Back to work: Post virus break

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https://saltcityhoops.com/a-whole-ne...h-fill-a-void/

While many expected Conley to step in as the second offensive option behind Donovan Mitchell, it was Bogdanovic who stepped into the role

thats how I expected it. Bojan is a scorer that does little else. Conley is a playmaker that can score

However, unknown to most, Bogdanovic was playing with a ruptured scapholunate ligament in his wrist from an injury he sustained early in the season. On May 19, while the league was still assessing its options for a resumption of the season, Bogdanovic had surgery to repair the ligament and officially ended his season. While this was a smart long-term decision, it means Bogdanovic won’t participate in the NBA Restart, leaving the Jazz without one of their major offensive contributors. It begs the question: how that void will be filled.

why didn't he have the surgery in March so he could have possibly made it back?

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https://www.sltrib.com/sports/jazz/2...-team-donovan/

The Jazz don’t have a lot of options at these positions. Sure, I guess Jarrell Brantley or Juwan Morgan could play those minutes. But as much as those guys don’t necessarily feature the negative that Niang and Bradley do, their positives aren’t as strong either. When Niang’s shot is going, he’s a legitimate microwave off the bench, spacing things so Clarkson can go to work. Bradley’s big screens allow the Jazz’s offense to operate: Morgan just isn’t as effective at that.

Morgan looked good in the few stints he got. Only negative on Brantley is his shooting and he can shoot albeit inconsistently. It's a shame they didn't even get a look with the rotation in pre season. One of them needs to start at the 4. Puts Ingles or O'Neale on the bench and they aren't so small anymore since they chose to pay Davis instead of a starting 4 and chose to carry 6 rookies on a team that was supposedly playing for a title

That Jazz transition defense number isn’t good enough. We talked about how Mudiay left Redick open from deep in transition, but Mudiay wasn’t alone. The Jazz have struggled in consistently finding a man running back since coming to Orlando, especially the bench. It’s a relatively easy point of improvement, and given how effective their defense can be in the halfcourt, one that would pay off in a big way.

struggled all year. Should be better without Bojan

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https://saltcityhoops.com/jazz-basketball-is-back

The 14 previous minutes that fivesome played together before Thursday came over five different games. In a very limited sample, the combination looks like it works, posting a +21.3 Net Rating before the restart and the insane +48.6 last night. Of course, having a starting lineup that dominates like that and barely winning the game means that the lineups featuring reserves were not what one might hope. The Jazz bench needs help.

Need a starting pf and O'Neale or Ingles on the bench for starters

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https://www.deseret.com/sports/2020/...tant-than-ever

“One of the biggest things they’ve done is they’ve defended,” he said. “Particularly in a practice situation like this to have guys come in and really guard, it challenges our rotational guys to make plays and to be really good and have to make reads because the defense is good. That’s been a big help.”

maybe you should play some of them than? Doesn't make much sense to me. Snyder has always played rookies even when they hadn't earned it. They have a big hole at the 4 and issues with the bench. Morgan and Brantley at least should have gotten a look in pre season and Oni and Tucker could add much needed size and length as well. It was impressive that they kept the lead in two pre season games against vets

That group also includes Tony Bradley, who is also one of the Jazz’s younger players and before this season spent much of his time in the G League. Now, Bradley is a regular rotational player coming in as backup for Rudy Gobert.

he's the youngest

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https://www.sltrib.com/sports/2020/0...-response-okc/

They played with blinders on. This is Mitchell’s third shot of the night. Shot clock is running down, but passes up his own open shot and a simple swing pass to Joe Ingles who has an open three. Instead, Mitchell drives into traffic and gets swatted easily.

I noticed that too. Looks like it might have ended up swinging to O'Neale the corner too. They were trying to move the ball for a bit at the beginnign of the 2nd half. Clarkson looked better in pre season but is now back to his selfish play. He shouldn't be the number one option with Mitchell, Conley and Gobert on the floor!

Literally every other Jazzman is open, all five Thunder players are in the paint. Mitchell has a delightful buffet of options here: the lob to Rudy Gobert, the short kickout to Joe Ingles, one of the league’s best corner 3-point shooters, the long pass to Mike Conley, good shooter, or even, if he wants to make it tough, the turn and throw to Georges Niang, also a good 3-point shooter.

those options are always there and sometimes even a 5 who can shoot in Bradley or Morgan who I thought looked good again in the few quality minutes he got

Remember when the Jazz beat the Thunder in a playoff series three years ago? They did that by taking advantage of Oklahoma City’s aggressive defense, getting open shot after open shot. When they collapse, it’s time to move the ball. Instead, the Jazz ballhandlers just kept it. At one point, I started trying to keep track of how often an open 3-point shooter had his hands up asking for the ball only to be ignored, and quickly gave up on that idea: it happened almost every possession.

