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Where will the Jazz rank in defense this year?

What will the Jazz rank in DRTG?

  • 30

    Votes: 13 36.1%

  • 25-29

    Votes: 17 47.2%

  • 20-24

    Votes: 6 16.7%

  • 15-19

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 10-14

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 5-9

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • 1-4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    36
Jazz are currently 27th in defense, but the Pelicans and Nets are the worst defensive teams in NBA history so far so we may be able to dodge 30th this year.
 
Earlier in this thread I had mentioned that our defensive rebounding should carry us out of 30th. IMO, it's disappointing that we are only 13th. That's not a personnel problem. We have a giant team, and even though Nurk is cooked, he's still a very good rebounder so you can't put the blame on him.
 
homeytennis said:
Kessler will not be available the next three games as he is in Salt Lake having tests done on his shoulder.
Click to expand...
This could be a real issue. It’s lingering since camp. Further tests is suggesting maybe there is a long term issue to be addressed.

The tank may be unstoppable without Walker.
 
Had Kessler not gotten hurt I think we'd be in the 25-29 range. I think Nurk is a decent defensive player and having the majority of the minutes go between those two instead of Love/Flip minutes would carry us out of the gutter. But that's about all the optimism I have to share. I don't think we've seen much improvement from the other players on the roster and we haven't seen a coaching/scheme improvement either. The results are what they are.
 
I went to the Jazz-Blazer game last night, and I can tell you without hesitation, the Jazz played the worst defense I have ever seen. They play tougher defense in the All-Star game. The Blazers were just spamming the Jazz with wide open 3's and one alley-oop after another. It was completely pathetic.
 
While every player on the Jazz has bad defensive on/off numbers, it's pretty clear that the Jazz's collapse to one of the worst defensive teams of all time is driven mostly by the Kevin Love at center minutes.

www.basketball-reference.com

2025-26 Utah Jazz On/Off | Basketball-Reference.com

On/Off Team Statistics
www.basketball-reference.com www.basketball-reference.com

With Love off the court, the Jazz are allowing 120.4 points per 100 possessions, good for 27th best in the NBA.

With Love on the court, the Jazz are allowing 136.1 points per 100 possessions, easily the worst number in NBA history by a huge margin.
 
HadAnEffectHere said:
While every player on the Jazz has bad defensive on/off numbers, it's pretty clear that the Jazz's collapse to one of the worst defensive teams of all time is driven mostly by the Kevin Love at center minutes.

www.basketball-reference.com

2025-26 Utah Jazz On/Off | Basketball-Reference.com

On/Off Team Statistics
www.basketball-reference.com www.basketball-reference.com

With Love off the court, the Jazz are allowing 120.4 points per 100 possessions, good for 27th best in the NBA.

With Love on the court, the Jazz are allowing 136.1 points per 100 possessions, easily the worst number in NBA history by a huge margin.
Click to expand...

Is Love a part of the problem? Yes. Is he mostly driving the problem? No.

Comparing small chunks of minutes to overall team minutes doesn't quite work that way.
 
KqWIN said:
Is Love a part of the problem? Yes. Is he mostly driving the problem? No.

Comparing small chunks of minutes to overall team minutes doesn't quite work that way.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying "Love is the only or driver" of the issue, I'm saying that the Jazz are getting absolutely annihilated in these minutes when Love is in the game (which can be paired with Collier, Brice, etc)
 
HadAnEffectHere said:
I'm not saying "Love is the only or driver" of the issue, I'm saying that the Jazz are getting absolutely annihilated in these minutes when Love is in the game (which can be paired with Collier, Brice, etc)
Click to expand...

Fair enough. Love is part of the problem, but I feel like people are overexaggerating the negative effects he's had. He's only played 342 minutes and we're only focusing on those minutes it's missing the forest for the trees.
 
KqWIN said:
Fair enough. Love is part of the problem, but I feel like people are overexaggerating the negative effects he's had. He's only played 342 minutes and we're only focusing on those minutes it's missing the forest for the trees.
Click to expand...

Sure, the fact that our "best" minutes are some of the worst in the league is extremely bad and suggests we would be 30th regardless of if we had a real backup center. But these Love minutes are getting really bad and could push us from "last in defense" to "one of the worst defenses of all time."

Does that matter very much? Ehh, I don't know.
 
HadAnEffectHere said:
Sure, the fact that our "best" minutes are some of the worst in the league is extremely bad and suggests we would be 30th regardless of if we had a real backup center. But these Love minutes are getting really bad and could push us from "last in defense" to "one of the worst defenses of all time."

Does that matter very much? Ehh, I don't know.
Click to expand...

You could do the math on it, but I'm not sure if you put 350 average defensive C minutes instead of love that's moving the needle a ton. When you look at who shares the court most with Love, you'll realize that Love isn't the only problem in the Love minutes and the larger issue with the team is the abundance of minutes going to terrible defenders. We've got thousands of minutes going to some of the worst of the worst.

The only way I can be optimistic about it is by saying that these guys aren't "that" bad and are being made worse by Hardy. Like maybe Hardy flips a switch or we hire a defensive coordinator type that improves things. And maybe your now your bottom 5 percentile guys are now only bottom 25 percentile guys or whatever. I think it's feasible that some of our guys are just regular bad instead of league worst bad, but the combo of their talent + Hardy's coaching ability gives us the results we've had.

When you're this bad year after year the truth is that you have horrible talent and horrible coaching.
 
KqWIN said:
You could do the math on it, but I'm not sure if you put 350 average defensive C minutes instead of love that's moving the needle a ton. When you look at who shares the court most with Love, you'll realize that Love isn't the only problem in the Love minutes and the larger issue with the team is the abundance of minutes going to terrible defenders. We've got thousands of minutes going to some of the worst of the worst.

The only way I can be optimistic about it is by saying that these guys aren't "that" bad and are being made worse by Hardy. Like maybe Hardy flips a switch or we hire a defensive coordinator type that improves things. And maybe your now your bottom 5 percentile guys are now only bottom 25 percentile guys or whatever. I think it's feasible that some of our guys are just regular bad instead of league worst bad, but the combo of their talent + Hardy's coaching ability gives us the results we've had.

When you're this bad year after year the truth is that you have horrible talent and horrible coaching.
Click to expand...

I do not disagree, Love's numbers are just so comically bad that they were fun to point out.
 
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