The Utah Jazz are a mess.
At the start of the season, Jazz fans were hyped. With the #2 pick in Darryn Peterson, Keyonte George on a new contract, and Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. healthy and ready to play, the season was extremely promising.
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After tonight's 119-97 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, the Jazz are now 1-6 and are in last place in the Western Conference.
Tonight was easily the worst showing from the Jazz all season, with the Jazz looking disjointed and chaotic on both ends of the floor for most of the game. As a team, Utah shot 35.4% from the field and 35.3% from three. Yes, the Jazz are young, and they're missing Jaren Jackson Jr. to injury, but nothing looks easy with this offense. Credit goes to the Spurs for their excellent perimeter defense, but Utah never looked like it had an offensive rhythm. There are a lot of actions with the Jazz offense that come from a lot of movement, but those ended up in some pretty odd endings. Jaxson Hayes, for example, had 9 shots in this one but was just 4/9. Svi Mykhailiuk was 1/7 in this one as well. That's not the worst thing in the world, but it feels like there are too many times when Utah's offense doesn't flow through the most important players: Keyonte George, Darryn Peterson, Lauri Markkanen, and Ace Bailey. That's not to say Utah didn't get shots for those players. Markkanen led the team with 16 shots, Peterson was next with 13, Keyonte George 12, and Ace Bailey 11, but at times the offense feels like it has no clear order, and a lot of role players hijack possessions that turn into bad plays.
Now, you could argue those shots being spread around were justified, given the bad shooting from those core players on the Jazz. Keyonte George has now had two bad shooting games in a row (3/12), and Ace Bailey is still finding his stroke from three (1/5), for example. But something has to be done to improve shot quality. Are there offensive tweaks that could give them more opportunities for easier shots? Can they simplify things somehow? The reality is something has to improve because Utah is not a very good team right now.
Tonight's game had some really weird energy. Could it have had something to do with the news that Isaiah Collier had the team option declined on his contract?
Maybe it was that? Or maybe it was a residual effect of Will Hardy's decision to bench Darryn Peterson for Brice Sensabaugh and Isaiah Collier? Speaking of that, it's not great that Peterson was benched for a player who won't even be on the team next year. It's not a great sign. There's no way to know as an outside observer, but the team did not look happy. Now, winning cures all, and Utah could really stand to get some wins soon to turn the season around, but if they play like they did tonight, it'll take some time.
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That's not to say there weren't some bright spots. Utah apparently made it clear they were not playing Collier and had Darryn Peterson running the show with the second unit. Things weren't perfect, but Peterson and the second unit clawed their way back into the game. Peterson was just a -4 in a blowout loss, and those minutes with the bench were a big reason why. It's a great sign for the future and confirmation that Will Hardy force-feeding Isaiah Collier minutes wasn't the best play.
The takeaway from this game, besides learning to compartmentalize the difficult things in life, is to remember the team is only going to get better. The Jazz are evolving game by game in how they are running, and eventually those moves will lead to winning. It also looks like this season will turn around as soon as Darryn Peterson takes off as a player. That may take time though, so Jazz fans might need to find some patience.
