Mission Accomplished: Jazz Drop Game for Playoff Positioning, Buy Their Young Guys Court Time

August 8th, 2020 | by Mark Russell Pereira

Tucker and his rookie peers got extended run on Friday as Utah rested multiple starters. (Kevin C. Cox via espn.com)

The Jazz had the first game of Friday’s bubble slate, an 11:00 AM MDT tip on Friday against the Spurs, so the club released its public injury report on Thursday afternoon:

Well…okay, then.

There are two likely reasons why the Jazz ostensibly decided to throw today’s game:

  1. Give the starters a break in order to preserve their health, especially on the front end of a back-to-back (Utah plays Denver on Saturday at 1:30 MDT). After all, even with a bit of a warmup period, the NBA bubble teams are expected to perform at their physiological peak after fourth months off. This situation is naturally strenuous on players, but the team trainers are also working with new variables when it comes to injury prevention.
  2. The Jazz would like to lose (several) games to fall to the sixth seed, which would avoid a 4-5 matchup with the Houston Rockets, and/or avoid the first-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in the second round. Before the Spurs game, the Jazz were tied for fourth in the Western Conference with the Rockets, and a game ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder in sixth. A few strategic losses would have the Jazz in sixth by the time the playoffs start. Assuming the Rockets don’t catch the third-place Denver Nuggets—not absurd, by the way—then the Jazz would face those Nuggets.

The Jazz will never admit the second piece, obviously. But if they were actually trying to win, then you wouldn’t have seen Jordan Clarkson on the bench for the last 18 minutes, or Joe Ingles preparing for postgame treatment at the first half buzzer. Tony Bradley—a team-high plus-10—didn’t play down the stretch. Even Georges Niang was ready to ice up with 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter, until a Juwan Morgan injury forced Quin Snyder’s hand at the 2:30 mark.

The same logic goes against the claim made by the Jazz broadcast that the game against the 10th-place Spurs was a good opportunity for the Jazz’s struggling bench pieces—Clarkson, Niang Bradley, and Emmanuel Mudiay—to get some extended run to get their live-game groove back. If that was a goal whatsoever, those players would have been contributing in the consequential, deep 4th quarter run when the game was still relatively close.

So, make no mistake about it, the Jazz were trying to lose this game. Should they have?

While the Rockets have been the Jazz’s recent playoff bugaboo, that history should always be revisited with new facts in 2020. The Rockets’ James Harden-Clint Capela game is no more, and the post- Bojan Bogdanovic Utah Jazz don’t have a size disadvantage against the small-ball Rockets.

In fact, Rudy Gobert would have a sizable, series-shifting advantage against the tiny Rockets squad (anyone actually paying attention understands that Gobert was not the primary issue in recent Rockets losses, and he’s improved his perimeter defense to the point where it is a genuine net positive of his game).

The Rockets can’t muck up the defensive paint with a spaced and decisive Mike Conley-Donovan Mitchell backcourt, and have no safe option to defend Gobert. On the defensive end, one can trust Conley/Mitchell against Harden/Russell Westbrook, especially with an activated Gobert behind them who doesn’t have to worry about a lob threat. Royce O’Neale and Joe Ingles are very qualified to chase Eric Gordon and Robert Covington around the court. The Jazz bench is a huge issue against the Rockets’ smaller bench athletes, but the quality of the Jazz bench is a worry against any opponent.

It’s not clear why the Jazz would so clearly prefer a matchup with the Nuggets. Nuggets’ fans will admit disappointment from the 2019 playoffs when the undermanned San Antonio Spurs forced them to play 7 games and the Portland Trail Blazers eked out the subsequent conference semifinals win. However, the Nuggets would have the best player in series (Nikola Jokic), and have depth and talent across all positions, which would immediately expose mismatches as soon as Utah’s bench players enter the game. It’s not clear if Michael Porter Jr. can hold up defensively in the playoffs, but he has the size and skill to absolutely overwhelm the Jazz.

The more likely plan for Utah in Friday’s tank job was to avoid the first-place Lakers until the Western Conference Final. (as a 3-6 seed matchup participant, a victorious Jazz squad would play the winner of the 2-7 matchup, which would likely be the Los Angeles Clippers). While the Lakers are clearly a matchup nightmare for the Jazz, a middling playoff team like Utah should instead focus on getting out of the first round. The health of the Jazz starters would help in that goal; being picky about opponents would not.

Oh…the game, you ask? What happened while you were working during your day job, you’re wondering? Well, Clarkson picked up his offensive efficiency a bit, largely in part to hitting some threes off of screens. But he lost his defensive assignment several times and committed some silly turnovers, which hopefully is not a preview of the playoffs (don’t hold your breath). Ed Davis started, and played a disappointing 11 minutes (minus-13) like he had casts on his hands. Niang still missed a lot of shots, inside and out, but he was rightfully aggressive, and fans shouldn’t be worried about his proven abilities. Ingles was a steady, impactful presence who kept his offensive aggression high after a promising performance against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday. Ingles, who likely only played to keep his NBA-leading games played streak alive, was also too effective for a tanking Jazz team to keep playing in the second half.

Emmanuel Mudiay played poorly, hoisting up several contested midrange shots with predictable results. Tony Bradley had a very promising game, going for 15 points (including a top-of-the-arc three-pointer) and 11 rebounds in only 22 minutes (and a game-high plus-10). Most impressively, he held his own against the Spurs’ Jakob Poeltl, and tied a career-high with three well-timed blocks against driving Spurs guards. This may bode well for his viability against playoff benches.

