When a group of musicians come together and form a band it is called an ensemble.
With a 27-36 record this season, the Utah Jazz are making sweet music together and they have gone 8-2 since the All-Star break, including a recent 3-1 road trip. Their roster, which is composed of a bunch of young players, is starting to look more and more like an ensemble of great players, instead of a litter of young pups.
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If this roster develops correctly (which it should) then in less than two years the Jazz will be on their way to having one of the deepest teams in the league.
Before someone jumps off the deep end thinking those comments are the sweetest taboo, the Jazz can already say that their one of the most balanced teams offensively in the league. It was evident watching the Jazz play against the New York Knicks on Tuesday night that they have a myriad of options on offense.
On a night when Gordon Hayward wasn’t available to play, everyone else on the roster stepped up and chipped in. Derrick Favors had one of his best games of the year as he had 29 points, 12 rebounds, and two steals. Rudy Gobert added a monster 10-point, 14-rebound, one-assist, three-steal, and four-block game.
As for the rookies on the team (Dante Exum, Rodney Hood, Elijah Millsap, Joe Ingles), they combined to score 39 points.
That game was only an indication of the balanced scoring the Jazz have had the entire season. The Jazz at one point this season have had five players, Hayward, Favors, Trey Burke, Alec Burks (injured) and Enes Kanter (traded to Oklahoma City Thunder) on their roster that averaged double-figure scoring numbers.
Due to the departure of Burks, and Kanter from the lineup, the Jazz have inserted players such as Gobert, and Exum into the starting lineup and their offense has taken a hit. That was expected because losing two great players in Kanter and Burks, who were producing the best numbers of their career, would hurt any team that struggles to find points.
The Jazz are only averaging 95.2 points per game, good enough for 26th in the league, but thankfully because of their departures we can see the offensive blueprint of this team coming together.
People love to look at the way that the Atlanta Hawks have been playing, and rightfully so–they’re arguably the best team in the NBA. The Hawks get compared to the San Antonio Spurs often because of the way their team has more than one scorer.
The Hawks by the day look more and more like the 2014 NBA champion Spurs. However, that Spurs team had five starters and five reserve players who averaged at least seven points a night. This gave the Spurs a grand total of 10 players who could come into a game and effect it offensively.
That’s the type of identity on offense that the Jazz want to have. The Jazz want to have an unselfish team that features a lot of options like the Spurs to become a two-headed quintet that Miles Davis would be jealous of.
In the same manner like the depth that the Hawks, and Spurs have on their roster, the Jazz have six players on their roster that average at least seven points a game. The beauty in that is out of those six players, none of them are the four rookies which the Jazz heavily rely on during games.
Hood, Exum, Ingles, and Millsap all are starting to play more minutes and are starting to get used to their roles on offense within the team. None of these players average more than 5.8 points per game. That only means that next season there is much room for improvement.
In the meantime if all of the rookies develop from now until the end of the season, they’re going to show a lot of promise and potentially create one of the most balanced teams offensively like the Spurs had last year.
It’s not a stretch to think that those four players could increase their scoring average two more points per game and average around seven points a game in their sophomore seasons.
The way that the Jazz have developed this season and have used their entire roster to help chip in on offense like the Hawks and Spurs shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
The J-Notes
Quin Snyder, who’s also from the Spurs organization (Snyder coached the Spurs D-League affiliate, the Austin Toros), like Gregg Popovich and Mike Budenholzer, shares similar traits to these coaches in the sense that there are no favorites on the court. Everyone’s going to get chewed out equally, just like he’s going to let the hot hand play.
In an interview with Steve Luhm of the Salt Lake Tribune, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said this about the Spurs offense:
“Quin and his staff have done a great job of getting their system across and instilling the aggressiveness and physicality that’s needed to win in the NBA. They played unselfishly. They believe in each other.”
Soon enough it won’t be long for people to see how gifted on offense the Jazz. When the players on the team develop on offense and their talent becomes blended together with one of the No. 2 best defense in the league, it won’t be long until the Jazz get back into the playoffs.
The Jazz are on their way to playing some sweet music. Hopefully we can hear them play some Thelonious Monk in the meantime.
Next: Rodney Hood Needs To Prove Himself Now
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