Utah Jazz: How ball movement improves Jazz transition defense

This article was first published as the Jazz Insiders newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Friday. The Utah Jazz have talked a lot about how their offense has started to round into form over the last few weeks and they’ve put a lot of work into their half court defense, particularly the different types of zone that they deploy.

But there hasn’t been a ton of talk about their transition defense. That’s probably because the Jazz have been really, really bad when trying to stop fast breaks or transition 3 pointers. For most of the season they’ve been near dead last and currently allow the second most opponent fast break points at 16.6 points per game (the only team that allows more is San Antonio).

But, there has been a glimmer of hope lately with a couple of games in which the Jazz showed the ability to defend and defend well in transition. So what’s the difference? Good offense. “Essentially, bad shot selection is a turnover,” Lauri Markkanen said. “When we’re moving the ball and playing our way and everybody knows where the shots going to come from, we’re able to crash the offensive glass and we have the right spacing to get back.” The Jazz have certainly had their offensive struggles this season, and on nights when they’re taking bad shots or they are playing an isolation heavy style of offense, they end up allowing a lot of fast break points.

But there is also another part to the offensive equation that is important. “When our offense makes sense and the ball moves, you make the defense work,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “By the time they get the ball, they kind of take a breath for a second before they take off running.” Playing through a possession rather than taking ill advised, early shot clock shots is also something that allows the Jazz to be more effective in transition.

And while there are communication aspects and angles and principles of transition defense that are also important, the Jazz are at their best defending in the open court, when their offense is working properly. “Defensive transition is hard in this league,” Markkanen said. “So, if we can make it a little bit easier on us by getting more organized on offense, I think that’s great.” “We have to continue to go out here and put it on for the name that we have on the front of our jerseys and also understand that we’ve got to play with pride for the name on the back.” — Utah Jazz rookie Keyonte George All times MST..