However, this game was mostly notable for the very extended run the cavalcade of Jazz youngsters received. Nigel Williams-Goss, the Jazz’s 2017 2nd-round pick who has spent the previous two years in Serbia and Greece, is still out with an ankle injury, so the remaining bench consisted of Miye Oni, Jarell Brantley, Justin Wright-Foreman, Rayjon Tucker, and Morgan. This group features two undrafted players (Tucker and Morgan) and three 2019 late second-round picks (Oni, Foreman, and Brantley). Each has had a moment or three in the G-League with the Salt Lake City Stars or elsewhere, and extremely limited time with the Jazz. They were not expected to hang with the full-strength Spurs (sans LaMarcus Aldridge, who is not with the team), but they each contributed plenty of surprising, winning basketball to keep the game within 10-15 points for its entirety. Did any of these players do enough to crack a spot in the Jazz’s playoff rotation? Probably not, but let’s highlight some good and bad from these developing players:

Oni started and played a game-high 30 minutes, and accordingly looked like he belonged on an NBA floor the most out of the five. His defensive rotations were generally smooth, contributing to the solid defense the undermanned Jazz played on DeMar DeRozan the entire evening (only 13 points for DeRozan). Oni and Brantley each received praise from Quin Snyder post-game for their defensive performance. Most impressively, Oni had a lightning release on open threes, and worked his game offensively to nab 5 free throw attempts.

Brantley stood out on two specific defensive possessions matched up against DeRozan, in which DeRozan reached into his infinite bag of tricks and pump fakes and could not establish anything. On one such occasion, he obtained the loose ball, ran the break, looked off a defender, and found a wide-open teammate for a corner three (that missed, of course). It should also be noted, however, that he lost defenders a couple of times and Rudy Gay dunked on him after a lazy reach at a critical moment in the fourth quarter. Brantley sunk 2 threes, which is important for the linebacker-built forward from the College of Charleston to show versatility. He has probably had the most productive G-League season out of these five, but hadn’t received much of any big-league run thus far. It’s exceedingly unlikely that Snyder will give him any trustworthy minutes in the playoffs, but he’s had enough productivity to show he’s worth developing.

Many Jazz fans are most tantalized by Tucker, who was acquired mid-season after the Jazz cut Jeff Green. Tucker has also received the most run in the regular season (although it still wasn’t much). After his brief Twitter exchange with the Salt Lake Tribune’s Andy Larsen in which Tucker took umbrage that he was “afraid” to shoot open threes, Tucker still had some bizarre indecisiveness for a player who has shown the exact opposite in his G-League performances (it was interesting that Snyder mentioned postgame that these end-of-bench players should “not feel like you have to get into your quote-unquote flow”—something Tucker mentioned in his defense of not shooting open shots). In the third quarter, he got defensive ace Derrick White to jump on a pump-fake behind the arc, and then oddly just took a single step towards the open lane before retreating. He had a couple of wild missteps when he ran the break. However, Tucker always plays extremely hard, runs the floor very quickly, and obviously is willing to jump out of whatever gym he’s in—he forced Drew Eubanks to foul him at the start of the fourth quarter when trying to dunk on him, and he drew an offensive foul on the break shortly thereafter. A full Jazz offseason might just do the trick for Tucker’s development, since he has NBA skill and athleticism—he just needs the IQ to follow!

There isn’t much to say about Morgan, which isn’t necessarily an indictment. Morgan, who has been the glass broken in previous frontcourt emergencies, holds up surprisingly well as a small-ball center at 6’7. He positions himself well defending against basic pick-and roll action. His rebounding skill against taller players is obvious, although it was disappointing to see his great rebounding effort lead to a non-contact knee injury late in the game. Offensively, he had a beautiful cross-court pass to Wright-Foreman out of the post for three (missed, followed by an awesome Oni offensive rebound putback), but there wasn’t much to examine after only two field goal attempts (one of which was a nice three in the fourth quarter).

Wright-Foreman was very noticeable in his 11 minutes, both for his offensive skill and defensive limitations. JWF is generously listed at 6’0″, so he had some issues with the size of the Spurs’ backcourt of White, Dejounte Murray, and Lonnie Walker IV. But he was ultra-smooth offensively, seamlessly getting space in the midrange and gently setting in two floaters. He missed all 3 of his three-point attempts, but they were all in rhythm and within the offense. Early in his stint he hoisted a very deep two pointer, which was the only skeptical shot he took. It’s not clear if he has NBA-level skill or size, but he also wasn’t out of his league, either. He’ll be worth monitoring over a second SLC Stars season.

In the end, it was a very cool performance by these five, as they played a very-much-trying Spurs squad relatively close, and fans rarely get to see developing players match up against legitimate competition. They’ve had plenty of time practicing and playing together as well, which was evidenced by their own little “Jazz blender” movement going in the fourth quarter that was awesome to see. In the end, Jazz fans should hope this is the most we’ll see of them until next season.

Up Next:

Utah keeps their midday schedule, facing off against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday at 1:30. You can catch them on TNT. Hopefully, Draymond Green isn’t on the set to make a comment like this regarding Donovan Mitchell:

That’s a really unfortunate thing to be said by an active player.

Comments are closed.

© 2024 Salt City Hoops. All Rights Reserved.