potential if anything

[url]https://kslsports.com/458353/jazz-look-to-snap-two-game-slide-against-kings/[/url]

[QUOTE]The Jazz were swept in their home-and-home series with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday and Monday, trimming their lead atop the Western Conference to just one game. Adding insult to injury, the team will be without both Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley against the Kings due to injury.


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Yay more Forrest! :facepalm

[QUOTE]After a brutal start to April, the Kings will look to build their first two-game win streak in nearly a month.


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2 isn't a streak :lol

[url]https://www.ksl.com/article/50155330/jazz-are-losing-grip-on-no-1-seed-but-does-that-even-matter[/url]

[QUOTE]Even as the No. 1 seed, the Jazz could be looking at facing Steph Curry, Luka Doncic or Damian Lillard in the first round. Then it'll just get tougher from there. Which begs the question: Does the seed even matter?


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If they avoid LA's and the Suns in round 2 yeah it does

[url]https://www.slcdunk.com/2021/4/28/22405001/donovan-mitchell-2020-21-all-nba-team-utah-jazz[/url]

[QUOTE][h=1]Why Donovan Mitchell deserves to be selected for the 2020-21 All-NBA team[/h]

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:facepalm

[QUOTE]If you’ve watched the Utah Jazz the last 5 games since Donovan Mitchell went down with an ankle injury against the Indiana Pacers, you’ll notice a totally different team. As I write this the Jazz have now lost 2 games in a row to the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves and have dropped 3 of their last 5. That in and of itself shows you just how essential Mitchell has been to the success of this team. But when you dig into the numbers you’ll realize that Mitchell is more than deserving of All-NBA honors, and should get some MVP consideration too.


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It doesn't show you anything. He's at best a distant 3rd as players rank on the Jazz

[QUOTE]For the longest time the national narrative for Donovan Mitchell was that he was a “chucker,” that he put up numbers by just getting up shots. But when you look at the simple percentages it shows a player that is anything but inefficient.


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it's not just about being efficient. It's about playing selfishly

[QUOTE]Mitchell is 9th in the league in scoring at 26.4 PPG. That number is more impressive when you consider that includes a 3-point percentage of 38.6%. That’s a better 3-point percentage than top ten scorers Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal. The only players with a better percentage in the top ten are Steph Curry and Zach Lavine. He’s also doing this on high volume. Mitchell is 6th in the league in 3PA per game at 8.7.


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without Conley and Gobert he is basically Lavine.

[QUOTE][h=1]He’s the most important part of an elite offense[/h]

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He and COTY believe this anyway. More to the game than shooting

[QUOTE]According to Cleaning the Glass’s measurement of usage rate, (how much of the team’s offense did the player use by shooting, including free throws, turning the ball over, or assisting), Mitchell is at 35.0%. That is 5th in the league behind Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Russell Westbrook, John Wall and Joel Embiid. That’s higher than James Harden, LeBron James and Damian Lillard. Of those players mentioned, Doncic, Westbrook, James and Harden were All-NBA last season.


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therein lies the problem

[QUOTE]There are some that might mention Mitchell’s assist rate isn’t at the level of some of these players, (according to Cleaning the Glass he’s in the 26th percentile in assist rate), but that’s not necessarily his fault. Utah plays a shared offense that relies on ball movement to create an advantage and Mitchell’s primary role within that offense is to score. Mitchell also plays with multiple ball handlers like Mike Conley who leads the Jazz in assists with 6 per game.

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It's not his fault that he comes down and shoots regardless?

[QUOTE]It’s interesting to look at what happens when Mike Conley sits. In games that Mike Conley doesn’t play, Mitchell’s assists per game rise from 5.2 to 6.45 per game in 11 games. Utah was also fantastic in those games going 9-2 with Mitchell putting up games with 11, 9 and 8 assists. Mitchell also sat in some of those games in the 4th quarter because of blowout victories. Basically, when you put the ball in Mitchell’s hands great things happen.


