INDIANAPOLIS — The Utah Jazz were navigating a lot of new territory on Wednesday night.
Not only was the team playing with a new starting point guard — rookie Keyonte George — but they also were playing without their starting center, Walker Kessler.
It didn’t end well for the Jazz, who fell to the Indiana Pacers in the team’s fourth straight loss. And, after it was all said and done, the Jazz were presented with two new issues that they’ll need to address in the coming days and weeks.
Spacing
George impressed in his first NBA start, dishing out nine assists and committing just one turnover. Early on in the game, with George mostly working from the perimeter, and with John Collins on the court without Walker Kessler, the Jazz’s spacing was greatly improved.
Jordan Clarkson had a ton more room to work with in the lane, getting to the spots he’s used to getting to and having success without the paint clogged full of defenders. Help on rollers and drivers was met with pinpoint passes to open shooters and there was movement that we haven’t seen this season from the Jazz.
There were concerns right off the bat this season about how Collins and Kessler would share the court together and the early returns have not been great, especially when it comes to spacing.
But that creates a significant issue for the Jazz. What are they going to do when Kessler is healthy?
Defense
Without Kessler roving around and using his length to contest anyone who dares get near the rim, the Jazz were punished by the Pacers who pounced on the obvious weakness.
Indiana scored a scorching 74 points in the paint against the Jazz, and although their front court defense wasn’t always the issue, it certainly didn’t help to be playing without a natural rim protector on the court.
Time after time the Jazz were beat on the outside and didn’t have the kind of interior defenders that were able to stop players who are crafty around the rim. But even when it wasn’t the smaller crafty players, the Pacers used Myles Turner to take his length advantage all the way to the basket.
What now?
So this is where the Jazz find themselves. Nine games into the 2023-24 season, they have to find a way to work through everything in Kessler’s absence. But once he returns, they’ll have to find a balance between these competing issues.
Yes, the spacing is better without Collins and Kessler on the court together, but the defense was weaker than it was before (and it was already pretty bad).
“We’ve got to do a better job higher on the floor,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “We cannot let the ball handler break the free throw line over and over and over again.”
That puts more pressure on George, who is already going to be dealing with quite a bit in the upcoming games. It also puts more pressure on Lauri Markkanen, who already is the focus of the offense and exerting a ton of energy having to play spot minutes as a center when Collins is off the court and Kelly Olynyk gets into foul trouble. And, it puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the team, who hasn’t really responded well on defense this season.
Of course, you’d hope that at some point guys would step up and have more pride on the defensive side of the ball, but it’s hard to imagine the Jazz becoming a lockdown defensive team on the perimeter any time soon.
So that brings us back to where the Jazz will find themselves in a few weeks, when Kessler is back on the court. The question that was hanging over the team before the season even started is one that still needs answering. Can the Jazz successfully play Kessler and Collins together? And if so, what does it look like?