Unraveling The Utah Jazz Pace Problem

By Clint Peterson | Feb 14, 2015

Jan 9, 2015; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

When he took over as head coach, Quin Snyder said Utah Jazz pace would be on the rise, as one of a few edicts listed for improvement in play. And yet, somehow the Jazz are playing even slower than last season. At only 90.3 possessions per 48 minutes, 28th of the NBA’s 30 teams, Utah is playing at a full possession-plus per game less than last season’s plodding pace, it’s slowest-paced team since the 2005-06 season.

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But they’re making it work to an extent, often mucking up a game against a faster-paced opponent, gaining an edge in the chess match coaches play at dictating the game, imposing your will. With a nine-man rotation whose average age is under 24 years old and full of athletes, you’d certainly expect them to run-and-gun to their advantage more.

It’s not that Snyder isn’t pushing the ball up the floor — they are. Nor is it a lack of movement — the Jazz lead the NBA in passes per game by a large margin, an astonishing 370.0 per game, 11 and-a-half more than the next closest pass-happy team this season.

Utah Jazz pace – passes per game

And yet Utah fails to convert all that frenetic ball movement into assists, baskets made from a pass, tied for the 3rd-least assists per game with only 20.3 per game this season, the same per game total as last year.

20.3 assists per game represents the lowest mark in Jazz franchise history, including the New Orleans Jazz.

Some of this can be explained by pace, but not entirely — most Jerry Sloan teams played in a plodding manner and the Jazz usually led the NBA in assists per game.

20.3 assists per game represents the lowest mark in Jazz franchise history, including the New Orleans Jazz

The Jazz aren’t awful at converting field goal attempts either, squarely in the middle of the pack at 16th-best, a 45% conversion rate. Where they’re getting killed in the modern NBA is partially three-point field goal percentage, only 20th-best with a 34.3% conversion rate from behind the arc.

Is it coincidence that the two teams that lead the NBA in 3FG%…

2014-15 NBA 3FG leaders

Also happen to lead it in assists per game…

2014-15 NBA assists per game leaders

And hold the league’s top two spots overall, as well as in point differential — a good indicator for just how “real” a team is?

2014-15 NBA best record, point differential

That would be one helluva coincidence. That is today’s NBA.

The Golden State Warriors lead the NBA in offensive rating, defensive rating, assists per game, three-point percentage, point differential and pace. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Hawks are 16th in pace.

You can play fast or slow — other top teams, like the San Antonio Spurs, Memphis Grizzlies and Washington Wizards, pass a lot and convert a lot, but are in the bottom half in the NBA in pace — so long as you’re converting open opportunities created by the offense. This is where the Utah Jazz run into trouble.

About one in every four Utah Jazz field goal attempts this season are “late to very late” in the shot clock

Utah pushes the ball up the floor and probes the defense with multiple passes — swinging the ball around the outside, trying to penetrate, posting, screening, kicking back out — only to find itself often stymied by opposing defenses.

The result is, all too often the ball still simply ends up in Gordon Hayward’s hands with him trying to create with a dwindling shot clock. Don’t get it wrong though; unlike last season, Hayward can convert these late chances more often and at a higher rate than he did last year. He’d better, after all that practice at it that he got on an island in 2013-14.

Gordon Hayward is 11th in the NBA this season in shots made with six seconds or less left on the shot clock, converting a solid 40% of 158 attempts. We should take a moment to appreciate Derrick Favors in this regard as well, who has made 44% of 124 attempts with six seconds or less left on the shot clock — not bad for a guy whose offensive prowess was maligned until this year.

It’s not so much that the Jazz aren’t trying to play with pace as that they simply often cannot find a way to penetrate the opposing defense effectively to get a high percentage shot off. The later in the shot clock it gets, the lower the Utah Jazz’s field goal percentage also gets.

Utah Jazz pace – shot clock usage 2014-15

About one in every four Utah Jazz field goal attempts this season are “late to very late” in the shot clock.

Maybe the biggest factor in the Jazz’s pace woes is turnovers. The Utah Jazz are dead last in turnovers forced (tied with the Chicago Bulls) at only 11.9 per game. When you force a turnover you create another possession prematurely, in a way artificially inflating the amount of possessions in a game by playing defense.

The Utah Jazz pace isn’t so much a symptom as a side effect of a larger problem

It takes several more seconds to hold off a team, who then ends up taking a shot that may carom off the rim before it’s retrieved. Teams that force turnovers more tend to create a higher pace of play. Indeed, the top eight teams in the NBA this season at forcing turnovers are all above league average in pace of play: Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Golden State, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, Minnesota and Atlanta.

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The Jazz are getting only 12.8 fastbreak points per game, or 13% of their average point total on the season. Meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors, who force the third-most turnovers per game, get 19% of their league-leading points per game from the fastbreak.

While the Utah Jazz have a ways to go in perfecting a complicated scheme of offensive sets — sets Quin Snyder is adding angles and facets to all the time — they would be well served to find themselves some easier shots that start by creating looks with defense, by forcing more turnovers, spawning high percentage shots before the opposing defense can get in their sets.

As it stands, the Jazz are spinning their wheels with an ambiguous offense, making things more complicated for themselves by not playing a more aggressive defense that takes possessions away from their opponent.

The Utah Jazz pace isn’t so much a symptom as a side effect of a larger problem.