Utah Jazz offense is offensive - MySynergySports data

Okay, we're the worst team at scoring in the league. This is a very new low for Utah Jazz fans, we've never had a team THIS bad before, right? Well, let's look at how we got here. This is the MySynergySports.com info year to year for our overall scoring. There are some things here that are easy to understand, like FG%, some other things in the middle like PPP (points per possession), and some things I've added that you don't get on any other site on the internet: like ePPG (estimated Points per game), and ePlyPG (estimated number of plays of a specific type per game). These extra things give us a more robust understanding of how frequently we terminate a play of a specific type, and how many points we usually get from doing it. (N.B. the game values are for regular season and playoff combined, which explains why you see 70 gms instead of 66 for our lockout shortened year, etc)

Anyway, here's the year by year data of our team's offense.

Season	G	Play Type	Number	% Time		PPP	NBA Rank		FGM	FGA	FG%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%		ePPG	ePlyPG
2009 2010	92	Overall	9721	100.0%		0.97	6		3590	7328	49.0%	505	1376	36.7%		102.49	105.66
2010 2011	82	Overall	8524	100.0%		0.95	11		3048	6549	46.5%	437	1262	34.6%		98.75	103.95
2011 2012	70	Overall	7742	100.0%		0.90	19		2702	6018	44.9%	268	911	29.4%		99.54	110.60
2012 2013	82	Overall	8654	100.0%		0.92	14		3036	6687	45.4%	506	1377	36.7%		97.09	105.54
2013 2014	13	Overall	1402	100.0%		0.82	30		434	1047	41.5%	70	238	29.4%		88.43	107.85

This is a downward trend. Things were a lot smoother under a Jerry Sloan offense run by actual all-stars like Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, and Andrei Kirilenko. Things are sandpaper rough right now under Tyrone Corbin trying to coax blood from a stone like Jamaal Tinsley and Richard Jefferson. Things are not so great, but we need to look a little deeper to figure this out. It's not a simple answer like: the offense is bad right now because the season started with no good point guards and guys are missing open shots, right? (Well, that's probably what the final answer is going to be; but let's get to that answer after a few pie charts at least, ok. Humor me.)

Let's go down memory lane for a bit...

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2009-2010

This Jazz team went to the playoffs, won a round, and was one of the better offensive clubs in the NBA that year. They played 92 games. And for the most part, on offense the things they did the most frequently were things that they were not just good at doing, but among the best in the NBA at doing.

	2009-2010	G = 92
	Play Type	Number	% Time		PPP	NBA Rank		FGM	FGA	FG%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%		ePPG	ePlyPG
	Overall	9721	100.0%		0.97	6		3590	7328	49.0%	505	1376	36.7%		102.49	105.66
1	Spot Up	1901	19.6%		0.99	11		698	1727	40.4%	342	871	39.3%		20.46	20.66
2	Cut	1351	13.9%		1.29	8		693	1058	65.5%	0	0			18.94	14.68
3	Transition	1274	13.1%		1.23	1		567	923	61.4%	41	128	32.0%		17.03	13.85
4	Post Up	914	9.4%		0.86	17		303	651	46.5%	0	0			8.54	9.93
5	Isolation	893	9.2%		0.79	29		251	672	37.4%	28	99	28.3%		7.67	9.71
6	Off Screen	883	9.1%		0.86	18		330	785	42.0%	29	75	38.7%		8.25	9.60
7	Other	736	7.6%		0.37	26		55	137	40.1%	3	37	8.1%		2.96	8.00
8	P&R Ball Handler	580	6.0%		0.82	15		169	400	42.3%	40	97	41.2%		5.17	6.30
9	Offensive Rebound	538	5.5%		1.10	14		248	448	55.4%	0	3	0.0%		6.43	5.85
10	P&R Man	445	4.6%		1.15	3		201	352	57.1%	6	16	37.5%		5.56	4.84
11	Hand Off	206	2.1%		0.90	16		75	175	42.9%	16	50	32.0%		2.02	2.24

Good times. Some key points, the team nearly made 40% of their spot up threes, cut well, killed it in transition, and for the most part, scored more estimated points per game from their top three offensive sets then the number of attempts of those offensive sets. (greater ePPG than ePlyPG)

.

