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Utah Jazz Offense: Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors leading the team, but who else is stepping up?

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The Jazz offense sputters at times, but is anyone to blame?

By AllThatAmar
/ new
Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports

Have you actually looked at the shot distribution for the Utah Jazz? Yeah, we expect that Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors are the main saviors on offense. And we grant that Trey Burke and Alec Burks are doing things off the bench. But what else is really happening this season? Furthermore, it's more than just being someone to take shots. Your shot actually has to count for something, it has to matter, or why else are you taking so many? Hopefully this dialog isn't completely pedantic; and if it is I apologize. The Jazz need some offensive help, and I think that some small tweaks could be there that produce large enough results that no massive changes need to happen. Of course, that's my observation based upon looking at the relationship between who shoots and who actually puts points on the board.

The main metrics here are Points per Shot (a very simple calculation of very limited utility where it's just Points / Field Goals Attempted), and Minutes per Shot (even simpler, how many minutes on the floor a player has to be to take at least one Field Goal Attempted). If you look at the two you can plot the players and, let's be real, it looks like some players who should be shooting more just aren't getting the ball. Big first, the raw data:

Player P1 P2 G MIN MPG FGA FGA/G PTS PPG PPS MPS
1 Dante Exum 1 2 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
2 Rodney Hood 2 3 17 498 29.29 181 10.65 205 12.06 1.13 2.75
3 Gordon Hayward 3 2 18 641 35.61 260 14.44 335 18.61 1.29 2.47
4 Derrick Favors 4 5 17 547 32.18 221 13.00 297 17.47 1.34 2.48
5 Rudy Gobert 5 14 479 34.21 84 6.00 129 9.21 1.54 5.70
6 Trey Burke 1 18 412 22.89 174 9.67 195 10.83 1.12 2.37
7 Alec Burks 2 1 18 514 28.56 221 12.28 276 15.33 1.25 2.33
8 Joe Ingles 3 2 18 222 12.33 50 2.78 66 3.67 1.32 4.44
9 Trevor Booker 4 17 350 20.59 92 5.41 74 4.35 0.80 3.80
10 Jeff Withey 5 10 84 8.40 17 1.70 20 2.00 1.18 4.94
11 Raul Neto 1 18 315 17.50 91 5.06 85 4.72 0.93 3.46
12 Elijah Millsap 2 3 9 59 6.56 12 1.33 14 1.56 1.17 4.92
13 Chris Johnson 3 2 14 69 4.93 20 1.43 18 1.29 0.90 3.45
14 Trey Lyles 4 3 16 142 8.88 42 2.63 34 2.13 0.81 3.38
15 Tibor Pleiss 5 4 13 3.25 4 1.00 4 1.00 1.00 3.25
Player P1 P2 G MIN MPG FGA FGA/G PTS PPG PPS MPS
- Exum, Burke, Neto 1 18 727 40.39 265 14.72 280 15.56 1.06 2.74
- Hood, Burks, Millsap 2 18 1071 59.50 414 23.00 495 27.50 1.20 2.59
- Hayward, Ingles, Johnson 3 18 932 51.78 330 18.33 419 23.28 1.27 2.82
- Favors, Booker, Lyles 4 18 1039 57.72 355 19.72 405 22.50 1.14 2.93
- Gobert, Withey, Pleiss 5 18 576 32.00 105 5.83 153 8.50 1.46 5.49
+ Total Jazz 18 4345 241.39 1469 81.61 1752 97.33 1.19 2.96

I also broke this down by position. The SGs, SFs, and PFs are playing the most per game, and clearly they are taking the most shots per game. As a direct result, they are responsible for the most points. The extreme groups, the point guards and centers, just aren't getting it done. The centers rarely take a bad shot, but rarely get the ball. The point guards are almost the opposite of that.

Specifically with the players the "greenest" cells are the best ones. And our offense right now is just Hood, Hayward, Favors, Gobert, Burke, and Burks. That's six total players. That's really not good enough. When you compare it to the Jazz full team average (1.19 PPS, 2.96 MPS) you see some guys are obviously below average.

Below Average in PPS (1.19):

  • Hood (1.13)
  • Burke (1.12)
  • Booker (0.80)
  • Withey (1.18)
  • Neto (0.93)
  • Millsap (1.17)
  • Johnson (0.90)
  • Lyles (0.81)
  • Pleiss (1.00)

Below Average in MPS (2.96)

  • Gobert (5.70)
  • Ingles (4.44)
  • Booker (3.80)
  • Withey (4.94)
  • Neto (3.46)
  • Millsap (4.92)
  • Johnson (3.45)
  • Lyles (3.38)
  • Pleiss (3.25)

If you plot it all you get four quadrants:

2015 2016 Game 18 PPS vs MPS

  1. Shoots frequently, shoots efficiently [Green] - Favors, Hayward, Burks
  2. Shoots frequently, shoots inefficiently - Hood, Burke
  3. Shoots infrequently, shoots efficiently - Gobert, Ingles
  4. Shoots infrequently, shoots inefficiently - Withey, Millsap, Pleiss, Neto, Johnson, Lyles, Booker

Favors, Hayward, and Burks are getting it done. They shoot frequently and they shoot at an above average (for the Jazz) level (Quadrant 1). Burke and Hood both shoot at an above average rate, but make at a below average level (Quadrant 2). I think we all agree that we need more shots for Gobert, and it would be great to see Ingles actually get a few more spot up attempts per game.

The problems start with the guys who know not to shoot and do not shoot. The "best" here is Withey who is just barely below average in PPS. It's hard to figure out who is the worst guy on offense (putting points on the board) on the team. But I guess Booker is there, he's the worst in PPS, but still plays big minutes.

It should be noted that I put Dante Exum on this graphic because his smiling face and optimism should help us remember that in the big picture our offensive struggles will go away.

TL; DR? More shots for Gobert. Duh. Also Alec is good. Double Duh.

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