Utah Jazz takeaway: The offense has the potential to be great
The Jazz offense was great last year, as shown the makings to be even better this season. They currently sit 11th in overall offensive rating, which is very encouraging considering Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic haven’t been sharp and Joe Ingles isn’t at his usual sharpshooting self. Mike Conley looks great in this early part of the season and Jordan Clarkson has picked up right where he left off from last season.
Utah is taking more 3’s than they did last year and are still hitting at about a 39 percent clip, good for fourth in the NBA. The constant passing and the pick-and-roll with Rudy Gobert forces other teams to guard the the rim, which generates a ton of 3-point looks for a great shooting team. Teams have to decide whether they want to just give Rudy the rim to dunk everything, or give up 3’s to Conley, Mitchell, and Bogdanovic. Pick your poison.
What’s interesting is the Jazz are also crashing the offensive glass more – they’re offensive rebounding 25 percent more than last year and rank in the the top five in that category. It’s a little concerning that they’re not getting to the foul line as much as they did last year, but if they shoot threes like they did against Milwaukee and Cleveland, that shouldn’t be a problem. Overall, this offense has all the makings of becoming an unstoppable force.