2010-2011

This season was the blow up year where Jerry Sloan resigned, and Tyrone Corbin was left to pick up the pieces. The team traded for Derrick Favors here (and the pieces that would either become or be used to trade for Enes Kanter and Trey Burke). This was also Year 1 of the Al Jefferson reign and domination of our offense. There are some significant changes already to how we did things.

	2010-2011	G = 82
	Play Type	Number	% Time		PPP	NBA Rank		FGM	FGA	FG%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%		ePPG	ePlyPG
	Overall	8524	100.0%		0.95	11		3048	6549	46.5%	437	1262	34.6%		98.75	103.95
1	Spot Up	1534	18.0%		0.96	15		551	1410	39.1%	255	706	36.1%		17.96	18.71
2	Transition	1150	13.5%		1.18	7		500	835	59.9%	59	139	42.4%		16.55	14.02
3	Cut	1012	11.9%		1.25	8		525	842	62.4%	0	0			15.43	12.34
4	Post Up	1004	11.8%		0.93	3		372	817	45.5%	0	0			11.39	12.24
5	Off Screen	834	9.8%		0.85	20		288	740	38.9%	42	118	35.6%		8.65	10.17
6	Isolation	820	9.6%		0.85	12		237	603	39.3%	29	100	29.0%		8.50	10.00
7	Other	693	8.1%		0.36	30		37	121	30.6%	5	45	11.1%		3.04	8.45
8	P&R Ball Handler	530	6.2%		0.79	21		144	381	37.8%	26	83	31.3%		5.11	6.46
9	Offensive Rebound	500	5.9%		1.08	14		223	416	53.6%	0	3	0.0%		6.59	6.10
10	P&R Man	289	3.4%		1.03	9		123	241	51.0%	2	8	25.0%		3.63	3.52
11	Hand Off	158	1.9%		0.80	24		48	143	33.6%	19	60	31.7%		1.54	1.93

The Jazz continued to focus on things they were effective in, though it is curious to see that we were much better at Pick and Rolls to the screen setting than we were at isolations... but used one more than the other. The biggest is how isolation / stopping the ball movement offense really started to pay off, from 29th in NBA rank the year before to 12th. Of course, a little of a bad thing isn't going to kill you . . . but . . .

.

2011-2012

The Jazz returned to the playoffs this year in an amazing season where the team went from 12th in the West to 8th in the span of a few weeks. Of course this completely has to do with the Jazz being great, and not that 4 teams started to tank. Don't believe the hype, as Flava Flav used to say.

	2011-2012	G = 70
	Play Type	Number	% Time		PPP	NBA Rank		FGM	FGA	FG%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%		ePPG	ePlyPG
	Overall	7742	100.0%		0.90	19		2702	6018	44.9%	268	911	29.4%		99.54	110.60
1	Spot Up	1378	17.8%		0.89	26		460	1274	36.1%	212	623	34.0%		17.52	19.69
2	Post Up	1322	17.1%		0.85	13		463	1076	43.0%	0	0			16.05	18.89
3	Transition	1182	15.3%		1.10	24		476	838	56.8%	25	86	29.1%		18.57	16.89
4	Cut	770	9.9%		1.22	8		384	636	60.4%	0	0			13.42	11.00
5	Offensive Rebound	591	7.6%		1.06	15		267	502	53.2%	1	2	50.0%		8.95	8.44
6	Isolation	561	7.2%		0.73	25		143	424	33.7%	11	32	34.4%		5.85	8.01
7	P&R Ball Handler	553	7.1%		0.67	30		147	402	36.6%	14	57	24.6%		5.29	7.90
8	Other	517	6.7%		0.44	11		40	124	32.3%	4	36	11.1%		3.25	7.39
9	Off Screen	432	5.6%		0.82	24		152	382	39.8%	9	35	25.7%		5.06	6.17
10	P&R Man	287	3.7%		0.99	11		118	233	50.6%	0	4	0.0%		4.06	4.10
11	Hand Off	149	1.9%		0.88	10		52	127	40.9%	10	36	27.8%		1.87	2.13

Anyway, here we see post ups rivaling spot ups for the first time ever; almost taking up 20% of our offense. Cuts get marginalized, and drop from being one of our top 3 plays used every year to being used less than 10% of the time. This is the death of off the ball movement, and 1/4th of the offense is either a post up (which is a post iso) or an isolation (which is a face up iso).

