Utah Jazz 2016-17 season review: Jeff Withey
By Adam Coffman
Needs Improvement
At 27 years old and with four years of experience on the league, Withey is what he is at this point. He won’t be adding new facets to his game over the coming years, but it is important to know where his weaknesses are so they can be planned for.
As mentioned previously, scoring in general does not come frequently for Withey, which is due to the limited skill set he possesses.
Utah Jazz
According to Synergy, Withey posts up on just 1.4 percent of his possessions, which indicates a lack of lengthy touches. Seldom will you see him dribble the ball, even if it is to initiate a dribble handoff.
The Jazz will often give Gobert the ball at the top of the key and have him throw backdoor passes or function as a combination handoff-screener, as evidenced by his 5.7 assist rate. Withey rarely ventures past the foul line however, posting usage and assist rates far below Gobert’s.
Withey is also not very adept at functioning as the dive man in the pick and roll, scoring just .846 points per possession in such instances. Most of his baskets around the hoop come off of dump-off passes from drivers such as Gordon Hayward.
On defense, his ability to contain the guard coming off pick-and-rolls isn’t great, but the Jazz usually play their bigs fairly conservatively, which mitigates the issue.
Withey is in a spot with the Jazz in which his weaknesses are more or less masked by the players and schemes he shares the floor with. If left on his own or in a less favorable situation, however, these would be amplified.