Jazz shootaround: Jazz making due on defense with Derrick Favors still out

Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert make the Utah Jazz such a good defensive team when they are on the floor together. Both are good rim-protectors, and both are unique for big men in their ability to cover ground on the perimeter.

Having them on the floor in tandem allows the Jazz to almost always have a shot-blocking threat at the basket, a luxury few teams around the NBA can afford. Quin Snyder was also able to stagger his rotations to where either Gobert or Favors were on the floor at almost all times, enabling the Jazz to play almost 48 minutes a night with a great defender at the backstop of the defense.

Utah is good defensively without one or the other. There's still very little question in that. But without one or the other, the Jazz struggle to be the best defense in the league, which is the area they approach when whole.

There isn't a timetable on how long Favors will be out while he waits for a bone contusion in his left knee to heal. He certainly won't be available on Thursday night, when the Jazz face the Chicago Bulls on TNT.

But this is what will happen in his stead: Trey Lyles, Boris Diaw and Joe Johnson will eat up the majority of the minutes at power forward. Their presence will give the Jazz a different look — Lyles is a play-making 3-point threat (albeit one who's struggled with his shot for most of the season); Diaw is also a play-maker, though without the consistent shot beyond the arc; and Johnson is a small forward by trade who has played up a position under Snyder.

While those three can do things on the perimeter that Favors can't, there's no denying Utah's defensive identity threatens to take a hit.

"I'd like to think we can keep our identity," Snyder said. "When you lose a player of Derrick's caliber, there are going to be challenges. We have to be a little different. I think our wings have to be more solid, and we have to rebound defensively. But I don't think we should drop off a cliff or anything."

Beyond Favors, point guard George Hill will miss his sixth consecutive game on Thursday night with the thumb he sprained almost two weeks ago against the New York Knicks. Hill is progressing, and went through parts of practice on Wednesday.

But the Jazz want to make sure Hill is 100 percent. His thumb is on his shooting hand, which complicates things a bit. And a point guard typically takes some trauma to his hand on every possession anyway.

Without Hill, Dante Exum is in line to start for a fourth consecutive game, if that's the way Snyder chooses to go.

— Tony Jones