Four things the Jazz don’t have that they have to have:
1. Perimeter shooting.
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This shortcoming has blown past problematic straight to laughable. Jazz deep shooters, if that designation actually applies, tiptoe around the region beyond the arc as though it’s infested with landmines. When they do get an open look, they clutch and double-clutch before sending up a betty that’s bound to bounce all over the gym. Somewhere … well, right from his seat on the bench … Jeff Hornacek is cringing. Any game this season, the Jazz assistant coach could have walked directly onto the court, still dressed out in his Armani and Guccis, and drained long floaters with more precision than anybody on this roster.
As a team, the Jazz are shooting about the same percentage from deep as … John Salmons of the Sacramento Kings. That’s not a good thing.
The Jazz rank dead last in the NBA in 3-point shooting, hitting a fraction better than 29 percent. They haven’t shot less than 30 percent from range since John Stockton was still coming off the bench.
This jams up the Jazz’s offense, despite it being a layup-first attack. Opponents are fully aware the Jazz can’t hit the side of a tractor-trailer, so they dare them to go ahead and give it a hurl. When guards hesitate to let shots spin, lacking the confidence to do so, that’s worse than hoisting a few up and caroming them all over.
The team’s answer is simply to shoot fewer 3s. They rank 28th out of 30 clubs in 3-pointers attempted and in 3-pointers made per game.
"We attack the basket first," Ty Corbin said. "That’s what we want to do."
That seems like a shortsighted, limited solution, as though the Jazz are willing to brawl one-handed.
"Yeah, we’d like to have better 3-point shooting," Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor said. "We certainly have the inside game to be able to swing the ball around. Would we like to have somebody out there who’s a stone 3-point shooter? Absolutely. But we don’t. … If there’s somehow we can [get one] without disassembling the rest of the team, we’d like to do it."
2. Better point-guard play.
In the South, I’m told, people can say whatever they want about anyone, be it a colleague, a friend, a family member, as long as at the end of the criticism, the phrase "bless his heart" is added. As in …
Devin Harris is a lousy Jazz point guard, bless his heart.
It’s not so much that Harris is a crappy player. It’s that he doesn’t really fit what the Jazz need from their floor leader, all as he’s pulling down more than $9 million.
Harris is averaging 8.7 points, shooting 43 percent overall and 29 percent from 3, and totaling 4.3 assists. Earl Watson gets 3.6 points, shooting 41 percent overall and 21 percent from 3, and 4.8 assists.
We all know Stockton and Deron Williams are long gone, there’s no living in the past, but … compared to Harris and Watson, the past sure looks fine right about now, bless their hearts.
3. Team unity.
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