Salt City Seven: Vet Usage, Rotation Moves & More

The two JCs have been pretty central to how the Jazz play lately. (Trent Nelson, The Salt Lake Tribune)

Every week during the regular season begins here at SCH with the Salt City Seven, a septet of recurring features that let us relive the biggest moments, key performances and hot issues in Jazzland from various angles. Check in every week for the quotes, stats, plays and performances that tell the stories from the last 168 hours in the world of the Jazz. 

A quick exploration of a big-picture topic

The Jazz are objectively a young team. Their average age of 25 is lower than all but five teams, and more than half of their traditional roster spots are occupied by players in their first three NBA seasons. Five of those eight youngsters have started at least half the games they’ve played in.

At the same time, the presence of veterans to balance out the 23-and-under crew is intentional and smart. A team with half its roster still figuring out NBA basketball does need some players who can just, you know, do things. It’s normal even for rebuilding teams to add some order to their environment in the form of veteran know-how.

But if it feels as if the way the Jazz are organized lately is a little veteran-heavy, that’s not off base. NBAage.com confirms that Utah has the sixth youngest average age and the eighth youngest roster by minutes-weighted age. But by usage-weighted they’re perfectly average (14th youngest). Which means that the Jazz’s older players are using a disproportionate share of the possessions.

It’s especially pronounced late in games, which is why it became obvious enough to be our deep dive leading off this week’s SC7. Utah’s leader in fourth quarter usage rate is Jordan Clarkson, pretty comfortably. Collin Sexton and John Collins follow him. (Lauri Markkanen’s fourth-quarter usage this year is 14.9%, which is an issue on its own, but that’s for another time.) During the final frame in L.A. on Sunday, 37% of Utah’s possessions ended with a Clarkson shot or free-throw trip. Thirty-seven. And it was effective — Utah’s offense hummed at a 129 rating for those 12 minutes — but it does feel a bit incongruous with Utah’s stated goal of throwing as many reps as possible at their slew of youngsters.

This isn’t the vets’ fault, or even Will Hardy’s really. Several of the young guys are pretty timid as possession users by nature, at least at this point. And the one who isn’t shy happens to be Utah’s least efficient volume shooter, so funneling even more of the load to Keyonte George might not have the desired effect. Baseball teams need inning-eaters, and young basketball teams with a bunch of tentative shooters need some guys who are willing to gobble up 15-18 possessions per 36 minutes. It’s just math.

Still, for those fans who are mostly interested in how the 2024-25 Jazz will inform some future, contending version of the ball club, the idea wasn’t necessarily to watch the Jazz live or die by whether vets like Clarkson and Collins have it going.

Are there benefits to it? Sure.

First, having solid veterans in front of the young guys as a default state does help the whole “no free minutes” culture. If those minutes and shot have to be wrested away from trusted professionals, it make the bar a little higher and demands more from players in order to enjoy a larger share of the pie.

Second, having grown-up, professional basketball players running the show does in a lot of ways make the Jazz’s offense (and defense for the matter) feel more structured, which in turn makes it a better development context for everything else. Cody Williams and Isaiah Collier could just run down the court and hoist something up on every trip, but the fact that they’re learning where their opportunities will come from in the context of an actual NBA offense is way more meaningful for their long-term growth than just shots for shots’ sake.

And then, of course, there’s the uncomfortable truth that vet performances at this stage of the year can also help the Jazz restore some asset value. Take Collins, who has arguably been Utah’s most solid performer through 13 games. His contract value made him a neutral (if not slightly negative) asset during the offseason, but if teams catch the vision of a 17-point scorer who can both operate in space and assault the rim, it’s more likely he’ll entice the league’s buyers at some point. If a team was worried about whether or not Clarkson still had legs at 32, watching him bounce and weave through the lane during 16-point quarters can’t hurt.

It’s becoming clear quite early this season who some of the teams are who might be searching for help in the trade market. Whether because of injury (New Orleans), underperformance (Milwaukee), depth problems (Denver) or all three (Philly), there are some obvious buyers. But a team in need of help won’t call the Jazz unless there are players they actually think could, you know, help. If the vets were buried behind a bunch of would-be college sophomores on 2-for-18 nights, that’s not exactly the way to get 29 other GMs to believe you’ve got the answer to what ails them.

