NBA Chemistry 101: The Utah Jazz and the Team Concept

Author Illustration

September 29, 2011

SLCDunk: What single story went under the radar that you thought was important, and why?

Clint: The way the Jazz bigs finished the season.

I don’t think anyone would dispute that the Jazz struggled with chemistry issues last year, for obvious reasons. But the frontline of Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, and Derrick Favors began to find a groove by season’s end.

-Jazz Jam Session: September, SLCDunk

If you ask George Karl or the Denver Nuggets what’s been the single most important thing that’s contributed to their ability to flourish as a team despite having no stars you’ll be told it was the loss of the distraction that was Carmelo Anthony. We saw a similar effect during the Memphis Grizzlies’ Cinderella playoff run last season as well after they lost their top talent and rising star Rudy Gay to injury for the remainder of the 2010-11 season. And the Utah Jazz are rocking some of this same mojo this year, beating a nigh unbeatable Nuggets team in the Pepsi Center by out-teaming what’s been the best “team” in basketball in recent memory.

Before the first horn solo in Entrance of the Gladiators was done Jerry Sloan was gone. Before the second bar could begin so was Deron Williams. It was suddenly Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, and Ty Corbin’s team, and they were briskly dubbed the worst team in basketball with fans calling for Corbin’s head on a silver platter. They were supposed to lose in Denver by 10.5 points, instead winning by 10, a 20.5-point swing. They somehow stand among the elite in the standings when they were supposed to be challenging the Washington Wizards for the rights to Anthony Davis or Harrison Barnes in the next draft.

What sort of sorcery or (forgive me) “Al”chemy is this?

While their schedule has been fortunate at times thus far, they’re also a fundamentally changed ball club, making hay while the sun is shining, picking up momentum and confidence by the bushel, now not only beating teams they should by what they should be, but also pushing the mighty LA Lakers to the limit and soundly trouncing a Denver team that’s had the best home record over the last several seasons.

With this Utah team there’s no single standout area that you could pinpoint statistically that would comprehensively or logically explain a turnaround this dramatic.* It’s rather a product of a sum of improved parts that are buying into what Ty Corbin and assistant additions Sydney Lowe and Mike Sanders have been selling. The Jazz are protecting the paint — over their last three games they’ve given up only 36.0 points in the paint while dropping 46.5 — and chasing opponents off of the 3-point line — giving up 16.2 PPG from 3, down from 21.7 last year — something Sloan never did preferring to play the percentages, an ill-conceived strategy in a league dropping from range at an historic rate. Indeed, that’s basically Denver’s entire game, all inside or out, with little in between. The Jazz forced the Nuggets out of their comfort zones and into unfamiliar territory, a league-wide lower percentage long mid-range game. Utah’s improved defense is controlling pace and dictating where opponents get looks.

*As SI.com’s Zach Lowe points out, if you had to pick one it would be Paul Millsap, who somehow adds something new to his game every year. Watch out for his passing, this, he’s clearly been working on his court vision.

Sample sizes are still small, but early returns have Al Jefferson as anchor on three of the four best defensive five-man units among the ten most used on the Jazz, including the best one,  and he’s has never been more focused on the defensive end, his improved effort given a double-dose of help by his coming into camp in the best shape of his career coupled with a D-scheme devised by Corbin, and vocally enforced all game long by Sydney Lowe, that’s far more conducive to all the Jazz’s personnel than the antiquated one run by Sloan. To put it plainly, Corbin is using the tools he was given in a more efficient manner than Jerry Sloan was at the end of his magnificent run of greatness.

According to mySynergySports, Al Jefferson cut to the basket only 1.22 times per-game his last year with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Last season, his first in Utah, he ran cuts 3.35 times per-game, and now he has the conditioning and explosive physique to make those cuts count. Throw in a willingness to pass out and reset the post now when the double-team comes — and the double and even triple-team is coming a lot, watch for it — instead of forcing his way through it every single time as he always had before and he’s found a new threat to dangle over opponents on offense.

