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Should The Utah Jazz Play Phoenix Suns’ Style Basketball?

By DJoumbarey A. Moreau

Jan 28, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz guard Trey Burke (3) dribbles the ball as Los Angeles Clippers guard Austin Rivers (25) defends during the second half at EnergySolutions Arena. The Clippers won 94-89. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 28, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Utah Jazz guard Trey Burke (3) dribbles the ball as Los Angeles Clippers guard Austin Rivers (25) defends during the second half at EnergySolutions Arena. The Clippers won 94-89. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Phoenix Suns played against the Utah Jazz on Friday night and the reason why the Suns looked like the superior team, is because they are.

The score was 88-77 and the Suns had the lead. Jazz forward Gordon Hayward threw a cross-court pass to Chris Johnson on the left wing and it was intercepted by Suns forward Marcus Morris. Instead of waiting for one of his point guards, or looking to throw the pass to them, Morris controlled the basketball, took three dribbles and went coast-to-coast for the score.

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This was one of the plays that makes Jazz fans stop and think: What would happen if the Utah Jazz were to re-create that? What would happen?

Could Derrick Favors handle the basketball the way that Morris did and finish with a score at the rim?

It’s been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

One of the teams that the Jazz should model themselves after is the Suns. The Suns have one of the best offenses in the NBA, and every night when they play we get to see someone else on their team lead them to a huge night. One night the Suns are running extremely fast because point guard Eric Bledsoe is pushing the tempo.

Another night it’s Goran Dragic who gets the Suns into their half court offense, where he’s a very difficult player to stop using the pick and roll. In addition to their point guards, the Suns also have a number of 20-point scorers on their roster with players such as Gerald Green, Marcus Morris, Markieff Morris, P.J. Tucker, and Isaiah Thomas.

The Jazz found this out the hard way as Marcus Morris had a career game, finishing with 34 points and 12 rebounds.

Because of their lethal offense, the Suns are fourth overall when it comes to points per game, scoring on average 106.3 points every night. Not only does their offense help win games, but it does something more important for their team, help build a steady fan base.

On the other hand the Jazz are a team that’s looking for an offensive identity.

Even though their philosophy on offense is to play at a slow pace (they are 28th in the league in pace), and take good shots, it seems that the Jazz should start to play more free-flowing in their offense. With a record of 18-33, and no 20-point scorers, there’s really not a reason to play so conservative on offense.

The players on the Jazz should get more credit and leeway offensively. On the team they have mixed balance within their starting lineup, and there are four players within the seven-man rotation that Jazz head coach Quin Snyder uses that average double-digit scoring numbers.

Jan 18, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; Utah Jazz power forward Derrick Favors (15) shoots the ball past San Antonio Spurs power forward Tim Duncan (21) during the first half at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 18, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; Utah Jazz power forward Derrick Favors (15) shoots the ball past San Antonio Spurs power forward Tim Duncan (21) during the first half at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /

One of the reasons why the Jazz would have an even better team if they decided to play more uptempo like the Phoenix Suns is because of the way that they could overpower most teams. Since the Jazz are one of the youngest teams in the league, it’s easier to get them to play a fast-break style of offense, instead of a more methodical and detailed game in the half court.

It’s easier for players such as Dante Exum, and Gordon Hayward to push the basketball when they get it, and look for an easy score in transition.

That’s not even the biggest advantage that the Jazz have though, it’s their size. Because of the athletic front line of the Jazz, boasting nearly three players who are around 7-feet most of the time on the floor, they should be able to get easy points.

The Jazz gobble up rebounds left and right and because of that skill, if the bigs can get rebounds out quickly to the outlet man to start an advantageous fast break (3-on-2, 2-on-1, 1-on-1), then they should do it every single time.

Now say for instance if the Jazz play a team such as the Memphis Grizzlies who won’t allow as many fastbreak points, then during the times when the game gets slower, then they can dump the ball inside to Enes Kanter, or Derrick Favors, and let them operate on the block. Against the Suns, the Jazz beat them up in the paint scoring 46 points in the paint to the Suns’ 28.

The point being, the Jazz need to start playing faster and scoring more points. As wonderful as they’ve been playing recently, the Jazz are only going to take the next step the second they start putting the orange ball through the basket.

That’s the name of the game and hopefully they can get faster with the times.

Next: How Will The Utah Jazz Head Into The All-Star Break?

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