Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz 114-99 win over the Orlando Magic from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Defending shooting bigs
The Magic aren’t good — they made so many bad errors tonight, particularly in the first half. Their offense is a slog. Their defense is relatively exploitable, too. And yet, they do present some challenges for the Jazz that have been among their weaknesses in recent years: score-first guards playing with shooting big men.
There were moments when the Jazz defended that extremely well, and moments where they didn’t. And I think it’s worth studying the difference between the two.
So here’s a successful Orlando pick and pop. Hassan Whiteside has to be in the paint to prevent the easy basket from Cole Anthony, at least while the strategy is to go over screens. But with that comes leaving Mo Bamba alone, and there’s just a lot of height and distance for Jordan Clarkson or Whiteside to have to close out to.
And here’s a play where Donovan Mitchell got a steal.
Watch that first one again if you have to. The first, most important key: Udoka Azubuike is much more quickly involved in the play. Rather than inviting the ballhandler to come to him, ‘Dok is up, predicting the direction of the screen. That means that there’s just a lot less time for Anthony to make the pass in the second video than the first one — and, critically, less of an angle. Mitchell’s going to be in that passing lane unless it’s a loopy pass, and then there’s more time to recover.
Second, Mitchell is anticipating the pass, while Clarkson is just doing his best to get back to his man, even if Whiteside already has it covered. Obviously, Mitchell has tools and leaping ability Clarkson doesn’t have, too.
I’ve been incredibly impressed with the defensive effort of Mitchell over the last couple of games — he really is trying to lead by example on the defensive end. There are still times when he dies on a screen, but he really is much more up on the ball and physical at the point of attack initially, and he’s been very on-point in reading the passing lanes too. This kind of stuff is what the Jazz will need in the playoffs, even when it comes against tougher opposition.
2. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Juancho Hernangomez only get garbage time
The two trade acquisitions were on track for DNP-CDs until the Jazz pulled away by enough late that they got just over a minute of garbage time. Trent Forrest played 24 minutes, as did Jordan Clarkson. Eric Paschall played 12. Jared Butler even got a short 2-minute stint in the first half, giving Conley a little bit of an extra breather. Alexander-Walker, though, didn’t.
I don’t get the sense that Quin’s going to be that excited to play NAW — in particular, that little Butler first half stint, with a double-digit lead, really could have gone to the new acquisition just to get his ears wet.
Honestly, watching the video of Alexander-Walker in New Orleans, I get it. I’ll get into this in a more detailed article later, but he’s a really, really poor decision maker right now, really on both ends of the floor. Maybe that changes overnight, but in a game today, I’m probably picking Butler too. That doesn’t mean Alexander-Walker doesn’t have potential, but I do think that it makes his road to playing and contributing to the Jazz in this year’s playoffs a lot tougher.
According to Justin Zanik this morning, the team tried to get a guy who could contribute this year. In particular, the Jazz asked: “Can it make us better? Can it definitively make us better? That’s a high bar with this group because we’re really good,” he said. “… There was just not anything definitive that reached a bar, whether using a future first or not.” Even if they used a first!
Still, this is the group: it looks like they’re going to have one of Forrest or Paschall in the playoff rotation, barring something like 36 minutes a night for Rudy Gay.
3. Jazz fans are lucky to have the coverage they do
Okay, I understand that this is a bit of a self-pat on the back. But it really is true, I promise: Jazz fans, there’s an abundance of great coverage of this team — it’s much easier to be a Jazz fan than a Magic fan. Heck, it’s easier to be a Jazz fan than one of almost any other team in the NBA.
Orlando is the U.S.’ 17th biggest media market. And yet, only one media member traveled to the game from Orlando: an OrlandoMagic.com writer, paid for by the team. The Orlando Sentinel has a writer or two on the Zoom chats, but they no longer travel anybody to road games, and haven’t for years. The Athletic no longer has an Orlando Magic beat writer.
That may not surprise you, given that the Magic suck. But even surprisingly good teams have miniscule independent beat corps. Most of the league’s teams have just one independent beat writer covering the team traveling. Phoenix and Denver frequently have had zero in recent years. The Clippers, along with Chicago and Dallas see only one or two, despite being large markets with relevant teams.
Meanwhile, we at the Tribune cover every Jazz road game from the road. The Deseret News does too. We have two full-time Jazz beat writers and they have one (neener neener neener), but already, we’re past the vast majority of the NBA. Then, you add that The Athletic and KSL.com frequently travel to road games to cover them in person... it’s a competitive media marketplace that does genuinely result in better coverage for fans — and maybe an unexpected one for the #30-sized media market.
Furthermore, the Jazz are generally better with access than most other teams in the NBA. Many teams violate NBA rules and don’t make their players available when journalists request them; the Knicks were fined last month for not making Julius Randle seven games in a row. There was a recent argument with the club on whether or not media access would be in person during the Jazz’s coronavirus scare, but that’s been resolved now — we’re back in person, and getting better and longer interviews. It was great to be able to talk to Justin Zanik, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Juancho Hernangomez, and Rudy Gobert at today’s shootaround, and we were able to get and give much, much more insight as a result.
Of course, this is only possible because the interest warrants it: the Jazz have the second-highest local TV ratings in the NBA. On the Tribune side of things, our subscription and page view numbers stand strong. Jazz fans are legitimately ravenous for information, and we provide it to the best of our ability.
