The Utah Jazz offense has shown dramatic improvement

Don’t look now, but the Utah Jazz are on a winning streak! And the offensive improvement is the biggest reason why.

The NBA put out an article about the Jazz offense since Rudy Gobert went down with injury. The note has been taken that the offense is stepping up:

Then again, the Jazz have hit upon a workaround in Gobert’s absence: They’re scoring more. They topped 100 points six times in the eight games he had missed through Saturday, after doing that five times in the first 12 games with the towering Frenchman in the lineup. Most recently, in beating Milwaukee handily, the Jazz shared the ball as well as they had through the first month.

They follow up with some good words from local reporter Kyle Goon. I was curious about the numbers myself so I pulled them up.

This is more a testament Quin’s adjustments than it is to NOT having Rudy. Obviously the Jazz are better when Rudy is on the court. There have been more shooters on the floor with Favs at center, and things could get mighty interesting when Rudy gets back from injury.

This year’s squad is putting up more 3’s than ever before in team history at 30.0 3PA (10th in the league this year) and is doing so at the 3rd best percentage at 37.7% (8th in the league). That’s a trend we all like to see.

The Jazz aren’t the only team with injury issues to start the season. The Washington Post put out a piece to show the impact that injuries have had:

Utah is in a similar spot to Memphis. For the next few weeks, until star center Rudy Gobert is able to return from a bone bruise in his knee, the goal for the Jazz is to tread water in the West, and then make a push once he returns.

It’s been a brutal six months for Utah, beginning with Gordon Hayward’s decision to leave in free agency, then Dante Exum’s shoulder injury that could be season-ending.

Still, there are reasons to be optimistic...

I agree. We still have a lot to look forward to and there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about. Quin has more tinkering to do and I think we’ll continue to see the improved offense that we have the past couple weeks.

We’ve got another good Fan Post to highlight this week. And without adding too many more words for you to have to get through to get to the good stuff

austin_leonard98 made an argument that the stats don’t lie:

Anyone who has a basic understanding of these stats knows that Offensive Rating (ORtg) and Defensive Rating (DRtg), as well as the combined metric Net Rating (NRtg), are three of the most important measures used when evaluating a team...

Last season the Jazz had an ORtg of 110.46 and a DRtg of 106.19. 110.46 – 106.19 gives us a Net Rating of 4.27. If you plug this in to the Expected Win formula above you get

Expected Jazz wins in 2016-2017 season = 2.54(4.27) + 41 = 51.8458 wins

51.8458 wins should set off a red flag. The actual win total the Jazz had was 51. This is startlingly accurate....

Click on there to see what this years projected wins are and whether or not you agree.

Karl Malone is a legend. I could probably end Beat #4 right there, but I found a fun image yesterday and wanted to share it.

Karl Malone didn’t need to stretch out to the 3 point line to be an effective PF or MVP back in the day. He really brought the power to PF. Thanks for the memories Mail Man!

Those that love Stranger Things will certainly appreciate this next Beat. I’ve never seen it, so I don’t understand the reference, but The Ringer decided to settle who in the NBA could grow the most 1984 Steve Harrington mullet.

The choice, I think, has to be Ricky Rubio. His hair is not quite near mullet length, but it’s already long enough to tie into a man bun. “He’d need to grow it out another three inches, but he could do it,” said my mom, a hairstylist of 29 years, when asked if Rubio could pull off Harrington’s look. “He has the straight, thick hair to do it.”

Well, that’s that. Rubio is our choice. Here’s a Photoshop of Ricky Rubio as Steve Harrington, courtesy of Ringer designer Matt James.

And for some more Ricky Rubio news, he’s continued his activity in the social scene. This time, he donated a bunch of tickets to the Special Olympics Utah Team.

Keep up the good looks and the good works Ricky! And if possible, shoot a little better :)