It may not be exactly what we thought we’d see this season, but for those reasons it makes sense why the super young Jazz somehow feel like a veteran-operated outfit. 

Telling or interesting words from Jazz people

“Sometimes you have to make changes in the moment to reinforce your point…

“[W]e’re trying to create really good habits. And when you have a lot of young players that are getting an opportunity, there are moments where you have to make sure that they understand that you don’t just get to play.”

-Hardy, on rotation alterations and young player development 

These comments were made specifically about George not starting the second half on Sunday, but they could apply to almost anybody in the Utah youth movement.

In fact, Hardy has shown he’s pretty serious about not just granting a role based on expectations, draft position or anything else. Williams is a lottery rookie who has moved from starter to reserve after a rocky start. Recent first-rounder Brice Sensabaugh has at least momentarily ceded his rotation spot to Johnny Juzang. Walker Kessler lost the starting spot last year, only to earn it back.

If any of these kiddos are going to contribute meaningfully to the Jazz on the other side of this rebuild, it’s going to be because at some point they figured out how to force a coach to play them.

“You don’t just get 30 minutes, because everybody assumes you’re going to get 30 minutes; that’s not how this league works.”

Stats that tell the story of the week

32

After the Jazz shared 32 assists against Phoenix, Hardy talked about how they turned a corner in that regard in Chicago. It’s true: all five of their max assist games as a team came since that night. They’ve averaged 25.6 starting that night after averaging just 21.7 over their first six.

2

Aside from Collins, only seven other players have dunked the ball in the final minute of a game with a 1-possession margin in either direction. Collins did it twice, and just 30 seconds apart. First, he pushed home a partially blocked floater to put Utah up three, and then after a tying Dallas three, he sneaked behind the defense to break the tie with six seconds left.

1:54

That’s the amount of time that transpired in a clutch game during which Utah’s best player didn’t touch the ball on offense. Markkanen put the Jazz up 116-113 with that much time left, and the Jazz never got him the ball again, scoring just one point on their final four offensive trips (not counting the fifth, a last-second heave). Probably not a great idea to not get the ball into the Finn’s hands, like, at all.

19-9

In L.A., the Jazz became the first team this season to shoot better than their opponent from the field, from deep and from the line and still lose by double digits. The culprit, of course, was Utah’s 19-9 deficit on turnovers, which led to the Clippers shooting 15 more times. L.A. also had a modest (12-8) advantage in second chance points, but this one was lost primarily due to Utah’s turnovers woes (they’re dead last in TO%) and inability to force opponent turnovers (6th worst).

Dissecting a Jazz scoring play from the week

Quite often, great offensive play design comes down to synchronization. Here’s a scoring play from Utah’s precocious rookie, Kyle Filipowski.

Sexton sets a pindown to send Collins into the P&R action with a slight advantage, but his real role here is that he’s responsible for triggering the perfect timing. Notice how after he sets that screen, he basically just stops in one place and watches. His whole job on this play is to make sure that when John catches the ball on the short roll, he has options. That’s why he waits to go use Filipowski screen until the ball is out of George’s hands and on his way to Collins.

The Jazz knew Daniel Gafford would be far in as the help on the P&R as Collins slips away from a hedge. By timing the play precisely right, the Jazz engineered a situation where right when Collins catches, there would be a 2-on-1 in that right corner. Depending on how Naji Marshall chose to defend the play, the Jazz were basically guaranteed to get either a wide open Flip on the baseline or a wide open Sexton in the corner. All Collins has to do is catch the ball and make the simplest of A-or-B reads. (He also has Juzang wide open in the other corner because Luka Doncic just basically never moves on the play.)

Well-timed and well-planned, and longtime readers of this space know that your faithful scribe loves big-to-big passing.

Recognizing the best (or most memorable) performances from each Jazz win

Just one Game Ball this week, and it goes to a player who had quite possibly the best seven days of any Jazz player.

