Early Season Sample: Utah Jazz Leaders

Dec 6, 2013; Portland, OR, USA; Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports

It’s early yet, but through eight games we have a peek at some Utah Jazz player highs and lows, some of which are towering, others floundering. Here’s a look at where a few of the Jazz players stand in relation to their peers in the NBA eight games in.

We’re roughly one-tenth through the regular season already in Utah, the Jazz being one of four teams to have played eight games through November 11 of the 2014-15 season, going 3-5 to start, not bad at all considering the all new changes in place. The Chicago Bulls (6-2), Indiana Pacers (2-6) and New York Knicks (2-6) are the other three teams sharing heavy early-season schedules with Utah. 16 teams have played seven games and ten have played only six.

With a different amount of games played among teams thus far we have to be careful interpreting some of the stats. For instance, the top six total minutes played leaders are all from teams that have played eight games so far, Gordon Hayward second to only Carmelo Anthony by three minutes for total minutes played in 2014-15, Anthony at 288, Hayward at 285.

If we go to minutes played per game, Carmelo is still among the top 20 at 36.0 MPG, but no Jazzman is on the leader list. Quin Snyder has been cautious with minutes — and personal fouls — early in his Utah tenure. Hayward leads the Jazz in MPG at 35.6 this year, like last, although he’s playing almost a minute less per game than in 2013-14 under Tyrone Corbin when he averaged 36.4 MPG and was among the NBA’s leaders in minutes played and miles run.

Corbin was on to something there though. Hayward has far and away been the best player for Utah the last two years, appearing on many NBA leaderboards, but with far better efficiency this season compared to last. See, we told you not to worry when it came to his shooting and that max contract.

We’ve chronicled many of the numbers Hayward put up last year here at PnB, but he’s outpacing even our lofty expectations of potential greatness so far this young year. Of course, we expected his shooting to rebound, but he’s on a ridiculous pace, ringing in at a career best .652 True Shooting Percent, which takes into account the different values of a three-point shot, two-point shot and free throws. Hayward is tied for 12th with Stephen Curry in the NBA this season in TS%, an impressive display of efficiency from a player whose biggest fan complaint from 2013-14 was inefficiency in shooting the basketball.

Hayward is taking smarter shots this season, overall, a career low .175 percent are coming from the dreaded long-two range of 16-23 feet. However there are caveats to his increased efficiency.

Hayward is shooting at about his career average of .365 from three, up from his down year last, a very acceptable number that likely only gets better throughout his career. But some of Hayward’s other early-season numbers are historic, and not likely to be maintained for an entire season, but does indicate the kind of company he could find himself in.

• Hayward has made 97.2% of 4.5 FTs per game. In fact, he’s missed only one free throw of 36 attempts in 2014-15, tied for the 13th-most makes in the NBA. The Jazz’s all-time leader in FT% is Jeff Hornacek at .896 for his Utah career

• Hayward appears in at least the top 14 for field goals made, three-point field goals made and free throws made, but not in the top 20 for attempts in any of the categories, a great sign of shooting efficiency

• Gordon Hayward is one of only four players in the NBA that aren’t point guards to have at least 40 assists on the season (41): Dwyane Wade (48), LeBron James (41), Nicolas Batum (40)

• Hayward leads the NBA in Offensive Win Shares at 1.2 and is ninth in PER at a career best 24.6, and also ninth in VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) in the NBA. The Jazz leaders for PER in a season are Adrian Dantley and Karl Malone, tied for 24.1 in a season

• Hayward is the only NBA player in 2014-15 so far to average at least 19 points, six rebounds and five assists while shooting over 50% field goals

If Gordon Hayward maintains the current pace he’s on this season Jazz fans will have a Hall of Fame’r on their hands.

For more amazing Gordon Hayward numbers, check out this piece from our own Spencer Wixom.

Another Jazz player on a few NBA leaderboards is Derrick Favors.

• 14th in total offensive rebounds

• 16th in total rebounds

• 15th in FG%, a career best .543

• 20th in blocks per game

Unfortunately, Favors is also on the NBA leaderboard for personal fouls, although while playing a career high minutes per game he’s managed to keep his fouls rate down relative to minutes played for his career. Previously extremely foul prone, we’ve seen Quin Snyder protect Favors, often sitting him after only two PFs in the first half of several games already.

Favors is going to the free throw line the most times in his career this year, leading the Jazz in attempts per game with 4.8 and making a career best .711 of them, a needed  upgrade to his game that’s contributing to his success as an NBA starting big man.

Alec Burks has also been doing work from the freebie line, joining Hayward on the NBA FT% leaderboard making .882 of 4.3 attempts per game, tied for 20th best.

Trevor Booker pops up in a couple of leader lists as well, leading the Jazz in field goal percent so far this season, among qualified players. In fact, the Jazz have three players in the top 20 of the NBA for FG%:

• Trevor Booker, 12th at .556

• Derrick Favors, 15th at .543

• Enes Kanter, 20th at .525

Booker also leads the Jazz in three-point field goal percent, making 6-14  for 43% for a very impressive addition to his game this season. Snyder says to take the shot if it’s open, and Booker has been.

So has Trey Burke. But he appears on the NBA three-point attempts leader list for the wrong reason, taking the ninth-most threes in the NBA thus far, with 41 tries, but making only nine of them. After going 16-30 from three in the preseason, Burke’s shooting slump in the regular season so far is puzzling. Gotta believe he’ll shake it off sooner or later and get it going from distance.

While not currently on pace to be qualified for BasketBallReference’s Leaders list, Rudy Gobert would be tied for fifth-best Block Percent at 6.1.

Jazz players appear on many leaderboard lists for offense this year. However, there are no Jazz appearances on any defensive lists. Indeed, after being hired largely for purported defensive purposes, Quin Snyder’s Jazz are barely above their defensive rating of last year, currently the third-worst defense in the NBA at 28th.