Utah Jazz: 2017-18 player grades for Derrick Favors

Strengths

If there’s one thing that doesn’t get talked about as a part of Favors’ game, it’s his defense. His frontcourt mate Rudy Gobert gets a lot of attention as a defensive stalwart – and deservedly so, as Favors is definitely not on the Stifle Tower’s level — but Favors is no slouch either.

This past season, Favors appeared in 77 games. In those 77 games, Favors recorded at least one block in 51 of them — or roughly 67 percent of them. For what it’s worth, Favors recorded two blocks in 12 of his appearances, three in another seven, and four in two games near the end of the season. Considering Rudy Gobert only recorded just one block eight times, and had 11 games where he recorded four or more blocks, that’s not too shabby.

Another one of Favors’ strengths is his rebounding ability. His 7.2 rebounds per game average isn’t overly impressive, but it doesn’t mean that Favors is mediocre at crashing the boards.

During the regular season, Favors had 19 games where he had double-digit rebounds, and posted 15 double-doubles. In 48 of his appearances, Favors had at least seven rebounds or more.

A final strength of Favors’ game is his efficiency. Despite his paltry 22.2 percent shooting average from deep for the 2017-18 season, Favors still posted a 57.8 effective field goal percentage, which adjusts for the fact that a 3-point shot is worth more than a 2-point field goal.

During the regular season, 91 percent of Favors’ field goal attempts were 2-pointers, so with today’s NBA progressing towards spacing, it’s impressive for a guy that lives in the paint to be putting up those kind of numbers.