The Basketball Index player grades have become a great tool for evaluating player talents this season. So far we’ve utilized them more on an individual player basis. Today, however, I’d like to evaluate the Jazz team by their position groups. This helps us see some overall strengths and weaknesses on the Jazz roster. Here’s a graph showing the position groups and how they compare across the league against the same position groups on a percentile basis:

Guard Strengths

With Ricky Rubio and Donovan Mitchell manning the starting guard positions, it’s not surprising that they score decently well in playmaking. They do it in rather different styles, however. Ricky Rubio has always been known for his impressive passing skills, while Donovan’s playmaking is more a result of his driving and attacking ability. Dante Exum has also made significant progress this season, as seen by his career high 2.33 AST/TOV ratio. I think he and Mitchell are really carrying the weight in the one on one category being above average. I also like to see how involved they get on the defensive glass.

Guard Weaknesses

Neither Rubio nor Exum are known for their perimeter shooting. Unfortunately Mitchell is having a down year as well, so the Jazz guards are only the 29th percentile in this category. It’s not just the guards however, as the Jazz team as a whole is rated pretty low from the perimeter. While Utah guards do well one on one, they don’t finish particularly well. This has improved over the season as Exum has gotten more involved and Mitchell’s shot selection has improved.

Wing Strengths

If this graph tells me anything, it’s that the Utah Jazz still need help on the wing. They need an elite third player to fit next to Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. Joe Ingles is a perfect role player, but he can’t really be your 3rd best player and expect to make deep playoff runs. Kyle Kover’s addition has certainly helped with the perimeter shooting and roll gravity, but it won’t be enough long term. That main wing strength of perimeter shooting is significant with the Jazz being an overall poor 3 point shooting team this season. We also see big contributions with defensive rebounding.

Wing Weaknesses

Quin Snyder does not like to give up fast break points, so it’s not surprising to see his wings rated so poorly on the offensive glass. Unfortunately the defense of this group has not helped to Utah’s overall great defense. It’s also obvious to see that this group contains some shooters, but not a lot creators outside of Joe Ingles. You shouldn’t be expecting any of the wings to get a bucket of their own on the regular.

Big Strengths

Defensive rebounding and surprisingly perimeter defense have been the biggest strength of Utah’s bigs so far. Don’t let that interior defense fool you too much, as Rudy Gobert still ranks in the 99th percentile in interior defense among all bigs. It’s the other bigs that haven’t been performing as well this season. Utah bigs are also good finishers, once again carried by Rudy Gobert. He has a league-leading FG% of 66.4% and TS% of 67.9%.

Big Weaknesses

This graph illustrates very well how much overlap the Jazz have with their bigs. They continue to start a traditional duo of Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert. While these two are both great basketball players, they might not fit well alongside one another. Ekpe Udoh fits this same traditional big mold as well. Utah remains one of the few teams yet to fully adapt to the modern NBA. With the limited spacing, they don’t perform well down in the low post on offense either. They don’t really have playmaking bigs or stretch 4/5s. Could this be something they address at the deadline or over the summer?

Overall I think the Jazz have made good progress throughout the season. The schedule was brutal to start, but that is lightening up. They looked prime to make another second half of the season run like they have in almost every Quin Snyder led season. I still think a lack of offensive firepower is one of the only things keeping this team from reaching their goals. Dennis Lindsey has some difficult and interesting decisions to make over the next few weeks and months.