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the ball is always in his hands. That's a problem

[QUOTE]It’s safe to assume that if Mitchell had an entire offense designed around him like in Dallas with Luka Doncic or Trae Young in Atlanta, his numbers would get even more staggering.


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be even less efficient and he'd be collecting ping pong balls

[QUOTE]But the same has to be said for Gobert. Don’t get me wrong, Rudy Gobert is an underrated offensive player. As a pick and roll rim runner, no one in the league is better. Gobert is a workhorse creating easy offense with a multitude of screens that crush opponents leaving space for everyone lucky enough to have him as the screener. But Gobert’s offensive production is dependent on the ball handler. And if we’ve learned anything in these last 5 games, you can’t just put any ball handler on the floor with Gobert and win. Donovan Mitchell takes the Jazz offense to another level.


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The ball handler needs Gobert. They've looked good without Mitchell. Missed some shots

[QUOTE]The time has come for Donovan Mitchell to be considered as one of the elite players in the NBA, a legitimate top-15 player. That’s not just an opinion, the stats reveal Mitchell as the most important player on the team with the best record in the league. This isn’t a hard choice.


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usage and shot attempts don't make you top 15 sorry

[QUOTE]Mitchell getting All-NBA might be the difference between re-signing Conley and not re-signing Conley.
Or, further out, whether or not we can keep Jingles and/or O’Neale. Niang’s contract is up this year and he will get more expensive—probably about $6m/year more expensive.

Posted by [URL="https://www.sbnation.com/users/Kira%20Argonova"]Kira Argonova[/URL] on [URL="https://www.slcdunk.com/2021/4/28/22405001/donovan-mitchell-2020-21-all-nba-team-utah-jazz#539447874"]Apr 28, 2021 | 11:44 AM[/URL]
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none of it should have anything to do with Conley. You trade everyone but Gobert to bring Conley back if you have to including their "best" player

[url]https://www.slcdunk.com/the-downbeat-latest-jazz-news/2021/4/27/22405913/nba-western-conference-standings-utah-jazz-phoenix-suns-la-clippers[/url]

[QUOTE]Now, is the sky falling? Of course not. Does 1st vs 2nd truly matter in the end? Probably not, because you can’t control what’s happening below you anyways. And this poor stretch of 6-6 in their last 12 is certainly due to an exhausting schedule and then losing Donovan Mitchell. They are still one of the best teams in the league and a legitimate contender when healthy.


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matchups and home court matter especially when you're a lot better at hime and don't match up well with at least one team

[url]https://sircharlesincharge.com/2021/04/27/utah-jazz-concern-recent-regression/[/url]

[QUOTE][h=1]Utah Jazz: Should there be concern with their recent regression?[/h][/QUOTE]

unless they get a new coach yes

Nice to see some guys like Trent Forrest and Brantley get some minutes. Thomas a scoring machine with 17 in 9 minutes. Kings are such a bi-polar team at times pushed the Warriors, Suns, Bucks to the limit this month and then totally got curb stomped by a team missing guys. Don't think they put much into this one.

[QUOTE=El Kabong;14304291]Nice to see some guys like Trent Forrest and Brantley get some minutes. Thomas a scoring machine with 17 in 9 minutes. Kings are such a bi-polar team at times pushed the Warriors, Suns, Bucks to the limit this month and then totally got curb stomped by a team missing guys. Don't think they put much into this one.[/QUOTE]

Yeah wish Quin would play the end of the bench when Clarkson, Bojan, Favors etc. are sucking. Could certainly use the size of Ersan, Morgan and Brantley

[url]https://kslsports.com/458380/upside-for-jazz-after-mike-conley-re-aggravates-hamstring-injury/[/url]

[QUOTE]Though it may be less than ideal as the Jazz try to fend off the Phoenix Suns, it could provide Conley will added rest before playoffs begin.


