Even with Rudy Gobert on the court, does the Utah Jazz’s ‘prevent defense’ make them too susceptible to big runs?

Editor’s note: Tyler Crandall is a contributor to Salt City Hoops. This piece is part of a collaboration between SCH and The Tribune that seeks to create more dialogue and community for Utah Jazz fans.

There’s no question the Utah Jazz need a healthy Rudy Gobert back on the court.

But even when the three-time Defensive Player of the Year has been in action this season, there has been an issue that has plagued the Jazz.

In seven of the Utah Jazz’s 14 losses so far this season, they have surrendered a double-digit lead on the way to defeat — like on Monday night, when a diminished Detroit squad raced back from 22 down to stun the visiting Jazz. Even in several of their wins, they’ve let opponents back into games.

Some data would suggest that the letdown starts on the defensive end. A query at pbpstats.com shows that the Jazz defense allows 113.6 points per 100 possessions that start with the Jazz leading by 10 or more, significantly worse than their overall defensive rating of 108.5.

One theory: Maybe the Jazz’s conservative defensive style allows teams to get into a rhythm. Overall, the Jazz are pretty hard to score against when they’re set (sixth-best halfcourt defense), but once a team has “solved” that defense and found a groove, perhaps it’s harder for the Jazz to stop the bleeding.

Playing conservatively

For years now, the Jazz’s defensive identity has been built around Gobert. Because of his ability to protect the paint with sound, fundamental defense, the Jazz have constructed a conservative defense that waits for attackers to challenge him instead of sending pressure out to blow up actions at the point of attack.

This conservatism even shows up in the way Gobert protects the rim. For years, he battled then Heat center Hassan Whiteside for the NBA’s block crown. In 2015-16, Gobert’s first year as a full-time starter, he finished third in blocks per game, still behind Whiteside’s league-leading 3.2. The next season, it was Gobert’s turn to lead the league, with 2.6 blocks per game, and Whiteside was right behind him in fourth place.

Since then, Gobert’s block numbers have dropped, but not because he’s become a worse defender. On the contrary, he has three Defensive Player of the Year trophies, all of which came after he won his lone block title.

Gobert has focused more on playing solid defense as opposed to chasing blocks. And it has helped. You can see a difference even today in the way Whiteside and Gobert, now teammates, approach their rim protection duties. Whiteside jumps at pump fakes, but also is rewarded by high block counts. At times he’s even had more blocks than Gobert in far fewer minutes, but Gobert tends to have a greater impact on deterring and impacting shots at the rim, and proves to be a better defensive anchor for the entire team.

But the Jazz’s style goes beyond Gobert. This has actually been a philosophical point of emphasis for head coach Quin Snyder for the last few years.

The Jazz try to limit fouls, but that also means they don’t force many turnovers. They crash the boards and then get back in transition. If they can’t get back, they foul to stop the play. They force everything they can into the halfcourt. And once in the halfcourt they get established. They stick to their men on the wings, fighting over most screens rather than switching, and attempting to funnel everything toward a waiting Gobert. In fairness, Snyder has had the team experiment with some different styles this year, including switching, hedging and selective trapping. But by and large their defensive style skews more to the reactive and passive side.

And it works. Usually.

Prevent defense

In some ways, the Jazz’s overall style is similar to football’s “prevent defense.”

Coaches often use this strategy when they want to preserve a late lead by deterring big plays and forcing the opponent to burn clock. Rather than using the strategy that got them the lead in the first place, they resort to playing back on their heels a bit more, trying to prevent big plays even at the expense of allowing the opponent to progress down the field. It sometimes works, but often it backfires. Rather than focusing on winning, the team starts to focus on not losing. But if an opponent can find the spots to push against a defense that’s waiting further back instead of putting up resistance at the line of scrimmage, they can get into a rhythm, move the chains, and progress towards a (sometimes) inevitable score.

One might wonder if the Jazz fall into that same trap when they get a big lead. They shift from playing winning basketball to “let’s try to not lose.” And it has backfired in a big way down the stretch of certain games. It doesn’t mean Snyder is intentionally setting a “prevent defense” strategy, but perhaps it’s more of a subconscious mindset where a team that already plays defense on its heels to some degree becomes much more passive overall.

There have been occasions when the Jazz defense has been mystified and Gobert has been negated. There are times when an opposing guard or wing has been able to score with reckless abandon in a flow state and nothing the Jazz can do to stop it. Is it bad luck or is it possible that the passive style of defense allowed an opponent to find a groove where he could get clean shots off and achieve that flow state?

