https://www.sportsonearth.com/article/111914580/utah-jazz-development-of-rudy-gobert-future-is-now
A nice article on the Jazz by Brett Koremenos:
A nice article on the Jazz by Brett Koremenos:
Utah's Future Has Arrived
By Brett Koremenos
Since the departure of Jerry Sloan and the team's last star, Deron Williams, success has been fleeting for a Utah Jazz organization that ruled the Western Conference in the 1990s. After bottoming out last year with a 25-57 record on the heels of some veteran departures the previous summer, Utah (despite outlandish claims by a crazy Internet writer) looked destined to be lottery fodder for the next few seasons. Yet in losing talented but flawed big man Enes Kanter for spare parts just hours before the trade deadline, Utah found not only real hope for a promising future, but something that has eluded the franchise even under Sloan: a dominating defense.
In the nine games since Kanter was dealt, Utah is not only 7-2 with wins over conference heavyweights like Portland, Memphis and San Antonio, it is sending a message to the rest of the NBA that points will no longer be easy to come by. The Jazz have posted a defensive rating of 89.7 during that stretch, per NBA.com data. To put that number in perspective, the Golden State Warriors defense, which routinely frustrates and outright demolishes teams around the league, currently leads the league with a defensive rating of 97.6. That number, while admittedly part of a small sample size, is also light years better than Utah's season average of 103.7 -- which currently ranks 17th.
The reason for such a massive turnaround is an equally gigantic human being and the reason the Jazz were OK with ditching Kanter in the first place: French center Rudy Gobert. Entering the season as a talented enigma, Gobert has blossomed into a defensive force. To call the young Jazz big man a shot blocker doesn't do him justice; he's more like a shot vaporizer. Opponents are converting an embarrassingly low 38.6 percent of their attempts near the rim in Gobert's presence, ranking the Frenchman first in the league per NBA.com's player tracking data (minimum 20 minutes and two rim attempts per game). Gobert is almost single-handedly creating an identity for a young team on the rise. But the key word there is almost.
As crucial as Gobert has been in this turnaround, his presence alone isn't why opponents are going to hate playing the Jazz in the next decade. Gobert's frontcourt partner, Derrick Favors, isn't a slouch on that end of the floor either. Though his offensive improvement has stolen most of the spotlight, Favors has provided the most value on the defensive end. He forces opponents into making just 44.6 percent of their shot attempts near the basket, raning sixth in that category -- only five spots below his current frontcourt partner. By sliding Favors to the power forward position, Utah has supersized its lineup, creating a foundation defensively in ways it could only dream about with Kanter in tow.
Yet as promising as the team's improvement on defense is, success in the NBA is predicated on being functional on both ends of the floor. As we've seen to a degree with the Pacers, a turbo-charged defense has a limiting effect if the team struggles to score on offense. Given that the league is trending more toward "stretch" bigs capable of pulling opposing frontcourt players out toward the perimeter -- providing huge swaths of real estate for slashing guards or post scorers -- the combination of Favors and Gobert is certainly going to be a challenge to manage offensively.
So far head coach Quin Snyder seems to at least be keeping the duo's offensive output somewhere above atrocious, which is no small feat given their limitations. Now the easiest thing for Snyder would be if either Favors or Gobert would turn into a dominant post player. Such a development would allow Utah's first-year head coach to craft a "power" offense featuring a bevy of post ups and high-low looks -- something that would minimize or altogether eliminate the spacing issues that comes with two non-shooting bigs clogging up potential driving gaps for perimeter ball handlers. The problem with that is Favors is the best of the two on the block, mainly because Gobert is so awkward and turnover-prone down low. He is hardly given chances to post up, yet Favors ranks in just the 44th percentile in terms of post up-production, per Synergy Sports data.
While the Jazz certainly do post Favors, as they should for the sake of his development in that area, Snyder has created a somewhat functional offense when his two young bigs are together by instituting a clever concept into their offensive scheme called the "circle under."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ddhazie5TE
As you can see in this play against Philadelphia, Gobert goes into pick-and-roll with teammate Joe Ingles, and the Sixers "down" the screen, forcing Ingles to drive toward the baseline while Gobert rolls down the middle of the lane (in a traditional coverage, Gobert would screen and then roll along the baseline side). But instead of trying to space the floor with his improved but still unthreatening jumper, Favors does something that seems rather unorthodox: He moves into the path of the driving Ingles.
This move pulls Favors' help defender, Philly's Luc Richard Mbah-Moute, away from his original help spot and vacates the lane for Gobert to catch and finish deep in the paint. Had Favors just stood idly by instead of making this move, Mbah-Moute would have been able to jam or cut off Gobert's roll to the rim without any real repercussion for leaving Favors open. That type of issue is why it's difficult to score points, at least for a pick-and-roll based offense, when two bigs like Favors and Gobert share the floor together. After all, even if Ingles had a window to get Favors the ball, he's still shooting only a mid-range (read: inefficient) jumper, hardly the type of three-or-dunk decision that Tyson Chandler forces for a team like the Mavericks.
But the circle under move by Favors essentially removes any potential spacing problems by putting him into a position where he's still a threat: right near the basket. The only drawback to having to use this is that it virtually eliminates any chance the ball handler has to attack the basket. Thankfully for the Jazz, all their guards either struggle finishing around the rim anyway (Trey Burke) or excel at knocking down the mid-range shots (Gordon Hayward) -- the only type that are available when their teammate circles into their driving lane.
Another remedy to the Gobert-Favors offensive issues has been Snyder's use of one of the Spurs' pet sets: Strong. Since these two have become the team's frontcourt, Snyder has leaned on this play a lot because it's combination of post-ups, elbow catches and off-the-ball-screening sequences are yet another clever way to mask playing two bigs with limited range.
[url[/MEDIA[/MEDIA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Fzs_SFw6M[/url]
Unfortunately, the results so far, even during this impressive nine-game run, haven't been worth writing home about. Favors and Gobert have sported an offensive rating of only 94.8 when they share the floor together, per NBA.com data. Such a mark would only be ahead of the hapless Sixers if it held up for a full season. Clearly, this is an unfinished product on that end of the floor.
But what no longer seems like a work in progress is this Jazz team. Though it's too late for a playoff run this season, the emergence of Gobert after the trade of Kanter, along with the growth and potential of players like Dante Exum, Alec Burks (who is not even contributing to this run due to season-ending surgery), Favors and Hayward, has accelerated the team's rebuilding process. The future -- and defense -- has arrived in Utah.