Jazz 115, Mavs 113: John Collins. In addition to having the best Jazz stat line (28-9-3, with two steals to boot), Collins packed back-to-back dunks in the final 37 seconds, including the game winner. He was the emotional leader in this one, especially during a 13-point third quarter (5-of-7, +17) during which the Jazz pulled away with a 38-21 surge. Filipowski was at least as big a story in the first half; he and Collins both had double digits before halftime, but Flip had also shown some great defense on switches. He’s probably the hipster pick for this one, but Jordan Clarkson also deserves mention for his 8-point fourth quarter.

Strong in defeat:

• Jazz 112, Suns 120: John Collins. As important as Filipowski’s 18-point performance felt, we’d be overthinking if we went anywhere else on this one. John had 29 points, 10 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals. He made six of his last seven shots and helped the Jazz to a 58-34 paint point advantage that was the only reason they kept it remotely close. Clarkson had a late explosion that made the closing stretch semi-interesting, and Markkanen had five assists and a couple of dunks (one of which was self-created), both good signs.
• Jazz 117, Kings 121: Lauri Markkanen. Markkanen had his best game since the season opener, and became the first NBA player this season to cross the 25-point threshold on 10 shot attempts or fewer (he was 6-for-8). He put the Jazz up three with 1:54 to play, but then the Jazz couldn’t get the ball to him as Utah scored just one point on the next four possessions combined. The other choice here would be George, who also had his most efficient night of the season. Sexton (18) and Clarkson (17) both did lot of good stuff despite some late misses.
• Jazz 105, Clippers 116: Jordan Clarkson. Collier got a lot of love for his distribution (8 assists) and earning the second-half start, but if we’re really trying to decide who the game’s MVP was, it comes down to Markkanen and Clarkson. The latter bounced back from a scoreless first half to have an absolute flamethrower moment, scoring all of his 21 over the game’s final 15.5 minutes, and 16 (on 5-for-8 shooting) during a 4th quarter that the Jazz won by 14 points. Markkanen was probably better over the course of the game as a whole (18 & 10 on another efficient shooting night), but Clarkson captured a bit more of the moment and will likely be the thing we remember from this game.

Looking ahead to the next seven nights of action

The Jazz spend part of the week wrapping up their brutal road stretch, and then start a 5-game homestand on Saturday.

• Tuesday, November 19: Jazz @ Lakers. The In-Season Tournament schedule continues with a visit to the red-hot Lakers. Weirdly enough, there are currently two players in the NBA who have had a triple-double in each of their last four times out, and the Jazz will face both before Thanksgiving. LeBron James is one, and Nikola Jokic (who hasn’t played for a week) is the other. The Lakers were missing six guys for their Saturday squeaker in New Orleans, but they’ve won five straight because the important guys are not just playing, but playing awesome. LeBron is averaging 23, 9 and 9, while Anthony Davis is having a career shooting year and putting up 31 and 11. 
• Thursday, November 21: Jazz @ Spurs. It’s the Jazz’s third bout with the Spurs in as many weeks, and it comes at a time when they have lost five of eight and are shuffling lineups. Devin Vassell got healthy just as Jeremy Sochan went out with a broken thumb. That all leaves them incredibly dependent on Victor Wembanyama, so it’s no surprising that they’re 4-1 when the French phenom scores at least 25, 2-7 when he doesn’t (or when he sits).
• Saturday, November 23: Jazz vs. Knicks. The game in Texas wraps a stretch where nine of Utah’s last 13 games were away from home, and their reward for getting through that is facing a Knicks team that is finally getting somewhat healthy. They still have some bigs out, but Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges each broke 20 in their Sunday win, and Jalen Brunson directed the orchestra with 10 assists. Depth is still a problem, though: they’re dead last in bench scoring at 18.8. This is a rare day home game at Delta Center — a 3pm start.

Random stuff from the Jazz community

This is pretty fun.

Did you know⁉️ Former New Orleans Jazz Coach Elgin Baylor served in the Army during his playing days in the league.

Tag a veteran or active military member in your life to celebrate them on this #VeteransDay 💬 pic.twitter.com/FRpSaKs7Rg

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 11, 2024

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Thanks to all those who served and still serve!

The fun continues with a 3-game week…