Utah Jazz: 3 ways to build on playoff appearance in 2019-20
3. Improving offensively
One of the top keys that Utah will need to focus on is improving on the offensive end of the ball.
As a result of a healthy roster for the most part, Utah’s two cornerstone players were able to have career years to lead the way in Salt Lake City.
Staying healthy contributed into their success throughout the regular season and resulted in a trip to the postseason for a third straight year, but the Jazz improving on their weaker side of the ball is the next step.
Rudy Gobert, who has had injuries haunt him throughout a majority of his career up to this point, appeared in a total of 81 games this year for the Jazz. It was the first time he was able to play in over 80 games since he did so in the 2016-17 regular season.
The fifth-year center put together his best collective season of his career to this point, averaging a career-high 15.9 points, career-high 12.9 rebounds, a career-high 2.0 assists, 2.3 blocks and a career-high-tying 0.8 steals in 31.8 minutes per game. He also led the NBA with a 66.9 field goal percentage.
Donovan Mitchell was the other key piece that led the way for the Jazz, as he took the next step in his young career after putting together a solid rookie campaign.
In his sophomore season, Mitchell averaged a career-high 23.8 points, career-high 4.2 assists, career-high 4.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals in just under 34 minutes per game. His efficiency improved as the year went on, finishing with marks of 43.2 percent from the field and 36.2 percent from 3.
As a unit last season, Utah was one of the top teams on the defensive end, but was fairly average when it came to the other end of the floor. The Jazz averaged 111.7 points per game (17th in the NBA) to finish the year with an offensive rating of 110.9, which ranked 15th in the league.
They also tallied a 35.6 percent shooting percentage from 3 in a league that has become heavily reliant on the 3-ball. That alone was an issue that was somewhat exposed in the playoff series loss to the Rockets.
Keeping both Gobert and Mitchell healthy, as well as continue to develop other players, will feed into Utah’s need for improvement on offense. The defense is already elite, but finding more firepower will be instrumental in what kind of season the Jazz have in 2019-20.