Teams like Toronto, on the other hand, play very aggressively. They switch on most screening actions, they double and blitz the ball out near half-court, and they jump every passing lane. It’s essentially the opposite of the Jazz defense, the yin to Utah’s yang. This high-risk style can frustrate opponents with pressure and blow up actions, but it can also be easy for smart teams with multiple ball movers to exploit. Their risky style can be exploited, which is at least partially why they went from the second-ranked defense three seasons ago, to completely average, and then to a bottom-10 ranking so far this season.

Big runs

We’ve seen it time and time again: guys able to score 40, even 50 points against a Jazz defense that is considered elite. Jamal Murray, Damian Lillard, Brandon Ingram. Ben Simmons, Ja Morant and others somehow find the cracks in Utah’s conservative system and get into a groove. Or the Kyle Lowry and Chris Paul types get past some token outside pressure and live in the midrange, before the lurking bigs have engaged. Part of the way the Jazz play passively almost encourages those guys to try something bold. It tempts, taunts, and begs them to make a big play.

The problem occurs when those guys are capable of answering that challenge.

Multiple teams have scored a 10-0 run vs the Jazz this season. Fifteen teams have come all the way back from double-digit deficits to tie or take the lead against the Jazz, and seven of those ended up winning.

For example, San Antonio erased a 17-point lead on December 17. The Jazz simply couldn’t stop DeJounte Murray and the other Spurs, who found their rhythm in a 43-point third quarter.

On this one, Murray misses the shot. But you can see Mike Conley struggle to fight over the screen while Gobert and the rest of the Jazz defense hang back. Jazz get lucky as this is a chance for Murray to get off a relatively open 3-point attempt.

Royce O’Neale gets lost on this one and Keldon Johnson nails the easy triple.

Conley is too far from his guy here as he tries to employ another “prevent defense” staple: the free throw line stunt. That could have been the game plan to prevent a drive. But it still leaves Murray for an open three.

There’s obviously many more that could be shown from a 43-point outburst in the 3rd quarter of that game. But the trend on display here is that it’s just too easy.

There’s also the coaching matchup to consider. If the Jazz are reactive, they wait until an opponent does something to react. By definition. That allows smart coaches, particularly the flexible and experimental ones, to poke and prod and try new things to see where they can expose. This plays well into a Jazz weakness, which is that they are poor at defending the point of attack and rely on funneling the attack into the outstretched arms of Gobert. Veteran coaches like Tyronn Lue, Erik Spoelstra, Gregg Popovich, Rick Carlisle and others have had success catching the Jazz off guard. All four of those are championship-winning coaches who have bested Snyder and the Jazz in recent months.

What can the Jazz do differently?

Broadly speaking, the Jazz have no need to change their defensive system entirely. It’s worked well enough this season (6th ranked) and has worked very well in seasons past. But having some flexibility on defense could be a big plus in an environment with more teams playing small, rule changes, and more teams having a sense of what the script is to beat the Jazz’s defense.

Having Gobert in the middle means that Jazz perimeter players, even if not naturally elite defenders, can play a bit more aggressively to deny the three, jump passing lanes, and otherwise disrupt opposing offenses. Instead, we see a lot of passivity on the wings and perimeter. Everyone really seems to be just waiting for the opponent to make a play.

The Jazz don’t have the personnel to pressure the way the Raptors do, but they can be more aggressive on the perimeter while keeping the Stifle Tower as the reactive anchor to their defense. Gobert is mobile enough to defend multiple actions and spaces on the floor and still be Utah’s sturdy back line, even if his teammates on the perimeter apply a bit more pressure. Jazz tweeters often view this lack of aggressiveness as a sign of Jazz players lacking the “energy,” “hustle” or “urgency” to play with the pedal to the metal, but this is actually a philosophical choice the Jazz appear to have made. Having said that, there are times they need to be willing and able to change gears on defense.

Taking the aggressive angle on the perimeters will take control away from opposing ball-handlers. It will force them to react rather than give them space to make big plays and get into a flow. And even if they beat that initial pressure, Gobert is still back there, awaiting the drive.

The Jazz could also look to add another elite wing defender. But if that opportunity doesn’t materialize, a bit of selective aggressiveness could bring the Jazz defense back to yesteryear’s elite level and a place in the top 5 defenses in the league.