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Played in one back to back. He should be plenty rested

[url]https://kslsports.com/458430/jazz-decimate-kings-in-battle-of-shorthanded-teams/[/url]

[QUOTE]“I’m probably in the minority, but I actually thought we played well [Monday] night,” Quin Snyder said about the Jazz loss to Minnesota. “We didn’t shoot well.”


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Defense was good in both games. Missed shots. Too many turnovers in the first one

[QUOTE]The Jazz are playing a similar game to the Rockets and are hoping to avoid stepping on a landmine of missed threes as the worst possible time.


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better shooters

[QUOTE]Like the team’s three-point shooting, the Jazz won’t reach their ultimate goal without big performances from both Bogdanovic and Clarkson. They don’t need to be spectacular every night, but Mitchell and Conley will need high-scoring nights from the supporting scorers in the postseason if the Jazz want to play into June and July.


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What they need is a coach that will bench guys that are hurting them and try someone else

[QUOTE]The Iowa State product scored 17 points in nine minutes on a perfect 7-7 shooting including 3-3 from deep. The Jazz shouldn’t plan on seeing much of either Thomas or Ersan Ilyasova (six points, 2-2 FG in 24 minutes) in the postseason, but both players have now proven that in a pinch they could add value to a cold shooting team in a playoff game if need be.


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Ersan adds a lot more than shooting as do Morgan and Brantley

[QUOTE]The Jazz managed to go 3-2 in the stretch which isn’t bad considering they didn’t have Mitchell for any of the five games, but it wasn’t enough to extend their lead over the red hot Suns.


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it was bad regardless

[QUOTE]Now, the two teams will faceoff in Phoenix on Friday with a chance for the Suns to pass the Jazz for the best record in the NBA via a tie-breaker. Since they are likely to be shorthanded once again, it seems like the Jazz will return to Utah without the best record in the NBA for the first time since February 1.


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No reason they can't win. They have their best player, Ingles, O'Neale, Niang. The key is the coaching

[QUOTE]If the Jazz can surprise the Suns and win in Phoenix it would go a long way towards clinching the top spot in the West, otherwise, they’re in for a dog fight over the final nine games of the season.

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still have the easier schedule[CENTER][/CENTER]

[url]https://www.ksl.com/article/50156259/i-was-also-surprised-jazz-score-most-points-in-team-history-in-49-point-win-over-kings[/url]

[QUOTE]The rout started in the second quarter when the Jazz opened up the period with a 13-0 run behind a super-sized lineup of Joe Ingles, Niang, Bogdanovic, Ersan Ilyasova and Rudy Gobert. Every member of that lineup was at least 6-foot-7 and four of them can shoot — it proved to be a lethal combination.


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Be nice to see a lineup like that at times minus Bojan

[QUOTE]"I know that we are always talking about offense, especially when we play without Donovan and Mike," Bogdanovic said. "But I think our defense, when we play defense like we played tonight, especially in the second quarter, it's easy for us to play when we don't have those two guys. We run in transition and scoring easy buckets or trying to find the easy 3's. That's how we have to play when we have Donovan and Mike out."


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play D and move the ball. Not complicated

[QUOTE]Jazz coach Quin Snyder wouldn't mind if they played that way even when Conley and Mitchell return, and it remains uncertain when that'll actually happen. Conley re-aggravated his hamstring strain on Monday in the loss to Minnesota and Snyder didn't provide much detail about when he is expected Conley to return. Hamstrings can be hard to put timelines on, and the original injury kept Conley out for six games in February.


