Utah Jazz: 2017-18 NBA season preview

Storyline 3: Where do the points come from?

The question on everyone’s mind is “who scores Hayward’s 22 points per game?” but it’s not quite that simple.

GM Dennis Lindsey has made it clear the way forward is through defense. They want to build around Rudy Gobert and rekindle some of the points lost with Hayward on the other end of the floor.

Obviously, they aren’t going to wipe 22 points off last season’s NBA-best 96.8 opponent points per game, but they’ll make it a lot more difficult for teams to get there.

Given last seasons injuries, the Jazz had a multiplicity of points riding the pine:

• Derrick Favors lost seven points per game compared to 2015-16 as he hobbled in and out of the line up all season.
• Rodney Hood’s development not only stalled, but went backwards in relation to scoring. He averaged just 12.7 points in 2016-17 after putting up 14.5 per game a year earlier.
• Alec Burks has only played 100 games since his 14 points per game season in 2013-14. That number dropped all the way down to 6.7 in 2016-17.

Health might yet again be the deciding factor of the Jazz this season. It’s not the best group to have hopes of 70+ games pinned to, but only two of the three need to achieve that for the Jazz to see an improvement.

Along with the hope for health, the Jazz have some young talent ready to make the leap at any moment. Dante Exum averaged 6.2 points per game last season but don’t be surprised if that number enters double-digits now that he’s a full year removed from his ACL injury. Donovan Mitchell is another youngster that could fill the box score. He set Summer League on fire and it’s suggested that he could be a more than serviceable bench player in his rookie season.

The points are there but it may take a few games for Quin Snyder to allocate from whom they come from.