The Utah Jazz are a lot of fun to watch this NBA season and part of the reason for that, says Derrick Favors, is that players have more freedom to shoot.
More from NBA
- NBA insider: Cavaliers should consider trading Donovan Mitchell
- NBA rumors: Hawks trade candidate, Sixers miss out, Lakers almost lose Reaves
- NBA insider explains real reason the Grizzlies were done with Dillon Brooks
- Knicks projected lineup and rotations heading into 2023-24 season
- Rockets projected lineup and rotations heading into 2023-24 season
After a disappointing season, the Utah Jazz made the predictable firing of coach Tyrone Corbin. Corbin, who was hired after being an assistant under Jerry Sloan, was the last of the Sloan influence because the organization hired Quin Snyder–an outsider–to lead the team in a more analytics-friendly direction.
Here is a brief history on Snyder: He was an assistant coach for Mike Budenholzer with the Atlanta Hawks last season, who ran a Spurs-style offense, and he took those principals and his own five-out offense to Utah.
Already, the Jazz players are seeing more success. Enes Kanter is shooting three’s. Derrick Favors, averaging three more points a game than last season (16.3 compared to 13.3), is an early candidate for the Most Improved Player of the Year award and Gordon Hayward is flourishing while the Burke and Burks backcourt is thriving.
Favors talked to Basketball Insiders about what it’s like to play in the new spaced-out offense.
"“I think one of the main differences is, I think coach Snyder trusts a lot more players more than last year within the offense,” Favors said. What I mean by that is that coach Snyder actually gives guys the freedom to take the shots if they’re wide open or trust them to make the correct play. Obviously if you make the wrong play, he’s going to say something but if you make the right play, even if you break off the offense, he’s kind of going to let it go. But I think it gives us a lot more freedom within the offense this year.”"
Point guard Trey Burke on the difference between last year and this one.
"“We’re playing much faster, we’re out in transition more,” added Burke. “I think the pace is just, it’s higher. Last year we were more of a half-court team. We relied on our half-court offense and this year I think we’re out in transition more and I think it’s playing to all of our strengths.”"
The Jazz are a young team without realistic playoff aspirations. That gives the team the perfect situation to experiment, grow and find out what they are good at. It sounds like Snyder is giving them that freedom. That combined with his up-pace playing style have bumped Utah up in my personal NBA League Pass rankings.