Salt City Seven: Player Stat Check, Easy Basketball & More

Zooming out for a check-in as the Jazz come back from a little mini-break. (Dan Clayton)

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

This weird little break resulting from the In-Season Tournament happened to fall right around the 23-25 game mark for most teams. That’s a point in the calendar where stat samples start to mean something, but we don’t usually get to pause in December to really take stock of where teams are at like we do at All-Star break.

Count me as a fan of this little early-December slowdown for precisely that reason. Not only was it nice to have a few days in the busiest month of the year, but it’s also a very timely opportunity to revisit trends now that sample sizes actually meaning something.

We already did an overarching look with Mark Pereira in podcast form over the weekend, so we’ll start this week’s SC7 with a quick look at one encouraging stat and one worrying stat from each of Utah’s top 11 minute-getters.

Keyonte George’s true shooting staying stagnant at .532 isn’t ideal, but his percentage on catch-and-shoots threes is up to 37.0% from 31.7% last year, which is really important progress in a fundamentally important area.

John Collins is shooting 60% on corner threes, which is rididulously important to the Jazz’s spacing. It’s hard to find things to complain about right now with Collins, but he has committed more shooting fouls than any other Jazz player (38).

Collin Sexton is shooting a remarkable 43.8% on pull-up threes, better than all but three player with at least 35 attempts. But he is getting to the line significantly less than in his two previous Jazz seasons (.315 FTr, compared to .378 over the last two combined).

Lauri Markkanen is shooting 51.7% on twos, the lowest percentage since he was 21. But his struggles might be overblown since he’s still at .612 true shooting overall.

Walker Kessler makes nearly 79% of his shots in the restricted area, and of the 59 players with at least 90 attempts there, only Victor Wembanyama is better. About the only major quibble I can find is that his turnover rate is up (1.4 per game, 2.4 per 100 posessions, and it’s mostly passing/handling as opposed to the expected culprit: moving screens.

Jordan Clarkson having his paint non-RA field goal percentage back up at 51.7% is a great sign after the 32-year-old looked to have heavy leags early on — but only one player with 27% usage or higher has a lower TS% than Clarkson’s .522.

Johnny Juzang’s rebrand as an off-the-bench motion sniper is going to require him to shoot better than 36.5% off the catch from three, but the most encouraging thing is that he’s playing a major role — with 341 minutes, he’s on pace to pass last season’s total before the weekend.

Cody Williams comes back to the big roster after averaging 13 points and 4 rebounds over seven G League games, he and a fellow rookie we’ll discuss soon make Utah the only team with two guards shooting under 20% from three with their minutes.

Brice Sensabaugh is at 43.5% from three and has the best eFG% (.614) of any non-big on the roster, but also is the only rotation player to have more turnovers (26) than assists (17).

Isaiah Collier leads the Jazz in assists per 100 possessions (9.2) and per 36 minutes (6.8). Since I swore I wouldn’t complain about is turnovers as a rookie guard who should be trying things, I will point out that opponents shoot 11.2% better than expected when Collier is the primary defender.

Kyle Filipowski’s shooting from inside three feet (78.3% per B-Ref) is almost Kessler-esque. But at some point it will matter if he continues to allow opponents to shoot 77.3% at the rim when Flip is defending.

A lot of time left, but those are some of the things I’ll be watching for as the season continues.

Telling or interesting words from Jazz people

“Hell yeah. To just be frank. Getting the ball in those deep positions with a smaller guy (on me) is a great spot to be in. Definitely appreciative of being able to be put in those spots more and take advantage of the mismatces. I love easy basketball.”

-Collins, on scoring inside against switches 

There aren’t that many guys in the NBA who are 6’9″ and above and are comfortable as a screener, a popper, a roller, a slipper, etc. That unique combination makes him pretty valuable as something of a scheme buster. Trap the ball and he’ll pop for an open shot. Hedge early and he’ll slip out for a rim dive. And yes, switch the pick-and-roll and John is likely going to be guarded by somebody he can bully down low.

One of the advantages of Utah revisiting the 3-big lineups is that almost every opposing starting five has someone smaller who’s going to have to guard either Collins of Markkanen. Run one action anywhere on the floor and there’s bound to be an advantage someone a Jazz player can take advantage of.

It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that, Collins argues.

“It’s just me playing my natural game,” the forward continued in his midweek media availability. “Just trying to get easier shots and not trying to take the bad ones.”

Stats that tell the story of the week

+3%, +7.5%

By now you’ve surely already heard the stat that Utah’s and Phoenix’s combined 44 threes were a league record, but that game was statistically unique in other ways. For example, it was the second time in December that Utah lost a game in which it outshot it’s opponent from the field (3 percentage points higher) and outside (+7.5). Only Milwaukee has lost multiple games like that in the same calendar month of the season.

40

Walker Kessler (46) and John Collins (40) are one of the most prolific dunking duos in the NBA this season. Only Cleveland (Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen) and Dallas (Daniel Gafford and Derrick Lively II) have multiple players at or above 40 dunks for the season.

30th

A bit of a macro check-in here, since this week was light on games and since we’re just past the quarter mark: Utah remains last in the league in points allowed per possession, and also last in the league in both commiting and forcing turnovers. That’s a pretty rough combination to overcome.

