Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 107-104 loss to the Miami Heat from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. In 4th quarter, Jazz don’t get enough from their offensive stars
The Jazz entered the 4th quarter with a 5-point lead, but a 19-4 run by the Heat turned everything around, and as they tried to come back, they didn’t hit enough shots late.
Let’s put it this way: if Bojan Bogdanovic and Donovan Mitchell combine for zero baskets in the fourth quarter, you’re going to have a hard time. And it’s not as if their lines for the night were great: Mitchell went 5-18 from the field for 13 points, and Bojan Bogdanovic shot a better 4-13 from the field for 19 points — again, Bogey was the Jazz’s most reliable foul-drawer.
Some of that was due to the Heat’s scheme: early in the quarter, the Heat trapped Mitchell pick and rolls, forcing the ball out of his hands. Sometimes, he made the right play. This is a beautiful pass:
But other times, he forced the issue, trying to take things over. With under a minute left, Mitchell went iso on Tyler Herro, then pulled up for a contested long-range two, just inside the arc. It was just about the worst possible possession.
Bogdanovic wasn’t great either, though. I said that Mitchell’s airballed forced two-pointer above was just about the worst possible possession, because the only thing worse is an above-the-break turnover that is not only definitely zero points, but is definitely two points going the other way.
Mitchell and Bogdanovic are good players who had a bad game. It happens. But when it happens, you’re very unlikely to win that game.
2. Donovan Mitchell’s defense on Tyler Herro
The Heat’s offensive hero of the night was Tyler Herro, who really took over late despite being 19 years old and having a 6-foot-3 wingspan. (That last bit isn’t particularly relevant, but it’s very rare for an NBA player to have a negative wingspan like the 6-foot-5 tall Herro.)
Most of the credit goes to Herro, who played well. But I thought Donovan Mitchell, who was the primary defender on Herro on most of these possessions, didn’t do enough defensively to give themselves the chance.
Like, take this play. Herro search dribbles here, and Mitchell does a good job of sticking with him. But he continues his circular path, and it seems to surprise Mitchell... he doesn’t move his feet well enough, nor does he have his hand up on the shot.
Mitchell, remember, was said to be focused this season on improving on the defensive end, “getting back to why he was drafted,” he said. And it’s true, I think he has improved. But Mitchell, who has a 6-foot-9 wingspan to go along with his 6-foot-1 height, should be able to envelop someone like Herro so he doesn’t have a good look at the hoop.
On the last couple of possessions, the Jazz switched Ingles onto Herro to start, but the Heat forced the matchup again. You don’t want teams to be excited about attacking Mitchell, but the Heat were tonight.
“He kicked my ass for three straight possessions," Mitchell said. "He capitalized on my poor defense, I’ll take the blame for that.”
3. On the Exum trade
Dante Exum was traded today with two second round picks for Jordan Clarkson. Here’s the Tribune’s story on the deal. I’ll put my thoughts on it here, though.
Exum played 82 games once, in his rookie season. That year, I think we learned a lot about where he was starting from developmentally: he could defend with his length, but couldn’t really attack in the pick and roll, nor could he shoot from distance or mid-range. He was fast, though, and fit his teammates a lot better than Trey Burke did.
From there, though Exum didn’t develop a ton. That was actually the best 3-point shooting season in his career. He started to attack the rim more, but made fewer of his layups. He passed out of pick-and-rolls less, but attacking more meant that he turned the ball over more. And defensively, he was still super long, but still was susceptible to getting fouls called against him... he never figured out how to avoid the referees’ whistles.
Now, obviously, there’s a really obvious reason blinking in bright lights: he was hurt! Repeatedly, in a bunch of different ways. The ACL tear halted his development, made him a bit slower. The patella tendon tear did the same. The separated shoulder was tough, and he even sprained an ankle really badly once. He tried to learn how to fall to prevent these, but that too curtailed his advantages. Exum fans — from Australia and Utah — blamed Quin Snyder for not playing Exum, but Snyder’s developmental record is too good up and down the roster for that to make much sense.
It’s a shame, because the Jazz tanked an entire year to draft Exum; it would have been really nice for that to have been worth more than the value of four months of Jordan Clarkson minus the value of two second-round picks, or, in other words, nothing. But at this moment, he’s not good enough to break the Jazz’s bench.
Maybe a change of scenery will help, though I’m a little skeptical. Still, in Cleveland, Exum has a chance to prove his fans right, and I hope he takes advantage.
Jordan Clarkson has been, for the majority of his career, a losing player. Certainly, that shows up in the win-loss record of the teams he’s played on, but for most of it, those bad teams were even worse with Clarkson out there.
Recently, he’s started to change. He’s taking more threes, he’s driving more, which means more layups and more trips to the free-throw line. His teams are bad with him out there defensively, but they’re not worse. It makes it possible that he’ll be good for the Jazz.
The closest upside comp I can think of for Clarkson is probably that he becomes what Austin Rivers was for the Rockets last year: a scoring threat that stabilizes the bench and plays well in the playoffs. Clarkson, though, might be a better shooter than Rivers, but Rivers is probably a better defender.
