The Triple Team: It appears the Jazz have their Core Four. Here are some possible targets for their fifth man.

Three thoughts on the week in Jazz basketball from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. I am dumb.

My whole first point last week was about how the Jazz couldn’t really stay close to the best teams in the NBA. After all, in their first 10 games against those teams, they got smacked worse than any other team in the league.

So naturally, the very next week, they have just about the hardest back-to-back possible: They played Detroit (leading the Eastern Conference) at home, winning. Then, they flew to San Antonio, landed at about 3 a.m., got into their hotel rooms around 4 a.m., and promptly proceeded to beat the second-seeded Spurs — the same Spurs who had just defeated the Thunder.

The first lesson here is that I am a dumb basketball analyst who doesn’t know anything.

The second and more important lesson here is that the Jazz showed a top level that they simply haven’t before — which bodes extremely well for the viability of building around this core.

Of course, at the top of the list is the play of Keyonte George, who was nominated for the Western Conference’s Player of the Week award. He saved his best performance for last in the Celtics game, scoring 37 points on 13-24 shooting, and causing Celtics beat writers to compare him to Michael Jordan.

Teammate Jusuf Nurkic compared him to Damian Lillard, though I tend to think that the other All-NBA guard that Nurkic played with, Devin Booker, is the better comparison. Lillard’s pretty 3-point dependent, George just isn’t.

The threat of Markkanen’s off-ball movement continues to open up so much for the Jazz, too. When he’s moving on one side of the court, the Jazz can either run the action to him if it’s open, or if not, run something on the other side of the floor that’s got a bundle of space because the defense is so concerned with Markkanen.

Will Hardy deserves a lot of credit, too. The Jazz’s system is legitimately a gigantic pain to guard. So much stuff happens around the arc from real threats that defenses are just going to give an advantage somewhere at some point.

This may well be the high-water mark of the Jazz’s season, given the front office’s intentions to keep the top-8 protected pick. But there’s been some good play here, and we should note that.

2. What is Walter Clayton, exactly?

Walter Clayton’s had what I’d call an experimental season so far.

In some games, he’s played as much as 29 minutes. In other stretches, he’s been DNP-CD or in the G League. Against the Spurs on Saturday, though, Clayton had his career high with 17 points (6-of-6 shooting) and five assists. Against the Celtics, Hardy chose to finish the game with him.

My visual impression is that Clayton is playing pretty cautiously. He likes to probe the paint but doesn’t put up a lot of shots in there — when he does, they’ve gone in at a pretty high rate. He’s taking a decent number of threes, which have gone in 30% of the time. (He told me he’s trying to raise the arc on his jumper a bit this year.) He’s been pretty adept at drawing fouls and really adept at making free throws (94%).

He’s also never really been like: I’m Walter Clayton, national champion, NCAA Most Outstanding Player, let me show you what I can do. Well, other than his dunk on Tuesday.

Defensively, he’s been a gamer at a much higher level than the other Jazz point guards, while still being a little bit too small to have a consistent impact one-on-one and not gambly enough to accumulate steals.

The advanced analytic picture adds up to Clayton being an exactly replacement-level player right now; he has a 0.0 VORP. I think this is basically fine for a player at this stage of his career, but as the season goes on, I’ll be looking to see if he can show a skill or two that he can hang his hat on as he continues to develop.

3. The Jazz have a Core Four. Who’s No. 5?

So I think it’s relatively clear that the Jazz have four really bankable players: George, Markkanen, Walker Kessler, and Ace Bailey. There’s still time for other youth to pop, obviously, but let’s put them aside for a minute.

If you were building a team and told those were the pieces to build around, what kind of fifth starter would you look for?

We have one terrific scoring guard, one scoring wing, one terrific off-ball perimeter shooting big, and one rolling rim protector. That tells me we should be looking out for:

A) Either a guard with significant size or a wing.

B) An extremely additive player on the defensive end.

C) A player who doesn’t take away offensively ... but isn’t asked to do too much other than shoot the ball, make timely cuts, and handle the ball just a bit when you need it, in transition or as a safety valve.

D) A player who isn’t super expensive. In two years, Markkanen will be making $50 million, George probably $35 million at least at this point, Kessler at least $25 million, and Bailey $10 million, against a salary cap of $175 million or so. It means you have roughly $50 million to spend on this player and eight others.

E) Young enough that he fits the Jazz’s timeline.

Is there anyone on the roster who fits this? In theory, Taylor Hendricks is one such player. In reality, he’s nowhere near actually defensively impactful enough, tends to be a bit of a ball-stopper offensively, and doesn’t really have an additive feel. This all makes sense, given the injury and how young he is anyway, so it could develop. I’d give him plenty of chances. But I wouldn’t avoid looking at other options.

Is there anyone in the NBA else in the NBA you can realistically acquire who would fit this in the next few trade windows or free agency periods? Let’s look around the league.

• I’d be really interested in Lu Dort in the wake of the Thunder’s semi-inevitable cap crunch after they extend their stars. He becomes a free agent in two years, currently makes $18 million, is only 26 years old, is an All-Defensive first-team guy, and provides effort and defensive hustle you just do not have on this roster right now.

• Herb Jones in New Orleans was legitimately terrific there for a while ... and then seemingly has fallen off a cliff with his defensive output this season. Could the fact that he plays for a terrible team play a role? He’s paid $15 million to $22 million for the next four seasons, and is currently 27.

• Tari Eason is probably going to make too much on his next deal to qualify for this ... but he’s an absolutely terrific defender, 24 years old, and a restricted free agent this summer. The cheap Rocket would be Josh Okogie, which I also don’t hate, though he’s much more of a hole offensively than I’d prefer.

• Matisse Thybulle is a two-time All-Defensive second-team winner, 28 years old, and a free agent this summer. When he’s played for the Blazers he’s been super awesome, but has been reliably injured.

• Ryan Dunn is good defensively but can’t really shoot right now. Maybe that changes?

There aren’t very many guys who fit, but there are some options there. I wonder if the Jazz shoot for any of these players in the upcoming windows.