1. The most frustrating source of Jazz turnovers: driving one-on-one
Hey, more turnover talk. We’ve talked about this before, because it’s the biggest reason the Jazz are losing games, but we’ll do it again because it’s why they lost this one, too.
The Jazz, as we discovered last week, turn the ball over in every conceivable way at an above-league-average rate. But I’ll tell you a non-statistical source of turnovers that drives me crazy: when a Jazz player simply drives into a guy because he wants to score.
Isaiah Collier just drives into Julian Champagnie here. He’s there, sir! He’s got long arms! You’ve got time to run a play!
I suppose Keyonte George is going two-for-one here, which explains his urgency. But it doesn’t explain why attacking not just one but two defenders is the key move... he simply has to pass.
Brice Sensabaugh is trying to drive here against one of the best steal guys in NBA league history with 16 seconds on the shot clock. Run a play! Call for a screen! Etc.
This is youth, I suppose. I hope, though, that eventually youth realizes that they need each other to succeed, that the one-on-one gifts that these players relied upon to score in AAU and college no longer are effective against longer, stronger, better athletes in the NBA.
2. Cody Williams to the G-League
The Jazz’s biggest personnel decision this week came when they sent Cody Williams to the G-League’s Salt Lake City Stars.
It was some unusual timing: both teams are at home right now, but the Jazz play twice this week, while the Stars don’t play until Friday, on the road in Santa Cruz. But the team preferred to send Williams to Stars practice over Jazz practice — presumably he’d play a bigger role at the former over the latter.
That’s not hard to do, because Williams played about as small of a role as is possible in the NBA, while playing it about as poorly as possible. He had the league’s sixth-lowest usage rate in the NBA among minutes-qualified players, and its very worst PER. In short, putting up a 1-2-1 points-rebounds-assists line on 27% shooting from the field and 19% shooting from three is going to make the numbers look pretty rough. (As is his team being outscored by 22 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor.)
The thing is: this kind of off-ball three-and-D style is not what the Jazz envision Williams' career to become.
“This is an opportunity for him to play a lot, have the ball in his hands, catch a little bit of a rhythm, and kind of continue on his path of development and improvement with us right now,” Hardy said. “I think there were times here where he was a little careful, and I think that’s totally understandable. I want him to let it rip a little bit more.”
Look — my stated preference is that the actual Utah Jazz play the kids. The goal isn’t to win games, the goal is to develop the youth so that they may be useful for the next good Jazz team.
But in Williams' case, he was so shy in his 16 NBA games, so far off the pace that I think this move makes sense. He wasn’t going to develop in the role he was playing now. Even had Hardy played him 35 minutes a night, he still wouldn’t have the ball in his hands very much, thanks to the ball-domineering presence of George, Sexton, Collier, Clarkson, Collins, and so on. Hopefully, he gets that chance with the Stars.
3. Thinking about Brice Sensabaugh
Brice Sensabaugh has found himself in and out of the rotation this year. Mostly out recently, though, as Johnny Juzang has largely gotten the final spot in the rotation over him. Juzang’s still young, and I think probably a better player right now, so it’s a reasonable decision. It‘s not, say, Svi Mykhailiuk that the Jazz are giving time over Sensabaugh.
Williams’ Stars trip, though, probably means Sensabaugh will find himself in the rotation moving forward. And I really hope he moves forward as a player as well.
Sensabaugh scored really well tonight, scoring 16 points on terrific efficiency: 6-11 from the field, 4-7 from the 3-point line. The problem was that he didn’t really contribute in other ways in his 27 minutes — no rebounds, no assists, three turnovers. Overall, the Jazz were outscored by 15 when he was on the floor, and I thought that, as the Jazz had rebounding woes in the fourth quarter, Sensabaugh was the most frequent culprit.
So the upside is that Sensabaugh is the Jazz’s best shooter of the first-or-second year players. The downside is that scoring-only lifestyle is a tough road to make it in the NBA. I’ve watched countless Jazz prospects go down for this, from Morris Almond to Kevin Murphy to even Trey Burke. In the end, you have to be able to score wildly efficiently to hang that way. Or you can become a solid defender, rebounder, and team offensive player.
“What I want to see from Bryce are is two things: No. 1, executing our team defense and really focusing on that end of the floor... Bryce can score in his sleep, like that’s not what he needs to be thinking about. He needs to be focused on the defensive details,” Hardy said. “And then on the offensive side, it’s continuing to play a reads-based game. I think that’s how he got himself going — he made really good reads. And the one sort of loud play that didn’t look good was when he broke it off and tried to play one on one."
“I think I made a big step from last year,” Sensabaugh said about his defense. “Obviously still got a long way to go, but I’m trending in the right direction.”
I agree with both aspects of that — that he’s better, and still a long way away. I hope he continues to show more growth in that area as he gets this opportunity.
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