Over last season and on through the start of this season, I've noticed a couple passing problems the Jazz have. I'm curious if anyone else has seen this too.
First, Rubio is a great passer and seems to help the offense move better when he's in (especially post all-star break last year). But it seems like he can't throw a lob down low to save his life. I'd say Exum, Mitchell, and Joe are all far better passers to the rim. As someone who got yelled at in an entry-level Basketball course in college for "not throwing the oop right," I know it's not as easy as it looks. However, Rubio is a gifted passer and it seems odd that he struggles with alley-oop lobs. What's more, it hurts our team quite a bit because Favors and Rudy roll to the rim so often.
My second point is a bit harder to pin down, but it seems like the offense struggles with entry passes into the post. Now, entry passes are a team effort, so I'm not sure if it's the fault of the passers or the post players not sealing well enough. But it's something I notice time and again, especially because of how often our bigs get switched onto much smaller defenders. It seems like our offense could get much stronger if we reliably got the ball to our bigs in good positions when those mismatches happen.
First, Rubio is a great passer and seems to help the offense move better when he's in (especially post all-star break last year). But it seems like he can't throw a lob down low to save his life. I'd say Exum, Mitchell, and Joe are all far better passers to the rim. As someone who got yelled at in an entry-level Basketball course in college for "not throwing the oop right," I know it's not as easy as it looks. However, Rubio is a gifted passer and it seems odd that he struggles with alley-oop lobs. What's more, it hurts our team quite a bit because Favors and Rudy roll to the rim so often.
My second point is a bit harder to pin down, but it seems like the offense struggles with entry passes into the post. Now, entry passes are a team effort, so I'm not sure if it's the fault of the passers or the post players not sealing well enough. But it's something I notice time and again, especially because of how often our bigs get switched onto much smaller defenders. It seems like our offense could get much stronger if we reliably got the ball to our bigs in good positions when those mismatches happen.