Utah Jazz: Tyrone Corbin’s Penchant for Veterans Could Haunt Jazz

Many Utah Jazz fans have been frustrated with coach Tyrone Corbin over the last few seasons. There are a variety of reasons for this including questionable substitutions and questionable play calling, but what seems to be unanimous for Jazz fans is that their youngsters did not get as much playing time as they deserved.

The Jazz have been in an exciting situation over the last two seasons with a collection of four promising lottery picks. One could argue that none of the four players–Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter and Alec Burks–has received nearly enough minutes at this point in their career. Some have suggested that Ty’s hands have been tied because the Jazz front office has filled the roster with veterans just good enough to be considered better players at this point of their careers than the young four. Others say Ty favors veterans too much naturally; after all, it is known that during Ty’s time as a player he felt that some young kids were given too much of an opportunity to prove themselves while better veteran players sat on the bench.

Whatever the case may be, Corbin has had his veteran options severely reduced. Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Mo Williams, Randy Foye, Jamaal Tinsley and Earl Watson have made way for Brandon Rush, Andris Biedrins, Richard Jefferson and John Lucas III. That is both a reduction in the pure number of available vets and the quality of the vets themselves. The only vet that stays is Marvin Williams. At most, if not all positions, Ty Corbin is faced with lineup decisions that should be very, very clear as to who is the best player and who should get the most minutes. The answer this time: not the vets.

Here is a look at each position, along with a clip of the top dog at each position.

Point Guard: The Jazz traded up in the draft to pick the consensus best point guard available and are seemingly placing all their point guard chips on Trey Burke going forward. A sign of this is that the only other point guard on the roster right now is veteran John Lucas III. I won’t spend much time discussing Lucas because there just isn’t a lot to discuss. For a more detailed look at what Lucas brings to the table, click here, though in short: There is no evidence Lucas can be anything more than a third-string NBA point guard. In my opinion, the Jazz will bring in another point guard (likely trading for one), but it is possible that they leave the roster as it stands now and commit to Burke as the starter and turning shooting guard Alec Burks into a full time PG/SG swingman, as he has showed he is capable of playing the position while sharing ball-handling duties with Hayward. In fact, using a lineup with Burks at the point, Foye at the 2 and Hayward at the 3, the Jazz found impressive results last season.

Shooting Guard: Alec Burks has been the young gun who has been fighting for minutes at the shooting guard position for the last two seasons. He may finally get his chance, as the only vet on the roster that plays the same position is Brandon Rush. Rush is coming off a season where he only played two games after a terrible injury kept him on the sidelines. Rush had played four full seasons prior to his injury, averaging no less than 24 minutes a game each season. However in decent minutes, Rush has never averaged 10 points or more per game. Rush does have value, though. He is a shooter, which is something Alec Burks is not (though his seemingly endless confidence may indicate otherwise). Rush has a career average of better than 41 percent from beyond the arc, which brings this true shooting percentage to better than 52 percent. If Randy Foye’s minutes from last season are any indication, a hot handed 3-point shooter like Rush may compete for Burks’ starting spot. Newly signed Ian Clark will also play at the 2, and as a promising rookie, Jazz fans will likely be hoping to see him get significant minutes as well.

Small Forward: This is Gordon Hayward’s team, especially on the offensive end. He has been challenged by Jazz management to put the team on his shoulders this season. The vets at the small forward spot will not replace Hayward. Marvin Williams started much of last season at the 3 spot, but had a very rough season. When Marvin returns this season from an offseason surgery, he will likely join Brandon Rush as one of the vets that the Jazz front office may be giving a season-long tryout. I expect Marvin Williams to have a much better season on the offensive end as the shot hungry foursome of Al Jefferson, Millsap, Foye and Mo Williams (who Marvin played most of his minutes with) will not be around to hog all the touches. Marvin will go from the fifth offensive option of the starting unit last season to likely no worse than the third offensive option in whatever unit he plays with. The other vet that plays SF is Richard Jefferson, the 33-year-old vet who has seen his production fall off a cliff over the last few seasons. After a few seasons with heavy minutes and little production, Jefferson seems to have relented to Father Time and only averaged about 10 minutes per game last season. It’s unlikely Jefferson gets many more minutes than that this coming season, but Ty Corbin may surprise us all give Jefferson heavy minutes (which may be a surprise that surprisingly isn’t so surprising).

Power Forward/Center: The collection of bigs that the Jazz has is impressive and young. The only vet threat to No. 3 overall draft picks Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter, rookie Rudy Gobert and previous slam dunk champ Jeremy Evans, is nine-year veteran Andris Biedrins from Latvia. Andris certainly does some valuable things on the court, especially defensively. He’s a decent rebounder and a good shot blocker, but outside of layup range he can not put the ball in the hoop. His offensive struggles and overall status as a liability on the court is highlighted by his adventures from the free-throw line. Watching Andris shoot free throws can be humorous and give you that awkward, embarrassed-for-someone-else feeling at the same time. He hasn’t averaged better than 33 percent from the stripe over the last four seasons. Like Jefferson, he averaged less than 10 minutes per game last season. He may have some valuable things to teach the young guns and will likely get much more playing time than last season, but should not challenge Favors and Kanter.

What will Ty Corbin do with his newly structured roster? It will be as fun to watch the “future five” and the rest of the young players as it will be to watch Ty’s decisions with playing time next year. Though if we see a game with a starting lineup of Lucas, Rush, Jefferson, Williams and Biedrins, it should be Corbin’s last as head coach of the Utah Jazz.