Utah Jazz: Why Isn’t Trey Burke Getting Better?

It’s a Sunday night inside of the Palace in Auburn Hills, and there stands the Utah Jazz point guard Trey Burke playing against the Detroit Pistons. With 4:53 remaining in the second quarter, Burke got a steal from picking up a mishandled pass from Josh Smith to Greg Monroe.

As Burke begins to lead the secondary fast break he sees his teammate, shooting guard Alec Burks open in the paint. Burke throws a pass that is stolen by Brandon Jennings, then results into a highlight alley-oop to Andre Drummond.

This is only one of many examples this season that people can finally ask, “Why isn’t Trey Burke getting better?”

Burke’s final stat line against the Pistons on that Sunday night was:

7 points, 2-8 shooting (25%) from the field, 1-3 (33%) from the three-point line, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal, and 5 personal fouls.

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To say Burke has played badly this season is an understatement. In Burke’s last six games he’s managed to score in double figures one time.

With that being said, the question remains “Why hasn’t Trey Burke gotten better?” The expectations this season were that Burke would get better by being pushed everyday in practice by the No. 5 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, point guard Dante Exum.

However, it’s been the complete opposite. After looking relatively sharp in the preseason Burke has had a pedestrian regular season, and his rookie counterpart has impressed.

Burke this season has yet to take control of the offense or increase the tempo that the Jazz need to win games. Instead of creating easy shot opportunities for his teammates, Burke’s role has gotten delegated to playing off of the basketball while Gordon Hayward has taken command of the offense.

Hayward is leading the Jazz in assists, and needs Burke to take some of the playmaking duties off of his hands. If the defense cues in on Hayward, as they’ve done since he hit his game winner against Cleveland, the Jazz are often scrambling looking for guards to set them up.

That’s why recently Exum has thrived playing with the starting lineup. Though Exum cant space the floor yet with his shooting, his movement on the court helps his teammates get open. Whether Exum is cutting to the rim off of a back screen, or using pick and rolls to hit the secondary option, one of his teammates benefit from his time on the court.

So far when Burke has played this season, he’s the beneficiary and not the benefactor. The second year point guard is averaging 4.4 assists a game. Point guards like Aaron Brooks, Isaiah Thomas and Devin Harris, all have better assists per game averages and they all come off of the bench. 

The assists totals aren’t the only cause of concern.

Burke is shooting worse than last year and his last game tells it all. Against the Indiana Pacers, Burke shot 2-of-12 from the field for only 16 percent and 1-of-8 from the three-point line for 12 percent. Because of his sophomore slump Burke has seen his points per game decrease as well.

On the season, Burke is only averaging 9.1 points per game. Some people believe that this is only a shooting slump and that Burke will play through this and have a better year. For others, they think this is a trend. There’s no right answer to who’s right, the only right answer is that Burke isn’t getting better and it needs to set off an alarm.

Burke’s problems don’t stop at his offense, more importantly, it’s his defense.

Burke is in his second year and is still getting taken advantage of on defense. The bad shooting, and lack of playmaking is one problem, but defense is the most needed skill on the Jazz roster. Guards have been able to take Burke to the rim, and get him foul trouble because he has difficulty staying in front of his opponents.

Burke ranks tied for 16th in personal fouls committed by a point guard. Look at some his his foul totals in a few of his games:

vs. Los Angeles Clippers/4 fouls
vs. Detroit Pistons/5 fouls
vs. Cleveland Cavaliers/5 fouls

The saving grace in Burke’s slump is that it has allowed his teammates to step up and hold this roster up. Burke can see that his teammates want to win and have a talented enough team to do so. The record of the Utah Jazz stands at 3-5 and this team has lost a few close games without Burke playing well.

Soon enough the Jazz are going to need Burke’s game to perform at the level they expect.

Otherwise other questions are going to get asked such as “Should Dante Exum start over Trey Burke?” If Burke keeps performing poorly, and Exum keeps shining in his auxiliary role, how long can Head Coach Quin Synder afford to wait to start getting solid point guard play?

Soon enough were either going to see Exum play and say “It was a great decision to start the rookie.” Or we’re going to say “Burke has done enough to continue starting.” 

No sweat though, knowing that Trey Burke is a hard worker he’s somewhere in a gym working on that shooting stroke and making sure he knocks down his jumpshots when he’s open.

It only need to translate into the game. Hopefully soon enough, it will.

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