Oh, and the team force fed things they were bad at here.

.

2012-2013

This was last year where we had a great group of outside shooters. That made the offense look really good at times. For the most part the offense worked, but once again we see cuts getting a smaller piece of the pie and the Jazz going to things they were not proficient in.

	2012-2013	G = 82
	Play Type	Number	% Time		PPP	NBA Rank		FGM	FGA	FG%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%		ePPG	ePlyPG
	Overall	8654	100.0%		0.92	14		3036	6687	45.4%	506	1377	36.7%		97.09	105.54
1	Spot Up	1694	19.6%		0.94	20		584	1568	37.2%	328	872	37.6%		19.42	20.66
2	Post Up	1396	16.1%		0.86	8		471	1070	44.0%	0	0			14.64	17.02
3	Transition	1271	14.7%		1.12	17		529	939	56.3%	71	159	44.7%		17.36	15.50
4	Cut	785	9.1%		1.26	2		418	661	63.2%	0	0			12.06	9.57
5	P&R Ball Handler	668	7.7%		0.69	29		180	494	36.4%	28	88	31.8%		5.62	8.15
6	Other	596	6.9%		0.43	13		40	109	36.7%	4	38	10.5%		3.13	7.27
7	Isolation	586	6.8%		0.77	21		177	467	37.9%	15	49	30.6%		5.50	7.15
8	Offensive Rebound	569	6.6%		1.09	11		258	459	56.2%	2	3	66.7%		7.56	6.94
9	Off Screen	507	5.9%		0.84	22		170	453	37.5%	47	117	40.2%		5.19	6.18
10	P&R Man	441	5.1%		0.94	21		166	347	47.8%	3	11	27.3%		5.06	5.38
11	Hand Off	141	1.6%		0.78	24		43	120	35.8%	8	40	20.0%		1.34	1.72

The Jazz had Spot up jumpers be the largest part of the offense when the team scored 0.99 PPP on them, and were #11 ranked in the NBA. This '12-13 club had a lot of shooters, but even so could not equal the performance of that older Jazz club. Also see that Pick and Roll ball handler up there? That #29 rank? Yep. #MOLO

.

2013-2014

Is it tanking when you try to do the things you are worst at, but the most times every game? Or is it 'learning' and development? Or just a bad offensive strategy?

	2013-2014	G = 13
	Play Type	Number	% Time		PPP	NBA Rank		FGM	FGA	FG%	3PTM	3PTA	3PT%		ePPG	ePlyPG
	Overall	1402	100.0%		0.82	30		434	1047	41.5%	70	238	29.4%		88.43	107.85
1	Spot Up	304	21.7%		0.82	26		88	273	32.2%	47	163	28.8%		19.18	23.38
2	P&R Ball Handler	216	15.4%		0.61	28		55	163	33.7%	6	18	33.3%		10.14	16.62
3	Transition	180	12.8%		0.86	30		54	121	44.6%	3	22	13.6%		11.91	13.85
4	Post Up	150	10.7%		0.85	11		49	107	45.8%	0	0			9.81	11.54
5	Cut	120	8.6%		1.08	24		51	96	53.1%	0	0			9.97	9.23
6	Offensive Rebound	104	7.4%		1.00	20		43	81	53.1%	0	1	0.0%		8.00	8.00
7	Other	97	6.9%		0.38	21		6	17	35.3%	0	5	0.0%		2.84	7.46
8	P&R Man	75	5.3%		0.91	22		29	60	48.3%	1	2	50.0%		5.25	5.77
9	Isolation	67	4.8%		0.79	19		22	52	42.3%	1	5	20.0%		4.07	5.15
10	Off Screen	54	3.9%		0.98	7		22	50	44.0%	4	10	40.0%		4.07	4.15
11	Hand Off	35	2.5%		1.09	4		15	27	55.6%	8	12	66.7%		2.93	2.69

Also of note, scoring off of cuts is now the #5 most used thing the Jazz do on offense. When we were a Top offense it was #2.

But that's just a numbers , Xs and Os , basketball game.

.

So the team isn't running the right plays. And the plays we rely on are not producing. Never before have spot ups been more than 20% of the offense. I really hope Trey Burke (off the ball) can nail these outside jumpers. More cuts and players moving off screens too, please. Or you know, just bring back the FLEX offense.