SALT LAKE CITY — Happy Sunday, Jazz fans!
There’s a little break in the weather, it’s warmer outside than we’ve seen recently, the Jazz won a tough (yet controversial) game Friday night. So, what could make this day better for you? What’s that you say? The Sunday Jazz Mailbag? I knew it.
I probably spent way more time looking into this than I probably should have, but here we are. Let me make this clear ... this is not a science, I’m just using my own weirdly devised method to wildly speculate. It’s all in good fun so, let’s go.
The way that I looked at this wasn’t necessarily based on their 3-point shooting percentage, though that does factor in later.
First I looked at each player’s 3-point shot chart from this season. The All-Star 3-point contest has the five shooting stations with ball racks at specifically spaced points around the arc, we’ll call them 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (starting in the left corner and going around to the right). So when looking at the shot charts, I was able to see which guys were more efficient from the spots they would need to be shooting from, rather than the in-between spots.
Donovan Mitchell takes most of his 3-point attempts from the 4 spot, which could make that where he puts his money ball but he also has way more misses than makes from the 1 spot. With his 3-point percentage at 35.8 for the season, I saw this as enough evidence to take him out of the running.
Joe Ingles, who most would probably argue the most reliable choice, is not the team’s most efficient this season from three and though he is absolutely more comfortable shooting on both sides of the arc these days, there is still a clear gap between attempts as well as makes from the right side to the left side, with the 2 spot being a bad spot for Ingles. I took him out.
Of the four names left there was only one that was shooting less than 40% from three and that’s Mike Conley at 35.9%. So I took him out.
This is now between Georges Niang, Royce O’Neale and Bojan Bogdanovic.
Niang has attempted the fewest 3-pointers of this remaining group and the majority of those have come on corner shots, which gives him an advantage on the 1 and 5 spot racks but there just isn’t enough evidence for me to give him the keys here. He’s out.
O’Neale has a very nice looking shot chart when compared to the All-Star format. He shoots more from the corners but still has a very balanced distribution around the arc and to top it all off, he has taken five attempts from the top of the arc at the 3 spot and has hit every single one this season. He was a real contender, but when it came down to it, I saw a clear winner.
Bogdanovic easily has the most evenly distributed 3-point shot chart on the team and he also just so happens to be leading the team in 3-point percentage this season at 42.5%. Now here’s the kicker, he is maintaining the team’s best percentage from deep on 379 3-point attempts this season. That’s more than Niang (138) and O’Neale’s (151) attempts combined.
That’s my answer, Bogdanovic for the win. And, if I were him I’d put the money ball in the 5 rack.
Individual plus-minus is not a very reliable stat, especially if data set is just one game. That’s just not a reliable sample size that would give me any insight to the team whatsoever.
Cumulatively this season each one of the Jazz’s regular starters has a positive plus-minus so that should tell you more. I think that the players that should be starting are the ones that are playing the best together. If there are a handful of games when someone is not working, I don’t see that as a reason to move them to the bench. Just let them work through it. If it becomes more than a few games then maybe think about switching it up. Right now, I don’t think the Jazz starting unit needs tweaking.
Toronto is such a beautiful city and I still haven’t explored it as much as I want to but everything I’ve seen has been great. Also, Toronto’s food scene is so amazing. I had the best Ramen of my life and one of the most beautiful authentic Italian meals ever. To top it all off, the people in Canada truly are ridiculously nice.
San Francisco and Sacramento give me a chance to go home but that doesn’t seem like it answers the question.
Dark horse on my list (a very unpopular NBA opinion) is Cleveland, which is coincidentally where I will be with the Jazz on my birthday this year. Cleveland gets a bad rap, but there is some seriously good food there and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is just the absolute best. I spent three hours there before I had to leave to catch a flight and I could have easily spent another three hours.
Sleep is for the birds.
But seriously, sleep is an incredibly valued commodity in the NBA media world. I sleep when I can and I’m very good at napping, especially on flights. Sometimes the travel and work schedule just forces you to learn how to stay awake for long and strange hours. Sometimes I catch two, three or four hours here and there. Sometimes, on an off day, I really soak it in and sleep for like 16-hours straight.
Insomnia seems to be an occupational hazard for journalists, but I wouldn’t trade what I do for anything.
If you would like to see your question answered in a mailbag article or in the weekly newsletter, send your questions to stodd@deseretnews.com with ‘mailbag’ in the subject line, or send me (@NBASarah) your questions on Twitter using the hashtag #SundayJazzMailBag.