Analytics

Jazz Offensive Woes: Shot Selection or Shot Making?

As a difficult season in Utah continues with another couple disheartening losses, it’s news to no one in Jazzland that the team is struggling mightily offensively.  Their young, inexperienced roster is dead last in the league...

Previously Private Amazing Advanced NBA Stats to be Released in Consumer Package

Vantage Sports, now a source of advanced basketball analytics for NBA teams, players, and trainers only, will begin a Kickstarter campaign this week to gauge interest in releasing a product for a general audience. Should the...

“Utah Jazz Basketball”: A Look At Assisted Field Goal %

We often hear, when the Jazz win, that the team won by playing “Utah Jazz basketball.” For me, that has always connoted heart, hustle, tough defense, smart offense, and above all, teamwork. When you think about the...

Response to Readers: Hayward and Kanter’s Offense

We at Salt City Hoops aim to please, and that includes responding to comments and requests, such as these to my September 9th post projecting Hayward and Favors as primary offensive options this season. Casey said: I’d be...

One Thing Every Jazz Player Can Improve On For The 2013-14 Season

We’re now only a month away before the training camp begins: Media day is Sept. 30 and training camp begins shortly after — with the first preseason game taking place on Oct. 8. As a result, the time for players to...

Can Hayward or Favors be Utah’s First Options?

In an attempt to score, every team has a Plan A. Last season’s Plan A was Al Jefferson on the block.  Big Al’s execution of that plan earned frequent complaint from Jazz fans.  He was too slow, too finesse, too...

Analytics Wish List

September is a funny time of year for basketball geeks whose interest in other sports ranges between “casual” and “yawn.” For true basketheads, all you can really do in September is a) watch EuroBasket and...

Predicting the Pace for the New-Era Utah Jazz

The question of what’s next for the Jazz has been a big one this summer and it has been asked dozens of different ways. But one that hasn’t been asked is what the Jazz’s new modus operandi will be with regard to...

Looking at Best PGs in a Draft: Where Does Trey Burke Fit?

Hope soared among fans when the Utah Jazz traded up to procure Trey Burke in the 2013 draft, perhaps higher than at any time since the Stockton and Malone era.  Even the drafting of Deron Williams failed to achieve such...

Post Mortem For an Era

  I began my eulogy of a passing era of Jazz basketball before it was officially over. Last month, I shared a look at jump-shooting trends that defined recent Jazz basketball, and now that nearly every veteran free agent of...