Grading The 2019-20 Utah Jazz: The Reserves

Last week we graded the six “starters” from the 2019-20 Utah Jazz. Today it’s time for the reserves. Enjoy!

Jordan Clarkson: A

There were really two versions of this year’s Jazz: The one before Clarkson’s arrival and the one after.

Readers of our first installment will recall the following season-long breakdown between the Jazz’s six primary rotation guys and lineups featuring literally anyone else:

·      Jazz with any five-man combination of Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic, Joe Ingles and Royce O’Neale on-court: +212 (+7.5 per-100-possessions)

·      Jazz with any other lineup on-court: -9 (almost dead even per-100)

Let’s isolate those reserve groups based on their play before and after Dec. 26, the day Clarkson was acquired from Cleveland for Dante Exum and two second-round picks:

·      Jazz reserves (lineups featuring any player besides the six primaries listed above) BEFORE Dec. 26: -136

·      Jazz reserves AFTER Dec. 26: +127

Whoa!

Clarkson wasn’t the only change to the roster or Quin Snyder’s rotations, but he was far and away the most significant. He brought a consistency and self-sustainability to second units that was sorely lacking, helping turn them almost overnight from a massive liability into a major asset.

It wasn’t always pretty. Clarkson’s brand of basketball isn’t exactly the beautiful game; he assisted on just 10.5% of Jazz possessions while on the floor, lower than 3-and-D specialist Royce O’Neale.

But the dude just got buckets. Per advanced player tracking provided by a source, the Jazz scored 1.11 points per chance on any Clarkson isolation that ended in a shot, foul or pass to an immediate shooter. That’s a top-10 figure in the league among volume ball-handlers, narrowly trailing names like Damian Lillard and James Harden.

Clarkson didn’t stick out negatively on defense, all anyone was asking of him in Utah. He made a good impact in the locker room. His acquisition was a major turning point for the Jazz’s season, and with his Bird rights in-hand whenever we get to the next free-agency period, expect them to show interest in retaining him.

Georges Niang: A-

The Minivan hummed right along this year.

Niang brought the offensive game the Jazz have come to expect from him. He’s got a knockdown stroke and a true shooter’s mentality; he’s one of the most willing shooters on a roster that has, shall we say, a few hesitant triggers.

Between his time in the G-League and the NBA the last few seasons, there’s very little doubt Niang is a reliable three-point threat at this level. He got better around the margins, too, flashing a dribble game a bit more often and some periodic aggression in transition.

He made some minor strides on the other end as well, though his ceiling there remains limited. Niang’s Defensive Real Plus-Minus figure went from -1.55 for 2018-19 to -0.51 this year, and other metrics show similar moderate improvements.

Would Snyder have felt comfortable playing him real rotation minutes within the crucible of a high-intensity playoff series, especially when opposing superstars were on the floor and looking to target him? Sadly, we might not know the answer for another year or two.

Emmanuel Mudiay: B+

It’s not really Mudiay’s fault his rotation minutes teetered and then eventually disappeared following Clarkson’s acquisition. The former was having arguably the best year of his career: Easily his most efficient shooting, plus some progression from what had been one of the worst guard defender profiles in the NBA in previous years.

By January, the pendulum had perhaps swung a bit too far toward the negative. Mudiay wasn’t on Clarkson’s level of efficiency, making his issues with turnovers and tunnel vision a bit more damaging; he showed stretches of strong playmaking but would too often revert to bad habits.

Still, many – this pen included – were dubious Mudiay would ever crack the rotation this season when he was signed. He acquitted himself well and likely kept his NBA prospects going strong in the process.

Tony Bradley: B+

Two things are true simultaneously:

Tony Bradley fouls too much; Tony Bradley has some hilariously bad calls go against him.

What did he do here, exactly?

This was Dante Exum’s corner for years. It’s noble of Bradley to take over in his stead. He literally doesn’t do anything on this play!

Okay, so this isn’t actually a ref bias thing. No player in the NBA with at least 500 minutes of court time averaged more per-possession personal fouls than Bradley this season. That’s, uh, not great.

Thing is, the fouls obscure a pretty damn solid player elsewhere.

Bradley profiles as an elite offensive rebounder, easily leading the NBA in percentage of his own team’s misses collected among rotation players. If his career ended today, he’d top Dennis Rodman for the highest such percentage of all-time. Sample and competition level are obvious caveats there, but Bradley can definitely eat on the glass.

He also has some subtle touch, finishing at a 76% clip at the rim this season. His foul issues can make him seem like the lumbering type, but then he’ll gallop down the floor in transition with surprising speed and pull out a crafty finish on the move:

Bradley made the only three he attempted this year, a late-clock look. He practices those regularly, though, and it wouldn’t be a total shock if he shot them for real at some point, even if just occasionally.

He won’t be 23 until next January and still has very limited NBA mileage. There were a few minor eyebrows raised around the league when the Jazz picked up Bradley’s 2020-21 option last fall, but he’s proven intriguing enough to justify it. If he ever gets those fouls under control, he could carve out a nice career.

Ed Davis: C-

We covered much of Davis’s curiously poor fit in Utah back in January, and little changed in the time since. There were issues with both fit and raw performance before Bradley took over his rotation spot.

Davis doesn’t grade lower because of the way he handled one of the first truly poor seasons in a stellar career as a roleplayer. He was a pro’s pro, never uttering so much as a negative word publicly and even mentoring Bradley despite being supplanted by his younger counterpart. Rudy Gobert’s free agency in 2021 is obviously the bigger concern, but it’ll be interesting to see what the Jazz do with their backup center spot as well.  

Deep Bench:

Some quick thoughts on guys who either didn’t last the year or never saw much court time:

·      Jeff Green: Green’s tenure in Utah was mostly forgettable. One wonders what he really thought he was signing up for on a minimum deal; he never seemed to care all that much, honestly. His removal from the roster certainly didn’t hurt the bench’s turnaround.

·      Dante Exum: Farewell, sweet prince. Exum Island moved its PO Box to Cleveland, where he was doing alright before what appeared to be yet another semi-serious ankle injury in late February. Here’s hoping Dante can sustain a stretch of health and find his NBA way.

·      Juwan Morgan: Morgan only played spot minutes, but showed bits of intrigue as a switchable five-man. Whether he ever finds footing in someone’s rotation likely depends on if he can hit threes at the NBA level.

·      Rayjon Tucker: Tucker tore up the G-League before the Jazz signed him, but didn’t get much of a chance in a deep guard rotation. He has an NBA body and athleticism, but it’s hard to be sure about much else.