Utah Jazz ready to move up in Western Conference hierarchy

Storyline 2: What will the starting lineup look like?

The Utah Jazz have the guard spots set, along with the center. However, the question in the starting lineup really lies at the power forward position. Derrick Favors and Jae Crowder, two of the main losses this summer, primarily played the 4 for the team. They shared minutes in  that spot during the season.

The problem is that the new players brought in have not regularly suited up at the 4 for their previous teams. Bojan Bogdanovic is more of a small forward and Joe Ingles is also a small forward. Ed Davis is more of a backup center and therefore he won’t get starter’s minutes at the power forward spot.

Coach Quin Snyder may opt to start Jeff Green at that spot, but he is best suited for a backup role at this stage of his career. This leaves Ingles or Bogdanovic to start, which will result in a different style of play than fans may be used to seeing.

The Jazz will most likely start Bogdanovic at the 4 and Ingles at the 3, leaving the starting lineup as four perimeter-centric players and Rudy Gobert. Gobert will be the key, as his ability to set screens and open up backdoor opportunities/pick and rolls will be invaluable.

The Jazz wouldn’t have let Favors go and signed Bogdanovic if they weren’t comfortable in ushering in a new era of Jazz basketball. The whole starting lineup is 3-and-D focused, aside from the post-oriented Gobert. Even still, he just won Defensive Player of the Year and can mask any defensive slip-ups from the power forward spot.

Regardless of what lineup they choose to run with, a good expectation is more spacing, more screens, and a faster style of play for the Utah Jazz in 2019-20.