by Alma Bean
Feature Image by Isaac Hale of AP Photo
This season so far has either been a surprise, or a wakeup call for Utah Jazz fans. Utah has played 20 games up to this point and has a record of 7-13. After starting last season 12-8 in their first 20 games and retaining a majority of their roster, this could also lead fans to question, what happened? With a quarter of the season, we can now look at how Utah has developed and performed and now start to make educated assumptions on who this Utah team will be going forward.
Bamboozled Back Court
This season, Utah tried to have a backcourt of Jordan Clarkson and Talen Horton-Tucker to start the season which has a duo has a record of 2-6 this season with a combined average plus/minus rating of just under -10. Once Horton-Tucker was removed from the starting lineup, Clarkson’s plus/minus rating went from -6.6 to -4.6. May look like a slight difference, but Clarkson became more of facilitator and mentor with the lineup change. That change is known as Keyonte George.
The 16th pick in the 2023 NBA draft has already begun to turn heads as he is currently leading all rookies in total assists (99) and assists per game (5.0). George’s AST/TO ratio had fans eager to have him in the starting lineup as he had a rating of 3.0 in his first four games off the bench. Since being moved into the starting lineup, George has maintained an AST/TO ratio of 2.4 while stacking up to some Utah legends in the process. George became the first rookie for Utah since Donovan Mitchell to have a 20/5/5 game and currently has the second-longest streak for multiple assists in a game as a rookie (18) just behind Deron Williams (32).
That now leaves us with Kris Dunn and Collin Sexton as primary ball handlers for Utah. You may look at these two players and look at their stats saying Sexton obviously has the larger impact because he plays more. The stats shown below tell a different story as Dunn has six players he has played with this season with a positive net rating with the lowest positive rating being 4.5. Sexton on the other hand has a positive net rating with four players, but three off those four ratings are between one and zero. Even with these numbers trending in Dunn’s favor with a limited sample size, you need to notice that Dunn is the only player to have a positive net rating with George. For fans that want success for the young rookie, they want to dive into numbers like these.
Don’t Sleep On the Bench
On paper, the names for Utah’s bench may not look appealing to the average NBA fan. If you look a little deeper, you find that Utah has a bench that’s fourth in the league in points per game (41.8 PPG). With injuries taking place early in the season, Utah has had to start relying on the depths of their bench. A player that has been taking advantage of this opportunity is Omer Yurtseven.
Now in his third season, he has already exceeded his entire second season that he had with Miami Heat last season. You may look at his percentages and think, how could he be exceeding last season with percentages dropping? His attempts from the field and perimeter have nearly doubled, his rebounds have nearly tripled from last season and his involvement in the ball movement has increase exponentially. Yurtseven is also on pace to pass his career-high in points scored in a season if he continues scoring just 4.6 PPG. With his recent emergence in the starting lineup as of recently, his scoring numbers should have a promising rise.
Another player that has been taking advantage of his minutes as of late is Simone Fontecchio. Fontecchio is best known for his perimeter shooting for his national team of Italy but didn’t translate well in his rookie season last year. Last season, Fontecchio had 13 games where he made two or more perimeter shots and 15 of his 52 games played, he shot 50 percent from the perimeter. This season has been different for Fontecchio as he currently has had 10 games where he has made two or more perimeter shots. Only seven of the 18 games, he has played he has shot 50 percent from the perimeter. Fontecchio is definitely finding confidence in himself and if he continues to excel in this no found role, it may be difficult to not give him minutes going forward.
I Need a Leader
One major change from the start of last season is the lack of vocal leadership on this team. Leaders can always be appointed but it feels as if leadership either hasn’t been vocal enough or currently has a learning curve. Including the two-way contract players, Utah’s average age per player is just over 24-years-old with around an average of three years of NBA experience. Even with the three years of experience on average for this team, I’d take that with a grain of salt. 10 of the 18 players on Utah’s roster has two or less years of NBA experience.
At the beginning of the season, head coach Will Hardy named Lauri Markkanen as the leader of this team. Markkanen isn’t seen as an overly vocal individual and has been seen using his leadership in more one-on-one conversations rather than rallying the troops in the locker room. Last season, Utah started off the season with Mike Conley, who was going into his 16th season and had started 921 games going into the 2022-23 season. Conly started 43 games from Utah last season with a record of 22-21 before being traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves before the trade deadline. After Conley’s departure Utah went on to try and find a guard that could lead this team and has had a record of 15-24 to finish the rest of the season.
Utah looks like they are still looking for someone to step up and be that voice in the locker room and have that translate to wins on the court.
Quarter Recap
Utah will have a tough road as they approach the second quarter of the season. In this second stretch of the season, 14 of Utah’s next 21 opponents have a record at or above .500. Along with that, 12 of those 21 games are on the road including a five-game road trip and a three-game road trip against three of the top-four teams in the east. We will see how Utah will respond to this stretch but development and growth amongst the players on this roster will decide the success in the wins and loss column.
The Hive Sports 
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