It’s that time of year again where we all make goals we know we won’t actually hold ourselves accountable for. This year was pretty good to the Utah Jazz, but there are certainly areas for improvement. As we enter a new year, I’ve got a list of 5 resolutions I want to see from the Jazz in 2019.

1. Make your free throws!

Last year the Jazz shot nearly 79% from the line. After bringing back nearly an identical roster, they are shooting only 71.8% this year. Almost everyone is below their career average. To show you what I mean, here’s a few variances from career free throw percentages: Joe Ingles -9.7%, Jae Crowder -5.7%, Derrick Favors -3.8%, Royce O’Neale -11%. Even Kyle Korver is -12.9% during his time with Utah so far.

This has absolutely contributed to some losses on the season. The worst such case was a 6 point loss to the 76ers in which the Jazz missed 16 free throws! They also missed 12 in a 3 point loss to the Timberwolves. If everyone shot their career averages from the line, both of those games would be W’s instead of L’s. If the Jazz want to get this thing rolling like last year, the charity stripe would be a great place to start.

2. Finally found out what you have in Dante Exum

Dante is looking better than maybe ever before in his career. He had arguably his 2 career best performances in back to back games last week. He scored a diverse and efficient 20 points against the 76ers, then followed that up with 13 points and 13 assists against the Knicks. As a cherry on top, he only had 2 total turnovers in those games. His contract extension looked like an overpay in the summer, but Dennis Lindsey had years 2 and 3 in mind. He may not look like an 11 million dollar player right now, but he definitely could in the future. Now in his 5^th year with the Jazz, it’s high time they figure out what they have in him. Is he the point guard of the future? The running mate next to Donovan Mitchell? A 6^th man of the year type? Or just a rotation piece? Quin Snyder needs to give Exum extensive minutes over the last half of the season to see where he fits on this Utah squad.

3. Take advantage of the lighter schedule

It’s common knowledge that Utah had the most difficult schedule in the NBA so far this season. Unfortunately we are still a ways a way from the schedule truly lightening up. They embark on an eastern conference 4-game road trip to start off the 2019 calendar year.  It’s crazy that at the halfway mark of the season, they’ll have only played 16 of 41 games at home! After that they’ll have 12 of 15 games in Salt Lake City. That sounds great until you realize how many of those games are against current playoff teams. The schedule doesn’t truly shift and get easy until about March 13^th. At that point there’s only 16 games left. If the Jazz can remain at 0.500 by that point, I think they’ll be in good shape to make it back to the playoffs. If they are a few games over then they will have positioned themselves very well. Then it’s just a matter of taking care of business, which they best prove capable of.

4. Defend the non-restricted paint and midrange better

The Jazz defense has done great at forcing the right shots this year. They defend corner 3’s with the 4^th and 6^th best percentages. They allow the 2^nd fewest shot attempts in the restricted area. Quin Snyder’s schemes encourage offenses to take the worst kinds of shots, which is good. Now the players need to work on still defending those they are giving up. They have the least “very tightly defended” 2-point field goal attempts defensively, defined as a defender within 0-2 feet. Not so good. From 8-16 feet, the Jazz give up the 3^rd most shots, which is also good. But opponents shoot 41% on those shots. Not so good. I understand that it’s difficult to have the best of both worlds. You can’t really encourage mid range shots without sacrificing tight defense on those shots fairly consistently. But if they could defend the mid range even just a little more successfully, then this team could find yet another level defensively.

5. Return to the playoffs and build on last year’s success

The Jazz were not supposed to make the playoffs last year. They lost the face of the franchise in Gordon Hayward and looked like a lotto team. Donovan Mitchell happened instead. With Rudy Gobert’s defense and the new young star they were able to beat Vegas’ win projections by about 10 games. Then they decisively took down the OKC Thunder in round 1 of the playoffs. That’s where the successful season ends, as the Rockets handled them in 5 games in round 2. This team’s biggest goal for 2018 should be not only a return to the NBA playoffs, but a deeper run. If they aren’t able to get to the Western Conference Finals, I’m hoping they at least return to the 2^nd round and push their opponent to 6 or 7 games.

Bonus Resolution: Find a third star for Gobert and Mitchell

Dennis Lindsey will have a lot of money to spend if he doesn’t fill up Utah’s pending cap space via a trade before the deadline. An even more successful playoff run so would send another good message to pending free agents that Utah is a place to come if you want to take that next step and win at a high level. If he can find away to bring a legitimate 3rd player to pair with these two, then the Jazz will be set for a long time.