47-42-90

Collin Sexton is now officially right at 90% from the line, meaning he’s just 2.8 percentage points off of joining John Collins in the vaunted 50-40-90 territory for the season. The two both rank in the top 12 for three-throw percentage this year.

Dissecting a Jazz scoring play from the week

There was only one game to choose from, but it had a bunch of very different highlights: a windmill dunk, a JC explosion, Markkanen splashing over people, lobs galore, and a season-high 22 threes.

But the way that game started was pretty notable and fun: with Kessler’s first two outside shot attempts of the season, resuling in back-to-back makes.

The first one is actually a fairly complicated set-up, from an X-and-O perspective. There’s a little ram screen action leading to a fake ballscreen, and then Sexton flows right into a little flare cut. Of course, it turns out all of that is decoy action meant to make Kessler’s defender feel like he should be pulling into the help line even though nothing’s really happening on that side of the floor.

The second one is even simpler: it’s just a single high P&R with guys fairly stacked on top of one another on the strong side. Phoenix was having Kevin Durant hedge, so when Collins dives hard, this time Jusuf Nurkic kind of does need to come in. Just in case Nurk decides to run out at Kessler, Collins runs with a switched defender on his hip so he can seal for position and get the ball for a 1-on-1 in close against Devin Booker. But it’s not even necessarily because Kessler reels in the pass and knocks down number two on the season.

I doubt this becomes a major feature of the Jazz offense, but the benefit here is what happened on the very next play:

Again, with a hedging KD, George denying the screen is a smart read. Once he gets the step on Booker, KD is nowhere in position to help, so now it’s a 2-on-1 down the left side, and now, because of what just happened, Nurk actually kind of has to think about it for a minute. George changes pace just enough for Nurk to think he might be passing to Kessler, and that freezes the big guy just enough for Key to get all the way to the rim for an and-1.

It’s all because of the gravity of known stretch center Walker Kessler.

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

Just a 1-game week for Utah, and even though the Jazz were plucky against Phoenix, we only have consolation recognition to hand out this week since we reserve Game Balls for wins.

Strong in defeat:

• Jazz 126, Suns 134: Jordan Clarkson. I’m a sucker for all-around stat lines, so I was tempted to go to Collins for his 22-6-6 with 2 blocks and 2 steals. But Clarkson’s 18-point explosion in the first half alone was just prime Flamethrower stuff, and very welcome after the vet had missed seven straight games. His second quarter alone included a weaving floater, a stepback three, a literal falling-on-his-butt three and a buzzer-beater. In all, 23 point on just 13 shots, plus he assisted 10 more Jazz points. John was really good too, but this JC was probably the bigger story. Markkanen also had a big first (and quiet second), George had a solid 18-and-9, and Kessler was a big story with his early threes and 17 total points.

Looking ahead to the next seven nights of action

After a light week, Utah gets back to a regular slate of games — all outside of Delta Center.

• Monday, December 16: Jazz @ Clippers. After a 7-2 surge, the Clips have lost three straight, and by an average of 20 points. Part of the issue is that 3-time scoring champ James Harden is posting the lowest efficiency since is rookie season, but this is mostly a health thing. LA, after all, still hasn’t had Kawhi Leonard on the court at all, and now Derrick Jones Jr. and Terance Mann are both out with medium-term issues. They’re up 1-0 on the Jazz this season, and because of an In-Season Tournament scheduling quirk, they’ll host three of this season’s four matchups with the Jazz.
• Thursday, December 19: Jazz @ Pistons. Detroit had a 7-4 stretch where they looked light they might be flirting with competence, but have since lost 8 of 11. That’s despite a career scoring (23.6), shooting (38.1% 3pt) and assisting (9.3) year from Cade Cunningham, who has looked superb. This is another young team with turnover woes. Former Jazz wings Simone Fontecchio and Malik Beasley are both in the rotation for Detroit.
• Saturday, December 21: Jazz @ Nets. Mikal Bridges’ departure predictably made this team revolve even more around Cam Thomas, but he’s out for a few weeks, and third-leading scorer Dennis Schröder just got traded. So this is even more Cameron Johnson’s team now. He’s averaging 20 points per game on 50-50-90 shooting over the past month, and is sure to be one of the most discussed names throughout trade season. Brooklyn, though, fouls the most, rebounds the least, and has the worst defensive eFG% in the league. (Jazz starter of yore Bojan Bogdanovic has yet to debut in his second stint with Brooklyn.) 

Random stuff from the Jazz community

A few things to end the week on:

• This type of stuff is fun (even before we heard the anecdotes of Sexton struggling at the cash register), and is exactly the sort of thing that just isn’t feasible during most of the NBA season, but we got an extra dose thanks to the schedule slowdown.
• Don’t miss the special crossover pod, where Ken Clayton and I joined the Jackpotting Around podcast.
• A new Jerry Sloan feature dropped.
• Collier making it back to USC on the Jazz’s L.A. stop is some good wholesome Sunday fun.

Only one more SC7 before humanity’s favorite home invader comes to eat your milk and cookies.