Jazz Fall Back To Earth With Latest Weekly Grades

SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Jazz are through week four of the NBA schedule so it’s time to reflect on how they graded out in the four factors that will determine the success of their season.

Those four factors, as laid out before the season began, are youth development, lottery standings, veteran development, and the fun factor.

These grades apply to Jazz games played between November 11-18.

Utah Jazz Four Factors: Week Four

Youth Development: B

A solid week of play from the Jazz youngsters including an extended opportunity to see 26-year-old rookie Simone Fontecchio.

The Italian forward replaced Rudy Gay in the lineup on Tuesday and scored nine points on 3-6 shooting while grabbing four rebounds. Fontecchio is shooting 37 percent from the three-point line so far this season showing that his best skill in Europe is translating to the NBA.

Walker Kessler’s scoring efficiency dropped averaging just 4.0 points on 54 percent shooting, but he upped his rebounds per game to 6.7 while blocking 1.3 shots per contest in only 15 minutes a night.

the rebound
ᵗʰᵉ ᵗᵘʳⁿᵒᵛᵉʳ
🆃🅷🅴 🅱🅻🅾🅲🅺#TakeNote | @WalkerKessler13 pic.twitter.com/tzwVmFy8rM

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 14, 2022

Talen Horton-Tucker turns 22 next week and had an up-and-down performance over the last three games. The wing averaged 9.7 points and 6.0 assists in three appearances but shot just 36 percent from the floor and 28 percent from three.

Ochai Agabji has spent the last three games with the Salt Lake City Stars and is averaging 9.0 points and 4.3 rebounds, but is shooting only 30 percent from the floor and 29 percent from three.

Leandro Bolmaro is averaging 10.7 points, 4.0 assists, and 3.7 rebounds while connecting on a healthy 50 percent from the floor including 40 percent from the three-point line.

With Rudy Gay sidelined by injury for the next two weeks, the Jazz youngsters should get an opportunity to see the floor more in the coming games.

Lottery Standings: B

It was a good week for those wanting the Jazz to have a better crack at Victor Wembanyama. The Jazz lost all three outings over the last seven days including back-to-back nights in Washington and Philadelphia, before suffering their first loss of the season at home to the Knicks.

With the losses, the Jazz now sit in fourth place in the West, three full spots behind where they were at this point last week.

Take a look at the updated NBA Standings 👀

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— NBA (@NBA) November 18, 2022

The Jazz have a tough upcoming schedule against five projected playoff teams in their next six games. If the team continues to play the way they have over the last three games they could be near the bottom of the Western Conference Playoff picture by the end of November.

Veteran Performance: C

It was a mixed bag from the Jazz veterans as Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson, and Mike Conley had their worst weeks of the season to date.

Markkanen saw his 25.0 per game average last week drop to just 15.0 points this week, while his rebounds also dipped, though his shooting percentages remained strong.

Clarkson’s efficiency took a major hit knocking down just 34 percent of his field goal attempts and 27 percent of his threes.

Conley had the worst shooting week of the bunch connecting on 20 percent of his field goals and 13 percent of his threes en route to a 5.3 point-per-game average.

Mike Conley's last two games have been ROUGH.

Bad pass to Vanderbilt there followed by a senseless foul to give Embiid freebies.

— Ben Anderson (@BensHoops) November 14, 2022

However, Kelly Olynyk and Malik Beasley had arguably their best stretches of the season for the Jazz.

Olynyk averaged a team-high 17.0 points over the last three games while adding 7.3 rebounds in just 29 minutes.

Beasley knocked down 40 percent of his impressive nine three-point attempts per game while averaging 16.0 points per game. He also added 4.7 rebounds and had a positive plus-minus despite the team going winless.

Collin Sexton had a mediocre week averaging just 11.7 points per game including a difficult 1-5, three-point, four-assist outing against the Knicks.

Jarred Vanderbilt was also average as a scorer at 6.0 points per game but did snare 9.0 rebounds per contest.

Fun Factor: C-

To the Jazz’s credit, each of their three losses was by single digits, meaning there were no true blowouts in the stretch.

However, the team looked desperately tired in each outing, allowed Joel Embiid to go off for a truly historic performance, and simply didn’t answer the bell against the Knicks.

Had any of the young players had breakout showings, or the veterans continued to their strong play from earlier in the year, the last week would have been more enjoyable. But truthfully, there wasn’t much to write home about.

Check back next week for the Utah Jazz Four Factor grades for week five.

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