Jazz coach Quin Snyder tinkers to find bench combinations that work

This isn’t the Jazz bench the team anticipated at the beginning of the season.

After signing Jeff Green and Ed Davis in the offseason, the Jazz’s front office and coaching staff both figured that they’d play a big role for the team coming off the bench. Dante Exum and Emmanuel Mudiay might fight among themselves for point guard minutes, while Tony Bradley and Georges Niang would have to wait for injuries or garbage time to make their mark on the floor.

But fast forward to the end of February, and Niang’s a rotation mainstay, Bradley’s the main backup center — though Juwan Morgan has gotten more time as of late against smaller opponents — and Exum was traded for Jordan Clarkson, the Jazz’s most reliable bench presence.

Ironically, maybe the only piece that does match what the team expected at the beginning of the year is Joe Ingles, who was just moved to the bench for the second time on Wednesday. He started the season coming off the bench, but when Mike Conley was hurt, he moved to the starting lineup. But as a reserve, his play hasn’t met expectations. He’s averaging just 7.3 points per game in those 21 games, shooting just 37% from the field and a dismal 30% from 3-point range.

Before Friday’s game, Snyder addressed the bench unit in a media session.

“Sometimes there’s just an ebb and flow to the season,” Snyder noted. “The idea there is sometimes you want to find combinations that are successful. For us, (with) some of the combinations, you have to be patient in some situations, because guys haven’t played together as much.”

One possible example: Bradley has actually turned himself into a relatively talented rolling big man, the kind Ingles tends to excel next to. But their individual chemistry isn’t great yet, just because Ingles and Bradley haven’t played many minutes together.

The other focus for the bench is the defensive end. As poor as the Jazz’s defense has been with the starting unit in the Jazz’s homestand, it’s actually been worse with the bench in the game: The Jazz are allowing 123 points per 100 possessions without Rudy Gobert on the court. That’s another area in which Snyder hopes more time and continuity improves things.

“Sometimes defense drives those things. We’ve got some guys that are figuring it out," Snyder pointed out. "Tony Bradley, for example, has played really well, but he is young. Georges has played really well, but this is a new experience for him. Jordan Clarkson has played really well, but we just got him around Christmas time.”

The Jazz rarely play without at least one starter on the floor, and very frequently play with two or three at a time out there. This graph by PBPStats shows the percentage of time the Jazz play with 0-5 starters. Red bars indicate the Jazz outscore their opponents by a great margin, while blue means the opposite.

An improved bench, with the benefit of some continuity, might go a long way toward improving the team’s overall performance.