ICYMI: We are all giddy over Donovan Mitchell, and rightfully so given his comparison to Jazz rookies of recent years. That, and more Mitchell love, found here. 

During Monday’s blowout of the Wizards, broadcaster Matt Harpring claimed that the Jazz had two of the 12 best centers in the NBA.  Obviously, Rudy Gobert is up there, but does he have a point with Derrick Favors?

Alright jazz nation, let’s fact check Matt Harpring. He said Favors is a top 12 center. Yea or nay? #TakeNote

— Steve Godfrey (@JazzJunkie12) December 5, 2017

The best centers in the NBA are some combination of Gobert, passing wizard Nikola Jokic, the force down-low Karl-Anthony Towns, Demarcus “Boogie” Cousins, shot blocking extraordinaire DeAndre Jordan, the NBA’s next best thing Joel Embiid, Celtic Al Horford, and a resurging Andre Drummond.

After that, you have Myles Turner, Hassan Whiteside, and Marc Gasol that are pretty good. Nikola Vucevic, Orlando, and Steven Adams with the Thunder are playing really well this year while Clint Capela is thriving, catching lobs from James Harden and Chris Paul in Houston. Would you swap Favors for any of those guys?

It’s within this second tier that Derrick Favors belongs, especially as of late when he has been one of the 12-15 best centers in the NBA. The only problem is, it’s not his natural position.

Power Forward and the Problems

According to the Hollinger Stats in the Player Efficiency Rating, Favors is at a 20.04 PER,  ranked 14th among Power Forwards, his “position,” which is where the first problem lies. Favors is listed as Power Forward and when he plays with Rudy Gobert, he has to slide to PF.

Favors prefers playing PF, where the position feels natural with his back to the basket and the ability to catch a pick-and-pop.

He won’t admit, however, that he is better at center. The Jazz, too, are better with him at center. Why?

Because the NBA has evolved into small-ball basketball. With two bigs down low, the spacing gets clogged and the flow is limited when the Jazz are on offense. Since the Jazz are packing the paint, defenders are able to get to the three-line quicker, which takes away our deep bomb threat. On top of that, since the Jazz are camping down low, the path to the basket is harder to navigate which takes away easy shots, layups, or cutting abilities.

Even if Derrick is not in the paint, teams know he is not a reliable nor consistent shooter outside of eighteen feet, so they don’t have to respect him. When the Jazz are on offense, their lack of shooting and spacing issues become extra defenders.

The Jazz simply can’t thrive in the modern-NBA playing two traditional bigs. It’s why the Jazz are better on the floor when Joe Johnson, Thabo Sefolosha, Joe Ingles, or Jonas Jerebko are at the PF position because they can space the floor, knock down outside jumpers, and handle the basketball while also being able to guard opposing big men on pick-and-roll switches or post plays. The +/- combinations back it up, too:

Regular Season: 5-Man Combinations Table

Net (Per 100 Poss)
Rk	Lineup	MP	PTS ▼	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	eFG%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	ORB%	DRB	DRB%	TRB	TRB%	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF
1	A. Burks | D. Favors | J. Ingles | J. Jerebko | D. Mitchell	19:12	+55.3	+22.0	+4.8	+.216	+9.6	+19.7	+.083	+.267	+1.8	-0.8	+.097	+0.8	+13.3	+15.2	+13.3	+8.7	+25.0	+19.9	+8.3	-3.0	-1.8	0.0
2	A. Burks | J. Johnson | D. Mitchell | T. Sefolosha | E. Udoh	13:33	+54.2	+22.4	+25.9	+.120	+0.9	+2.1	.000	+.105	+12.6	+16.6	-.167	+8.3	+14.8	-6.1	+14.8	+1.9	+5.3	+5.5	+10.5	0.0	-25.3	-7.7
8	D. Favors | R. Hood | J. Ingles | J. Jerebko | D. Mitchell	16:00	+12.9	-9.7	-19.4	+.027	+12.9	+9.7	+.229	+.123	+19.4	+19.4	+.222	+3.2	+16.7	+12.9	+16.7	+8.1	+23.8	-9.7	-12.9	0.0	+12.9	-4.8
9	D. Favors | R. Hood | R. Rubio | T. Sefolosha | E. Udoh	12:41	+12.5	+3.0	+7.2	.000	+0.8	+1.5	.000	.000	+5.7	+5.7	.000	-7.6	-20.0	-11.4	-20.0	-8.7	-20.0	+5.3	+12.1	0.0	-15.2	-6.5
11	D. Favors | J. Ingles | D. Mitchell | R. Rubio | T. Sefolosha	34:08	+4.3	+3.8	+1.7	+.034	+10.2	+12.9	+.193	+.091	-13.5	-18.0	-.167	-4.6	-5.8	+3.5	-5.8	-0.7	-1.6	+8.5	-1.3	-4.4	+5.7	+5.9

When Favors plays Center, with someone else at the 4, the Jazz blitz their opponents off the line. The first combination, with Favors and Jerebko, have outscored opponents by 55 points throughout this season so far, many of those minutes coming in the sample size when Gobert was out with his injury. Likewise, the Jazz have used Favors and Sefolosha together down low for 34 minutes this season, outscoring opponents by 4 points in that span.

