NBAE via utahjazz.com

While most of Jazz Nation is wondering if Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors can coexist, the question may actually be better phrased around guard Ricky Rubio.

With Rubio navigating the ship and both bigs anchoring down low, the Jazz are simply unable to keep up with the current. Early in the season, it looked like Rubio’s marriage with the Jazz would be smooth sailing. Rubio initially led the team in points and surprised the NBA world by knocking down 16 threes in his first eight Jazz games. However, the regression soon caught up and left lineups with multiple non-shooters raging and thrusting down a swift current, out of control and unsustainable.

In a rather large sample size — the three have now played over 200 minutes together — the trio gets outscored by the widest margin of any of Utah’s most used three-man combinations. Of the nine common trios that net a positive point differential, Rubio is part of only one, alongside rookie Donovan Mitchell and stretch forward Jonas Jerebko. By contrast, Rubio appears in nine of the 12 common three-man lineups that are negative overall.

Originally Posted 12/13/17: Read its entirety here.

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The Jazz are in the midst of a historic season for three-point shooting.
(Photo by Ezra Shaw via ESPN.com)

Today’s NBA is all about the three-point shot. Whether you are a winning team in the league or living in the basement, the NBA is letting it fly from deep. The Utah Jazz are no exception, a team that rides or dies by three.

Here are some stats on how Utah is modernizing its approach by embracing the long-range shot, followed by analysis of what it means.

History: the Jazz and the Three-Point Shot

As for most of the league, the sharp increase in threes is a rather new phenomenon for Utah. During the franchise’s heyday, the three-point shot was not a regular part of the arsenal.

In the 1997-98 NBA season, the Jazz went 62-20 while winning the Midwest Division, the Western Conference, and reaching the NBA Finals for the second straight season. Along the way, they shot 670 three-pointers, connecting on 249 of the attempts for a team mark of 37 percent. Jeff Hornacek, the sharp-shooter, shot 44 percent (127 attempts), Bryon Russell shot 34 percent (214), John Stockton shot 43 percent (91 shots), Howard Eisley 41 percent (118 attempts), and Jacque Vaughn 38 percent (8 attempts). Karl Malone was the stretch-four, hitting two of his six attempts in the season for 33%. Relive one with legendary Jazz announcer Hot Rod Hundley.

A few years later, Jerry Sloan led a different squad to the Western Conference finals, only to be outmatched by the San Antonio Spurs. In that 2006-2007 season, the Jazz finished 51-31, taking the Northwest Division crown along the way. This team crossed the 1,000 line for the first time, with 1,056 threes attempted during the season. Four players shot better than 33 percent from deep, although Paul Millsap did so on just three attempts all season, making one. Mehmet Okur shot 38 percent on 336 attempts, Gordan Giricek made 43 percent of his 122 shots and Matt Harpring hit 33% of his 39. The point guards, Deron Williams and Derek Fisher, were both a hair below the 33% average.

The Jazz and the Three Today

Record-wise, the 2017-18 Jazz are struggling. They sit at 20-28, 10th place in the Western Conference. The Jazz aren’t bad enough to tank, currently 10th worst in the NBA, but they also aren’t good enough for a playoff spot (five games out). Yet, despite the lousy record and disappointing season, the Jazz are blasting the teams of yesteryear out of the water with their three-point shooting.

Last year the team set their franchise record for putting up 2,128 threes in the season. This year’s team is on pace to shatter the single-season record, set last season. The 2016-17 Jazz put up 2,128 threes, and this year’s squad had already taken 1,436 threes attempted thus far.

Originally Posted on 1/25/18: Read its entirety here.