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yep hopefully Mitchell has paid attention to how much better the D is without him and how the ball moves. I doubt it though

[url]https://www.deseret.com/2021/4/28/22406547/utah-jazz-set-franchise-record-in-49-point-thrashing-of-sacramento-kings[/url]

[QUOTE]Since coming over from Toronto in late March, Matt Thomas has had a difficult time getting minutes on the floor, and when he has, his shots haven’t been dropping. For a player who’s known as a shooter, that’s a problem. On Wednesday, he again didn’t see the floor until the fourth quarter, but this time his shots were falling and it could be a sign that he’s finally feeling more comfortable in the Jazz offense. Thomas only played nine minutes, but he made all seven of his shots against the Kings, including going 3 for 3 from 3-point range. His last 3 was particularly notable as it set a new Utah Jazz scoring record as the 152nd point. Jarrell Brantley wrapped up the scoring with 52 seconds on a layup for point No. 154, which broke the franchise record for points. The New Orleans Jazz scored 153 points in a game back in 1978.

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The only problem was COTY playing him over Ersan, Morgan, Brantley and Oni

[url]https://www.slcdunk.com/2021/4/28/22409119/utah-jazz-pick-themselves-up-for-a-dramatic-win-in-sacramento[/url]

[QUOTE]They only allowed 3 offensive boards to the Kings. Big kudos goes out to Bojan Bogdanovic and Derrick Favors for their extra effort on that end.


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Bojan had 3 boards :facepalm

[QUOTE]“Never too high, never too low” - Ricky Rubio


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never very good but usually really bad

[QUOTE]24 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 1 steal and only 1 turnover is the kind of night that Bojan is capable of when he needs to step up. Most impressive were the 10 free throw trips he made to turn his night into a very efficient one despite going 1-5 from deep.

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didn't end up shooting well so no

[QUOTE]Niang as a starter seems to fit in great – definitely deserving of more minutes even when everyone is back
Rudy quiet to start but had a great 2nd quarter and 5 blocks
Joe almost invisible but 13 points, 7 assist, 3/6 from 3
Ersan 2/2 from 3 and continues to show he could be huge asset if we need a bigger lineup
Brantley 13 points in 12 minutes, 3/3 from 3, played with energy
Favors had maybe his best stretch of the year in the 3rd on both ends of the court, 11 boards in 13 minutes
JC seemed to play within the offense all game but still got his shots and had great results inside and outside
Thomas 17 points in 9 minutes, wow, was against the Kings, but there are just not many guys who can score in bunches like that
Forrest 6 assists, had some nice drives, and hit a 3
Bring on the Suns

Posted by [URL="https://www.sbnation.com/users/SKMike"]SKMike[/URL] on [URL="https://www.slcdunk.com/2021/4/28/22409119/utah-jazz-pick-themselves-up-for-a-dramatic-win-in-sacramento#539479056"]Apr 29, 2021 | 12:25 AM[/URL]
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Would be nice if they had a coach that would play Niang when others are sucking at least. Rudy never quiet. Look how many the other team scored. Don't think it's a question if they need a bigger lineup. The question is will Snyder play a bigger lineup by choice?

[QUOTE][h=4]What I learned from this game is[/h]
that scoring is the most easily replaced aspect of basketball.

Posted by [URL="https://www.sbnation.com/users/pkt423"]pkt423[/URL] on [URL="https://www.slcdunk.com/2021/4/28/22409119/utah-jazz-pick-themselves-up-for-a-dramatic-win-in-sacramento#539481330"]Apr 29, 2021 | 6:35 AM[/URL]
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Rubio and Favors in the corner dispelled that notion. Having shooters around your best player, defending and moving the ball is tough to beat though

[QUOTE]Mitchell/Conley
Young/Bogdanovic
Curry/Wiggins
Beal/Westbrook

Posted by [URL="https://www.sbnation.com/users/jmnunes5"]jmnunes5[/URL] on [URL="https://www.slcdunk.com/2021/4/28/22409119/utah-jazz-pick-themselves-up-for-a-dramatic-win-in-sacramento#539491319"]Apr 29, 2021 | 11:18 AM[/URL]
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not Mitcehll/Conley. Gobert/Conley might be the best duo in the league this year though despite not being their teams "best" player :lol