ORLANDO, Fla. — The Utah Jazz are not done ramping up.
After three scrimmages over the last week, the Jazz will open up the restarted NBA season against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday, but unlike the Pelicans, the Jazz aren’t playing for a playoff spot.
The Jazz will be a part of the playoffs no matter what. Even if they were to lose each of their eight seeding games at Disney World they can’t be eliminated from postseason contention. That gives them the most valuable commodity in basketball: time.
During the next three weeks, the Jazz are going to be fine-tuning. The seeding games will matter when it comes to playoff positioning, but without any sort of home-court advantage at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex, the Jazz have the luxury of being able to focus internally.
While matchups matter in the playoffs, and one team might be easier to beat than another, the Jazz know they’re going to have to fight hard no matter who the opposing team is, so rather than worry about their record, the Jazz will continue to tinker and perfect whatever they can before the postseason opens on Aug. 17.
“I don’t think we’re too concerned about the seeding and who you’re playing,” Mike Conley said on Tuesday. “Whoever you play in the West is gonna be a tough, tough matchup; it’s gonna be a tough out either way. With no home-court advantage, with no crowd, with no altitude, with none of that stuff at our advantage, it’s just more important that we take each opponent — no matter who it is — and try to put the best brand of basketball on the floor to make us successful.”
In order to be successful, the Jazz will need to find a way to supplant the offensive fire power that Bojan Bogdanovic provided.
During the the three scrimmages against Phoenix, Miami and Brooklyn, the Jazz found that after the rust was brushed off of the defense, it was the offense that would need the most work moving forward. They need big contributions across the board, but in particular they need Conley comfortable and working as the maestro of the team.
“A lot of things have obviously taken a little bit of time,” he said. “But everything is really comfortable right now. Everything seems easier — understanding the offense, understanding the defense, understanding the players, understanding my role. I think the three scrimmage games were a good indicator of my comfort level as I’ve grown with the team.”
Conley admits that it took a while to adjust in his first year with the Jazz. He spent over a decade on a single team with his role carved out and set. When things weren’t going well with the Jazz early on in the season, he took it hard. Then when the season shut down, although jarring, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Conley, who said it gave him time to evaluate what his role on the Jazz should look like.
“I got to be better,” he said, “and being able to look back at that and pinpoint where I can be effective, where I can change my game to fit the offense, to fit (Donovan Mitchell), to fit Joe (Ingles), to fit Rudy (Gobert), and have a clear picture, right now, I’m just super clear on what I need to do and who I need to be for this team.”
While having Conley playing at a peak level is a necessary component to the Jazz’s success this postseason, Jazz coach Quin Snyder is also shifting the offense a bit in order to make up for the 20 points a game that Bogdanovic provided. The Jazz are pushing and hunting for early scoring opportunities and efficient ones, meaning 3-pointers in transition, in the opening moments of the shot clock and really any other way they can get them.
“I think we’ve probably figured some things out,” Ingles said, reflecting on the three scrimmages. “We know defensively what we need to do. We look really good when we push the ball, we’ve played a lot of the time with four guards, little things like that.”
Though the Jazz are slowly rounding into form, especially over the last two scrimmages, they know that there is more work to be done and they’re fortunate that they don’t have anything to lose over the seeding games.
“Just want to keep getting better each game, and by that eighth game and heading into the playoffs be playing at a level that we are ready to compete and get as far as we can,” Ingles said.
The Jazz are not facing the same uphill battle that the Pelicans or the Memphis Grizzlies or any of the other teams contending for a playoff spot are. So, while the scrimmages were educational and valuable, the way the Jazz see it, they have three more weeks and eight more games to get it all figured out.