Utah Jazz vs. San Antonio Spurs

1. Goal-oriented play gave the Jazz the lead in the first half

Sometimes things click for a team, and sometimes they don’t. What I found unique about this game is that we got to see a little bit of both. The Jazz jumped out to a 66-46 lead just before halftime and then fell flat for the rest of the game, losing the final 25 minutes 80-52.

What struck me was what I think is the most fundamental intangible: purpose.

The Jazz didn’t score particularly well in the first half and didn’t grab more rebounds than normal. Still, Utah’s ball pressure felt deliberate, and defensively the players were locked into whatever schemes the Jazz were playing. When John Collins helps to the basket, Johnny Juzang instinctively fills the corner. Meanwhile, Keyonte George mans Zach Collins under the hoop as a desperation swimmer is tossed up. There were some great team performances.

I was excited coming into the season to see if, and when, Will Hardy would deploy the team’s zone defense. Although we only saw a few possessions, the youth impressed me as he managed to force San Antonio into difficult shot attempts while staying connected and communicating switches.

Defense led to attack and the ball moved. In the first half, the Jazz recorded 16 assists and a season-low 3 turnovers. There’s something so special about effort in basketball and that’s what made things click for the Jazz in the first half. Players actively tried to move the ball towards each other and this generated valuable shot attempts. It was fun to watch! It was also the opposite of how the second half would unfold.

2. A lack of goal caused the Jazz’s second-half collapse

Hardy touched on the discipline the Jazz need to show in future games, saying, “There are not enough timeouts in the game to stop the game on every 6-0 run. … We have to find ways to keep ourselves stable.”

Remember how quickly the corner filled for John Collins in the first clip? This is what it looked like after the game’s momentum was lost. Markkanen helps at the edge, and… no one fills in.

Both George and Collins could have made the effort to get out of the corner, and even Sensabaugh could have blushed to try to contest the shot. But no one helped and Barnes closed the game with an open three. I truly believe that in addition to the lack of effort, it also has to do with a lack of knowledge of the court. Really, none of these players ‘felt’ Markkanen’s move and the player came back to bite them. Combining a sense of direction with effort is how I define purpose – and it didn’t feel like the Jazz had done that either when the game got away from them. This is why I brought up Collins’ earlier example, where it seemed immediate and logical for Juzang to fill in.

Meanwhile, after a turnover, there is no attempt anywhere to stop the transition violation:

I understand that things tend to fall on George, but really it’s the whole team. There are four Jazzmen standing flat-footed behind the opponent’s free throw line as the steal is saved by San Antonio. Overall, the run was a bit like the way the 2021-2022 Jazz dealt with adversity – it was not just like the wind was taken out of their sails, but the wind would completely change course in an instant .

3. Timing your superstars

I think the Jazz can learn something from the Spurs’ year and a half of working with Victor Wembanyama: it’s important to always be ready for the next superstar.

In this game we saw a San Antonio team without Jeremy Sochan and Devin Vassell, who are admittedly two of the better Spurs youngsters, and Victor Wembanyama. Otherwise, the Spurs’ third-worst roster was healthy. The rest of the team’s youth showed up. Going down by 20 at home is never okay, it’s even worse to do so against a team with the third worst record in the league.

This is not possible without management effort! This offseason, the Spurs realized where they stood and did what they could. They made a “significant” offer to the Jazz for Lauri Markkannen, they convinced a 20th-year-old Chris Paul to end his career there, and they made a trade to acquire another win-now piece in Harrison Barnes. Markkanen would immediately be Wemby’s Spurs’ second-best player, and perhaps that’s a luxury worth holding on to.

Now I sit and watch a player who is one of the most impactful 21-year-olds the league has ever seen, and I see him trying to elevate what seems like a bottom dweller to a marginal position. play-off spot. I think that’s a bit of a waste of two of the precious years San Antonio has guaranteed.

Victor is the second-generation talent the Spurs have picked up over the past dozen years, with Kawhi Leonard in 2011 being the other. I have to say that introducing a player like Kawhi to a team that is already competitive is the best solution in my opinion. best strategy for a team that wants to win a championship. Those Spurs were no ordinary competitive team – they had already won four championships and finished the year before with 61 wins – but they were probably already past their time. Kawhi, the 15th pick, clearly opened that window again.

I’d say the Spurs have secured two other generational talents: David Robinson and Tim Duncan. The former was once again a victim of being the right talent at the wrong time – and in today’s NBA, he likely would have moved on to another opportunity before his twelfth championship run. The latter walked into a team waiting for the final piece to smash through the ceiling.

Spurs’ vet Chris Paul serves as the latest example. Four years into his career, he had taken the New Orleans Hornets from 18 to 56 wins. But New Orleans never built enough additional talent and by 2010 they had lost the luxury of time.

I’m not ignoring the fact that it takes extreme luck to land one of these guys. Yet, time and time again, I feel like we’re reminded of how quickly a superstar grows through the situation and then gets out of it. Personally, I think there is a real danger of the Jazz once again becoming a feeder team and finding superstar talent while never providing the surrounding pieces for true championship competition. In the meantime, it may be useful for the Jazz to try to be fundamentally competitive as quickly as possible, with the belief that their additional assets will mature and define the ceiling of their competitive period rather than the foundation.