Utah Jazz: 5 keys to series vs. Thunder
By Mason McFee
4. Use the bench
As often as Tom Thibodeau may try, even he cannot play all of his starters all 48 minutes of regulation; and that’s still true in the playoffs. While star players are great and there are countless examples of them carrying teams in the postseason, even they need help; even if it’s just a little bit of it. Luckily for Quin Snyder and co., they have a pretty good one.
- Utah’s bench averages 5.9 points off of turnovers per game, which ranked 22nd in the league.
- Utah’s bench averages 15.9 points in the paint per game, which ranked 21st in the league.
- Utah’s bench averages 3.5 fast break points per game, which ranked 25th in the league.
Pretty good, huh? Well, not really. Being in the bottom third of the league is obviously not good — except when it’s noted that Utah ranks 25th in the league in pace, and that applies to the bench too. Utah’s strength is not its offense, it’s the defense.
That doesn’t mean that Utah doesn’t have some shooters coming off the bench:
| Rk | Age | G | GS | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | 3P | 3PA | 3P% ▼ |
2P | 2PA | 2P% | eFG% | FT | FTA | FT% | ORB | DRB | TRB | AST | STL | BLK | TOV | PF | PTS/G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Jonas Jerebko | 30 | 74 | 19 | 15.3 | 2.1 | 4.6 | .466 | 0.9 | 2.1 | .414 | 1.3 | 2.5 | .511 | .562 | 0.6 | 0.8 | .807 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 3.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 5.8 |
| 5 | Raul Neto | 25 | 41 | 0 | 12.1 | 1.7 | 3.7 | .457 | 0.5 | 1.1 | .404 | 1.2 | 2.5 | .481 | .520 | 0.6 | 0.9 | .743 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 4.5 |
| 8 | Royce O’Neale | 24 | 69 | 4 | 16.7 | 1.7 | 4.1 | .423 | 0.6 | 1.7 | .356 | 1.1 | 2.4 | .470 | .496 | 0.9 | 1.1 | .803 | 0.4 | 3.1 | 3.4 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 5.0 |
| 11 | Alec Burks | 26 | 64 | 1 | 16.5 | 2.7 | 6.5 | .411 | 0.7 | 2.2 | .331 | 1.9 | 4.3 | .452 | .467 | 1.7 | 1.9 | .863 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 7.7 |
| 12 | Jae Crowder | 27 | 27 | 0 | 27.6 | 4.2 | 10.9 | .386 | 1.8 | 5.6 | .316 | 2.4 | 5.3 | .462 | .468 | 1.6 | 2.1 | .768 | 0.7 | 3.1 | 3.8 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 2.3 | 11.8 |
| 13 | Dante Exum | 22 | 14 | 0 | 16.8 | 3.0 | 6.2 | .483 | 0.4 | 1.3 | .278 | 2.6 | 4.9 | .536 | .511 | 1.8 | 2.2 | .806 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 3.1 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 8.1 |
| 16 | Ekpe Udoh | 30 | 63 | 3 | 12.9 | 1.0 | 1.9 | .500 | 0.0 | 0.0 | .000 | 1.0 | 1.9 | .504 | .500 | 0.7 | 0.9 | .750 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 2.6 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/12/2018.
These are the players Snyder will likely be rotating off the bench, with Neto and Udoh most likely getting spot minutes.
With the exception of Udoh and Exum, all of the Jazz’s bench players shoot over 30 percent, which, at the very least forces defenses to respect their respective shots. The league average on 3-pointers was 36.2 percent this season, so two players (Burks and O’Neale) are near the mark, and the other two (Jerebko and Neto) are roughly five percent above average.
As mentioned earlier, coaches normally shrink their rotations to 8-9 players, so to have five players to work with that can be legitimate 3-point threats is huge.
The bottom line is Snyder will have options to play with, and can play the matchups.