SAN ANTONIO, TX - DECEMBER 9: Donovan Mitchell #45 of the Utah Jazz shoots a free throw against the San Antonio Spurs on December 9, 2018 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photos by Mark Sobhani/NBAE via Getty Images)
Utah Jazz: Are the Jazz shooters cursed?
The Utah Jazz have been struggling to shoot consistently all year. Could the heavy road schedule be to blame, and will the second-half schedule help?
This has been a difficult season for most Utah Jazz fans. The roller-coaster start has been unsettling, and has caused many to panic and to start looking for answers. With that search, we have come up with primarily two explanations: The schedule and shooting.
Many people have already spent a lot of time explaining the incredibly difficult schedule that the Jazz have had to face to start the year. Jared Woodcox did an excellent job of this last week, explaining that the Jazz currently have the NBA’s highest rated Strength of Schedule (SOS). With an SOS of 2.2, that is literally three times harder than the multiple teams tied for second place, at 0.7.
Simply put, for the Jazz to be even remotely close to a .500 team is pretty impressive when you consider the gauntlet they have gone through. As Jared mentioned in his article, over the course of a month, they went through a stretch where they played 13 consecutive games at a different arena. No team should have to go through that type of stretch.
Graciously, the schedule will soften up after the New Year, and the Jazz will start a stretch where they play one of the easiest schedules over the second half of the season.
The next most concerning thing for the Jazz has been their shooting from three-point range. At 33.5 percent to start the year, they are currently the sixth worst shooting team in the NBA. It’s not like the Jazz were exactly scorching the nets last season, but at 36.6 percent, they were tied as the eleventh best three-point shooting team.
Almost as if they are cursed, nearly everyone on the roster attempting more than one three-pointer per game has seemingly dropped in their shooting percentage.
Royce O’Neale has been one of the few who has raised his three-point shooting to a respectable level this year.
Kyle Korver is perhaps the most perplexing to me, and is one of the reasons I am convinced the Jazz may be cursed. Korver is historically one of the greatest shooters of all time. His career three-point shooting percentage is 43 percent. In 16 games with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he was shooting an outstanding 46 percent. In eight games with the Jazz though, that number has dropped to 38.5 percent.
Multiple Jazz players have regressed this season, including the three players who attempt the most threes per game. Ingles has gone from 44 percent to 38.1 percent. Mitchell dropped from 34 percent to 30 percent. After setting a career high of 35.2 percent last season, Rubio has dipped back down to 31.3 percent.
So what is to blame for the abnormally low shooting numbers? My assumption would be that it is the schedule as well. Teams and players have traditionally shot better while playing on their home court. So far this season, the Jazz are shooting 36.3 percent at home, while that number drops to 31.6 percent when on the road.
The Jazz aren’t cursed, but it is hard to get into any kind of a shooting rhythm when you are constantly traveling and playing in away arenas. Not to mention the limited practice time that most teams are able to get in when on the road.
Just like the light at the end of the tunnel that we can now see with the difficult schedule, look for the Jazz to start gradually improving their shooting percentages as they transition into a more home-heavy schedule. With both those things coming, I expect the Jazz to start stringing some wins together as they begin climbing the ladder in the western conference standings.