The same can be said when it’s Rudy down low, without Favors.

Rudy plus Thabo outscored opponents by 29 points, while Rudy and Joe Jesus are a +14 or a +6.5 with other pieces around them. In order to continue to win, and score, and space, and all that good stuff, Rudy and Favors can’t play together at the 4 and 5.

The Conundrum, a fancy word for problem

My Grandpa Carlisle was a good dude. He had a brand new Porsche 911 and a brand new cherry red Jeep Cherokee. Picture walking into the garage each morning, trying to decide which vehicle to use as transportation that day. I have a Great Uncle who has a five-car garage. I don’t know him that well but I pass his manor and garage on a regular basis. I’m not sure what cars are in that garage, but I can imagine he has the same dilemma—what to drive today? The Jazz have the same dilemma, too.

If the Jazz possess two of the top 15 centers in the NBA, there aren’t enough minutes for both of them. Eventually, Gobert will be off his minute’s restriction and play upwards of 36 minutes/night. That leaves 12 minutes at the position for Favors. Similarly, if the Jazz are outscoring opponents with Favors as Center and Gobert on the bench, what do we do with the All-NBA Center? Or, flip it. If the Jazz are outscoring opponents with Gobert at the helm, what do we do with this new, productive, surging Favors? One has to be on the bench in order for the lineups above to thrive. If one is on the bench, doing not but twiddling thumbs, shouldn’t we cut ’em loose?

Trade Bait and another problem

Playing online can be problematic. If you venture into the dark abyss known as social media, you’ll come across Jazz fans on Twitter or Facebook that want to trade one of these top Centers since we can’t theoretically keep and produce with both. Do they have a point? Absolutely.

Disclaimer: we are ABSOLUTELY NOT trading Gobert. It’s not even worth considering.

But, what about Favors? Recently, Zach Lowe of ESPN wrote a column on the Jazz and mentioned finding a trade partner for D-Favs may be harder than anticipated. He said,

It’s surprising Utah hasn’t traded Favors, and it’s unclear if they could get even a low first-round pick (or an equivalent young player) for him now, with his contract expiring. It would take a perfect storm: a team desperate to win, and facing a luxury tax crunch next season.

Lowe points out trade targets like Detroit, where Favors could back up Drummond or the Pelicans, who are already big, but neither scenario makes too much sense for both parties, especially since Favors will be a free agent this offseason and would be seen as a just a rental before he tests the waters elsewhere. Lowes tosses out a Nuggets trade proposal that looks the best, but since Utah is a division rival and they are loaded with bigs anyway, they may not want to tango with Utah. (And we fleeced them recently . . .)

The truth is, the Jazz historically obliterated teams with that super-big pairing. Lowe points out, however, that the trend continued until this season, “when the shooters who propped it up went elsewhere.”

So then, are the bigs actually the problem? 

As many are also realizing, perhaps the bigs aren’t actually the problem. Is it nice to have the choice between two nice cars? Well, yes. One for the weekday, one for the weekends. One for the summer, one for the winter. One for California highway beach cruising, one for Moab rock climbing.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s worth hanging onto these big guys for various matchups or rotation situations. A full 48 minutes of quality center play has to give the Jazz an advantage each and every night. The Memphis Grizzlies found a way to make the playoffs every year as Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol were the bigs down low. Much like the Grizzlies, the bigs dictated a suffocating defense. Unlike the Jazz, however, the Grizzlies were led by the perfect point guard to involve the bigs and still make the offense work.

What I’m saying is, the problem may not lie with Favors and Gobert together on the court, but instead lie in the fact that their minutes have come with Ricky Rubio at the point. Look again at the negative numbers with G and F together. Notice the point guard in both lineups.

The reason is that Rubio is another non-shooter that defenses don’t need to respect, giving these lineups three non-shooters. Rubio also can’t create a shot for himself, like Favors and Gobert, which means the lineups might have two playmakers and two scorers, and that’s as hard as writing an essay on Shakespeare.

The lineup fans are heart-throbbing for involve letting Rookie Sensation Donovan Mitchell take the reign as the starting point, with both bigs, and then having Rubio come off the bench when Quin starts staggering his centers.

As Rudy Gobert gets back to full strength and full activity, it’ll be interesting to see how the bigs work together and which, if any, starting lineup variations Snyder makes. Perhaps more interesting will be to hear and see Favors’ name in trade rumors as the months progress toward February. If the Jazz make it work, won’t it be worth keeping him around? Or, is too much a problem and Utah should cash in their asset while they can?

For me personally, I don’t see a trade package that makes the most sense for Derrick Favors, especially since he’s a free agent in the summer of 2018. I also think Favors is a good insurance policy in case something happens to Rudy (foul trouble or injuries) or in matchups when we need two bigs. Moving forward, I would bring Rubio off the bench to see if that helps the bigs coexist, or I would let the bigs start and play together for the first three minutes, like against Washington, before putting Jerebko in to let the lineups flourish.

If you like what you’re reading, sign up for my email list, follow me on Twitter @JazzJunkie12 or go like The Tortured Fan Instagram. As always, Go Jazz and #TakeNote.