You see him on the outer in huddles when he use to be the closest to Snyder. I really feel exum is not enjoying his time in Utah, like he once did. As much as i want Exum to be the future leader for the Jazz and be successful as a player, i don't think he can make the leaps necessary under Snyder, and with the win now position the team is in.
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I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that despite Exum playing poorly, the Jazz are having their best start to a season in years. Remember back to when he was drafted and was asked how he would judge whether his rookie season was a success or not, and Exum replied with something along the lines of "I'm not too concerned with my personal stats, as long as I'm helping the team get more wins than last year then that will be a success". In his rookie season he didn't do much personally, but it was clear that Exum being on the floor was having a positive impact on the team, and the Jazz' post all star break run with him starting proved that he was positively affecting the team in the W column. Obviously Gobert was the other big change and he had a much larger impact than Exum did, but Exum was still playing a key role in the starting 5 defending the opposing teams PG, and occasionally their best perimeter threat period.
Before the DNP when he was starting, he was trying to prove that he could positive affect the team on the offensive end as well, but in the process he forgot to stop playing defense. Snyder chewed him out publicly over it, gave him a DNP, and ever since then Exum has completely closed off his offensive game while trying to prove that he can still guard at an elite level defensively - something which he hasn't really done at all. All while his backup PG is playing more minutes than he is and playing crunch time minutes. So he's basically a negative on offense since opposing guards just sag off him, his defense is average/above average at best so he's not having the same impact he had two seasons ago there, and it's obvious just watching the Jazz play that his teammates don't trust him to handle the ball or shoot the three, which results in what we're currently seeing with Exum bringing the ball up, handing it off, and then going to a corner 3pt spot with maybe a downscreen or something along the way. Then players like Hayward/Hood/etc will make a play from the wings, and despite whoever's guarding Exum coming over to help, these players refuse to kick out to Exum because he have zero faith in his ability to do anything offensively. It's pretty well deserved to be honest as Exum hasn't proven to be able to do much with the ball, but it still doesn't help him in terms of development that his teammates are effectively freezing him out of the offense. If Exum tries to do something with the ball at the beginning of the shot clock and makes a bad play, he gets yanked pretty quickly by Snyder, so he's really stuck in a hard place and isn't much of a fit with the Jazz until he can prove he can defend at an elite level again.(edit - it's worth noting that Mack has a little bit more freedom when bringing the ball up to run a PnR at the beginning of the shot clock to create some offense and gets a bit of leeway if he makes a bad play out of it, which Exum definitely would have noticed).
Exum knowing that he isn't a fit with this current Jazz squad as it currently stands yet they're doing better than they ever have with him on the bench is the biggest thing crushing his confidence right now imo. Even just his comments earlier in the year where he said something like "the bench is no place for a player to be" reinforce this suspicion, despite that being about his injury last season.
He had plenty of confidence in preseason, was surpassing our expectations, so something happened along the way. Snyder is a tough coach and I think Exum is pressing too much to please him, he needs to be himself not try and be the player Snyder or the media envisions him as. To me that's a more Ricky Rubio type player who probably isn't going to be an all star but will definitely help you win games.
See to me, if he tries to be the player that Snyder wants him to be then he'll be more likely to end up as a Rubio type of player who runs the offense, plays defense, and takes the open shot when he has to, rather than the player Exum wants to be. I think Exum wants to be more than that, and he still has all the tools to be the kind of player he wants to be post ACL tear as his athleticism still seems to be all there, but I think that preseason and pre-dog house Exum gave everyone a look at the player he wants to be. He wants to be a guy who handles the ball, runs a lot of PnR, tries to get to the paint and make plays for himself or others there, runs a fast pace offense and be a guy who you can give the ball to make a play if the offense bogs down. His rookie season he didn't show much of that as he was just trying to learn the game, stay healthy, and try not to hurt the team on either end of the floor. I think post ACL tear he wanted to prove that he could do the things that were on his predraft scouting report, as that is the Exum that I was used to seeing prior to entering the NBA, and in the process he was going to make a bunch of mistakes as he got back to playing against elite atheltes who are just as big and fast as he is. Except now he doesn't have the freedom to do that as the Jazz want to win now (and rightfully so), and Exum getting called out by Snyder for trying to do too much and forgetting his job really crushed his confidence, as he's much more timid and worried about hurting the team again with real tangible consequences now in place like getting pulled at any stage whenever he starts to hurt the team.
So I'm not too sure what to make of it, as on one hand I think Exum has all the tools to be a guy who can be a #1/2/3 option offensively and be dynamic with the ball, but at the same time I know that the Jazz don't want him to try and be that guy mid game as they know he's got a steep learning curve and they're trying to win now. The selfish part of me that just wants to see Exum at his best wants him to get traded to a rebuilding team which has time to let Exum learn through his mistakes, as that will let him be the best sidekick to Simmons in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to have a crack at taking down Team USA, but there's also a part of me that knows that it's not his role on this Jazz team and he needs to learn how to adapt to still impact the game positively instead of taking the woe is me kind of attitude and distancing himself from the rest of the Jazz like SoundWave alluded to.
He's still so young and the season still has a long way to go so who knows, we could all be looking back at this thread in March and wondering why we were ever worried about him. But as it is there's a conflict between what Snyder wants him to do (Rubio-esque kind of player) and what Exum wants to be (Tony Parker-esque kind of player)
