Utah Jazz: Rodney Hood looking to get his groove back

The hardest parts of offensive basketball have come easy to Rodney Hood this season.

When the Jazz shooting guard is asked to run pick-and-roll and make plays off the dribble, he makes the right choice — whether it be to shoot or pass — more often than not. When his jumper is contested, or if he has a difficult mid-range look at the hoop, he's getting buckets. It's the reason he's averaging 12 points a night, is usually on the floor in pressure scenarios and is one of Quin Snyder's most trusted ballhandlers and playmakers.

It's the perceived easy part of the game that's giving Hood the most trouble: Shooting 3-pointers — specifically, uncontested 3-pointers.

Heading into Utah's meeting with the Sacramento Kings at Sleep Train Arena on Tuesday, Hood is desperately trying to break free of the first prolonged shooting slump of his career. For the season, he's knocking down just 27 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. It's a far cry from where he wants to be, or fans expect him to be, since he's billed as perhaps Utah's best perimeter shooter. And he's trying to find answers. He feels he's getting the correct elevation on his jumper. His form and follow-through seem right. His release has fingertip control.

The shots just aren't going in. At least not with regularity.

"It's mainly been catch and shoot," Hood said. "I've been working on it. I've been in the gym, shooting after practice, trying to get right. Off the dribble and the other parts of my game, I'm all right. It's just been the uncontested shots. I just have to get my touch right, and get better as time goes on."

Basketball is very instinctive, like most sports, in that the best results come off reaction. Hood said that's why the rest of his game seems to be working fine. When he's getting to the rim off the dribble, or when he's taking a defender in the post, or pulling up from 15-18 feet, he's not thinking. He's reacting to what the defense is giving him and making plays.

But when a teammate penetrates and kicks the ball out to him wide open in the corner, and Hood has time to think about the impending shot, that's where he says his problems come into play.

It's not uncommon for this to happen in basketball, and Hood is by no means the first player to struggle with his shot. Hood says he just has to stay consistent in his habits, and keep taking the open shots that come his way.

"I can't pass those up," Hood said. "The moment you do that, and drive into a defense that's waiting for you, that's when you start to really hurt your team."

It can be a little frustrating because Hood is normally an efficient scorer, meaning he can put up a high volume of points on a low volume of shots. But the Jazz need Hood, it's that simple. Even on a team with Gordon Hayward and Alec Burks, his ability to create on the perimeter is valued. At his best, he can score at all three levels, from long distance to getting to the rim. He's played all three perimeter spots so far this season, and he's big enough at 6-foot-8 to get his shot off against most defenders.

"He's more mature than what his age is," Utah forward Joe Ingles said. "He's someone who's being counted on to score and make plays for us, absolutely."

At the same time, that doesn't mean this season hasn't been an adjustment for him. In his second year out of Duke, Hood is playing almost 30 minutes a night, much more than he was asked to play at this time as a rookie.

He's no longer playing against opposing second units. Now that he's in the starting lineup, he's drawing better defenders.

Once he starts making shots consistently, he helps the offense significantly with spacing. But because he finished last season so strong, teams around the league know he exists.

"As you improve as a player in this league, those are some of the things you want to have happen," Snyder said. "As you put in the work to improve and that garners more defensive attention, it usually requires the same kind of work to deal with it. So Rodney's going through that right now."

tjones@sltrib.com

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