Utah Jazz 2016-17 season review: Derrick Favors
By Adam Coffman
Weaknesses
The biggest drawback of Favors’ offensive game is his shooting, or lack thereof. He took just 10 three-point attempts on the season, and looks to be completely incapable of stretching his game out behind the arc to say the least.
In total, he ranked in just the 15th percentile on spot-up possessions, shooting 43.4 percent on catch-and-shoot jumpers mostly from the 16-foot midrange area. This flaw isn’t as much of an issue when the Jazz play him at the 5, but when sharing the floor with another non-shooting big in Rudy Gobert, the lack of spacing can adversely affect both players.
As his injuries have affected his ability to move fluidly, Favors’ effectiveness in terms of off-ball movement has tanked, leaving him more or less rooted under the basket.
Recently, he’s given Jazz fans more reason to place doubt in him due to his injury history, missing 32 and 20 games the last two seasons. In 2016-17, he was often ineffective due to recovery and rust even when he was playing, which led to his reduced minutes load in the playoffs.
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If he is matched up against a stretch-4 or combo forward, Favors often will close out ineffectively, surrendering jump shots from deep.
His abilities under the hoop are also squandered in this eventuality, and while he defends decently in isolation, there’s no question that he’s better around the rim.
Some problems do arise when playing Favors at center, most notably his rebounding.
Averaging a paltry 9.3 boards per 36 minutes, Favors’ total rebounding rate sits nearly seven percentage points below Gobert’s (14.9 to 21.8).
He has too much ability to be called a tweener, but to some degree, Favors has no position of specialty in the modern NBA.