The suprising Jazz a blend of old and new
Without Jerry Sloan or Deron Williams, the Jazz seemed destined to be walking the road to irrelevance. But by sitting at 8-4, the Jazz now have many wondering what (if any) impact they will have on the 2012 playoff race. With largely the same faces as last season’s second-half slide and no real training camp to ready a pre-pubescent roster, this fast start seems largely implausible.
After all, Ty Corbin and this band of young 20-somethings were just asked to hold the fort until lottery helped arrived. That was expected to be the new era of basketball in Utah. But to quote The Who it’s, ‘Meet the old Jazz, same as the new Jazz’. When fans in Utah go to games, they see a team operate primarily in the half-court, run the flex and foul hard at every opportunity. Sounds awfully similar to the last two decades, ehh?
Sloan's influence lives on in Utah
However, there are subtle changes in the Utah scheme. Thanks to Al Jefferson’s mini-resurgence and Paul Millsap’s white-hot start, Utah has played more through the post than recent years. Whether it’s out of a transition push, the flex or another set, post-ups have largely replaced the pick and rolls that John Stockton and Williams ran with aplomb season after season.
This is a nice tactical shift given that Jazz roster doesn’t house many threats off that action. Millsap and Jefferson are far from terrifying dive men and both would probably be just around adequate picking and popping to mid-range. The ball handlers are in the same boat.
Neither Devin Harris nor Earl Watson have advanced ball screen games and the wings are about the same story with one exception; Gordon Hayward. Hayward is slowing but surely morphing into a Swiss Army knife on the wing. When he’s confident and active, Hayward impacts all areas of the game. Under Corbin, the former Butler star is now getting a chance to show off both his playmaking and ballhandling skills.
Last night, the Jazz had a handful of possessions involving Hayward in a pick and roll on the wing. The results were very promising as Hayward demonstrated a knack for executing them, possibly due to the fact that Butler’s offense is/was side ball screen heavy (though he wasn’t running them too often in games for the Bulldogs).
Utah normally starts this action with the guard passing to Hayward on the wing and the big man opposite (usually Jefferson) sprinting to screen while the rest of the team gets into a triangle away (wing, corner, short corner). In the first clip, Hayward does an excellent job of waiting for Jefferson to get set before coming off. Not only does this avoid an offensive foul call, but it causes Danilo Gallinari, Hayward’s defender to get caught up in the screen.
Hayward comes off with good pace looking to turn the corner. Most wings running side pick and rolls come off primarily thinking score first, second and third. Hayward, however, reads Ty Lawson on his line of attack, takes an extra dribble to keep him fully engaged in his help defense position, the quickly kicks the pass out to Harris on the wing. That extra split second of time Hayward holds Lawson allows for Harris to get his shot off cleanly. Here is the play:
The next play shows off Hayward in attack mode. The action starts the same way, with Jefferson sprinting to screen from the opposite block. This time, however, Hayward comes off without a defender directly on his line. He subtle shifts into a higher gear and explodes through it. Lawson, again in help, is forced to reach in and foul him.
The final edit shows Hayward and Millsap in a two-man game on the right wing. This time Hayward does an excellent job of pushing his dribble all the way into the paint, sucking in the defense before kicking the ball out. Harris, the recipient of Hayward’s pass, quickly swings the ball to Raja Bell in the corner for a 3. Hayward doesn’t get any credit for the play, but make no mistake about it, he made it happen. Here’s the video:
If Corbin continues creatively employing new tweaks like this to the old system, if Devin Harris returns to form, if Paul Millsap’s production doesn’t drop too far from its current level and if the defensive improvement sticks, the Jazz could find the timetable on their rebuilding project drastically moved up. A lot of ‘ifs’ to be sure, but that’s why we’ll keep watching.
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