A cursory glance at Jefferson’s statistics don’t tell the whole story — what he’s doing his subtle, but extremely effective. Throw out his outlier offensive struggles with the Lakers and he’s hitting on .556 field goals, where the 6th-best player there in the league sits this year. It’s taken several games for his FG% to recover after running into the LA Towers each time. Lucky for him Millsap seems to finally have the Lakeshow figured out. Maybe Paul will share his secret.

On this play Al gets the entry pass and the double comes causing him to reset to Devin Harris who returns the favor. All the while Millsap is lurking on the weakside, stalking the play, waiting for the right moment. When it comes, Paul cuts, turns and finishes strong off the glass on the Al dime. And no one’s scoring better on cuts this year than Millsap, Paul putting down 1.69 points-per-possession, good for number one in the NBA.

And this play can go the other way as well. Either Millsap or Jefferson has recorded two assists in every game this season but one, the overtime tilt with the Lakers where each logged one.

And their odd chemistry doesn’t end there. Here’s a few more examples of how the coaching staff has found ways to play to each player’s strengths:

• Both are posting career bests in defensive rating, Al 99 and Sap 97. This after Jefferson posted four straight years of a heinous 108 (lower is better for D-rating). Under the new D-scheme Corbin has Jefferson defending the post 61% of the time where he’s 7th-best in the NBA allowing a mere 0.60 points-per-possession.

• Together they’ve netted 32 steals and posted 30 blocks, Sap the better pickpocket with 22 and Al the better rim stopper with 21 blocks. Their blocks and steals on the season are a virtual funhouse mirror, Al 1.9 blocks and 0.9 steals and Sap 0.8 blocks and 1.8 steal per game. Jefferson is currently at career highs for both steals and blocks percentage and Millsap for steals percentage. They are each “helping the helper.”

• In only one game this season did one or the other fail to score at least 18 points, the home opener where Millsap had 14 and Al sat out injured.

• Last season Jefferson led the league in lowest turnover percentage at 6.8%, although he’s always been good there due to his ability to keep the ball and get a shot off as opposed to this year where he commonly passes back out when Corbin hasn’t intentionally called an iso for a mismatch. But he’s still one of the best there at only 7.4%, only now he has company. Millsap is Al’s near equal now turning it over only 7.9% of the time, down from a career 12.4%.

You have to have that guy that you can pencil in nightly numbers for, and on the Jazz this is Al Jefferson. You also need that big-game-moment guy, and your man here is Paul Millsap (Hi, Miami!). If one is off the other has been there to pick up the slack. And if they’re both clicking, well, you’re boned.

In The Can on Sunday night Al Jefferson got ripped off by the Pepsi Center scorers of a beauty of an entry dime as he spied a cutting Millsap in the fourth quarter who deftly plucked the floater from space and hovered as he spun mid-air and set the Spalding on a straight and true course for twine.

An ecstatic Al Jefferson threw a hay-maker of a fist pump then met his stone-faced ‘mate with glee in a moment of pure team emotion and appreciation I’ll never forget.

Courtesy @theweezy25

It’s hard to beat good coaching and chemistry when executed properly within the team concept. Ty Corbin is laying the foundation, drawing up the plans, and mixing up a brew of win that’s difficult to overcome if you’re on the wrong side of the floor. And his students are intently carrying out their instructions practically flawlessly right now.

We’re so much more familiar with each other now… The guys are counting on each other, trusting each other on both ends of the floor. We’re continuing to grow because we’re making the right passes. We’re making great cuts on the offensive end, pushing the ball up the floor, we’re searching for early opportunities. And when we get in half-court sets we’re doing a good job of executing our offense.

-Ty Corbin, courtesy Jody Genessy, Deseret News

Author’s note: You have to be careful when looking at the Jazz’s stats this season; they were so bad the first three games it’s skewed the entire available sample size to this point

Oster-Tags: Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, The Hug, Ty Corbin, Utah Jazz, whatAlchemyisthis