they haven't been shooting well and against the Pelicans they could get to the rim at will so that may have something to do with it

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He ended up with a -14 Saturday after getting a -15 on Thursday. I didn’t think the first game plus-minus was his fault, but rather was due to the underperforming Mudiay, Georges Niang, and Tony Bradley. (Those guys underperformed Saturday too, by the way. The Jazz’s bench is... not good.)

time to let someone else play than. Morgan looked good yet again

Look, the Jazz need Clarkson’s scoring off the bench, so him being aggressive is usually a good thing. But on that opportunity, Mitchell, Conley, Ingles, and Gobert were all out on the floor with him. Get a better shot than that, especially after making only four of your last 16 shots.

that's the problem. He's playing even more with Bojan out. He should be 4th option with those guys on the floor with him

If that were the only shot like that, I’d spare him the complaint, but Clarkson absolutely dribbled the air out of the ball, using precious shot clock seconds to maneuver around the floor. Attack, move the defense, and find the open man. Easier said than done, but the attempt needs to be made.

that's how he always plays and people seem to love him for it usually. Ready to pay him big money despite their bigger need at the 4

Low passes are tough for any big, but Gobert is particularly bad at it. He does have poor hands down low, and he’s always expecting the pass high. That’s partially because he’s been coached to do so, partially because he’s a 7-foot-1 physical freak. He needs to be ready to do stuff with his hands high, not low.

he's ok down low to an extent. off his shins he's not though!

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https://www.deseret.com/sports/2020/...their-identity

Yes, Jordan Clarkson is guilty of this, but so was every other guard/wing on the team, and Clarkson is a player that seems to play as the rest of the team is. If Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles, Royce O’Neale, George Niang, and Emmanuel Mudiay are all resorting to playing iso ball, Clarkson is going to also, and it’s doubtful that if he’d passed the ball more on Saturday that the recipient would have done anything other than just isolate and drive.

I've only seen Clarkson play one way

I understand that Snyder is a defense-first coach and that he expects for his team to let the defense dictate the game, especially with two-time DPOY Rudy Gobert on the roster, but it might be time to accept that this team, the 2019-20 squad, just doesn’t have the same juice that others before it have had. A middling defense is concerning, especially when the offense doesn’t look that great either.

Is he really a defense first coach? Without Rudy we've never much D from them

I guess they could be considered a fast-paced 3-point shooting team, but without Bojan Bogdanovic on the floor and with hesitation to shoot from some of the other players, along with streaky outings across the board, it’s hard for that to be their identity.

they aren't fast paced. They were the best offensive team in the league after the changes to their bench. Bojan's absence shouldn't change them that much at that end. Be more worried about the D

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https://www.sltrib.com/sports/jazz/2...-team-jazz-do/

That’s long been among Quin Snyder’s philosophies. He noticed that the high-turnover teams were actually frequently near the top of the offensive rating leaderboards, and concluded that some turnovers are okay if they come in the context of good offense. Tonight, I think we saw that — and again, the shots just didn’t fall.

but the offense hasn't been good except for the end of Hayward's last year and this year after they made the changes to the bench. Turnovers have always been high under Snyder

You’d have to believe that avoiding the Rockets would be priority No. 1. I think no one on the Jazz wants to face the Rockets again, and likely lose to them again. But then again, they just got blown out by OKC. We’ll see how they fare against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, but you can argue the current No. 3 seed is their most favorable matchup. Sliding down to No. 6 also would mean the Jazz would avoid the Lakers until the Western Conference Finals.

They lost to Houston because of bad offense. Different team now

Truthfully, it may not matter much — the Jazz might just be undermanned either way after Bogdanovic’s injury. But doesn’t that just maximize the importance of facing someone you have a fighting chance against?

not convinced they can't be better without Bojan. They looked good tonite. Shots weren't falling

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https://saltcityhoops.com/salt-city-...t-conley-more/

The flip side, of course, is that Utah’s bench has, um, not been good. All four of the Jazz’s regular reserves have double-digit negative Net Ratings in the bubble. Emmanuel Mudiay has the best (or least bad, anyway) at -16.9, while Tony Bradley has posted a -44.8. Jordan Clarkson has scored a bunch, but on efficiency that is far below average, and his defense has been next-level bad in Disney World. And Georges Niang suddenly can’t make shots, easily his best NBA skill. Quin Snyder gave Juwan Morgan a chance on Saturday night, albeit in a blowout. Of the deep reserves, Morgan seems most likely to get a chance to crash the rotation. He has 81 NBA minutes to his name, but if the bench continues to struggle the way they are now, eventually the door will crack open for somebody.

appears it has. Mice to see him playing the 4 finally! Of course he went back to Niang in the 2nd half