Does new uptempo style fit Jazz? Early returns say yes

The last team to commit 31 turnovers in an NBA game was the Golden State Warriors in 2000. The 2017 Phoenix Suns ought to be glad that preseason stats don’t count or else they’d eclipse them.

It says a lot about the Suns, but it also says a bit about their opponent, the Utah Jazz, who had 18 steals in the 120-102 blowout at Talking Stick Resort Arena on Monday. The Jazz only had 10 or more steals in 10 games last season, and never more than 12.

With Gordon Hayward and George Hill departing from the starting lineup, it always was clear the way the Jazz play was going to change. What wasn’t always clear was how.

Now with Ricky Rubio at the helm, as well as Donovan Mitchell, Thabo Sefolosha and Ekpe Udoh arriving into key roles, there are five preseason games to go on what the Jazz are trying to do. And the biggest shifts seem to be in how they create transition opportunities and how they’ll attack in the halfcourt with the threat of passing.

All of that still is up in the air as the Jazz prepare for their Wednesday opener against the Denver Nuggets, but the groundwork has been laid for how the Jazz shift into the post-Hayward era.

It’s a small sample size, including two games against lower-tier international opponents, but the preseason has given some interesting numbers to munch on. The Jazz, for example, averaged 25.4 points off turnovers (third in the league) and averaging 9.4 fast-break points per game (10th). Compare that to the season-long rankings of last year, when they were 25th in points off turnovers and 27th in fast-break points.

It’s worth noting that the Jazz also have scored more than 105 points in all five preseason games. Pushing the tempo on fast breaks has been an emphasis, influenced by losing an efficient half-court scorer (Hayward) and adding an elite passer who can toss assists nearly full court in Rubio.

The second game against the Suns saw Utah play more aggressively on defense at the perimeter, in part because Rudy Gobert was sitting out that game. But with Rubio, Mitchell and Sefolosha, steals should be more a part of Utah’s game than they were last year, when the objective was more to contain than to produce takeaways.

That style, however, also is going to produce turnovers. Rubio has struggled in particular in that area, giving up 4.2 per game in the preseason. The Jazz expect those numbers to drop as chemistry develops between Rubio and other players.

“We’re never going to not have any,” Joe Ingles said. “I think the way we’re trying to play, maybe we’re going to have more at times. For us, the guards or the big, whoever is pushing the ball, just being able to pick and choose the right time to push it or hold up and get into the halfcourt.”

The half-court offense will have to be more diverse than last year. No one on the roster scored more than Rudy Gobert’s 14 points per game. That conceivably could go up with Gobert being an increased focal point in the pick-and-roll attack. A healthy Derrick Favors (8.6 points, 5.2 rebounds per game in preseason) also could attack more as a roller or space the floor if his midrange game returns to his pre-injury form.

The biggest thing the coaching staff has asked for is movement, Favors said. The Jazz showed several times on their most recent road trip how smooth possessions can flow if they commit to passing the ball.

“There’s a big emphasis on it in the practices and the games,” he said. “If you see an open shot, take it. If you see a lane, go into it. But the main thing is to not stop the ball up.”

Other questions have yet to be answered. Rodney Hood played only three games and limited minutes during the preseason, so it’s unclear if he’s ready to make the step up in scoring volume that the Jazz need. Rubio’s jumper, which has been inconsistent throughout his career, is a bit of a wildcard for the Jazz, who could use the spacing that would accompany the threat of his shooting. Utah is using a bit of a committee approach at backup point guard after Dante Exum was injured last week.

But it’s a marathon, not a sprint, coach Quin Snyder said. Some patterns seen in the preseason will be aberrations, and some areas will see the Jazz get better. There’s still time to form the identity the Jazz want.

“It’s preseason, so we’re still learning,” he said after the second win over Phoenix. “We’ll keep working on it.”