The Triple Team: Jazz, powered by Markkanen’s 28 points on only … – Salt Lake Tribune

So slot Markkanen in that #4 slot all time — that’s pretty good! It continues a trend for Markkanen, who has been much, much better in getting to the free-throw line in recent games. Here’s the trend:

Watching the film, I think a few things are in play here:

• Markkanen is being even more aggressive with his drives and his face-up game than ever before. Some of this is because teams are closing out the three ball (he is, after all, shooting 42% from deep), and so he has more opportunities to attack the space behind the closeouts.

• Regardless of when he’s driving, teams are sending more help. Markkanen is now the unequivocal No. 1 guy on the opposition scouting report. When talking to opposing coaches before the game, it generally was Jordan Clarkson — now it’s Markkanen, without question. So that means when he does drive, there are more bodies to stop him from getting all the way to the rim, and therefore more fouls.

• The Jazz have played some young and dumb teams recently. Orlando struggled with the idea of verticality tonight, and made unwise swipes on the ball that turned into fouls.

It is incredibly promising, though. Free throws are the most efficient source of offense, and if the Jazz’s best player can draw them more consistently, it raises the Jazz’s offensive ceiling even further.

2. Rudy Gay lowlights

Truth be told, I have completely flipped on Rudy Gay. I used to absolutely abhor his minutes, because they were so tough to watch, clearly hurting the Jazz in so many ways.

But now, I have opened my mind to a new philosophy. It’s one I first heard when watching Real Salt Lake games during their lowest point, and it helped bring dozens of those fans get through then to slightly better times since.

It’s called “Embratsu.” It stands for “embrace the suck.” I am in a state of embratsu.

I’m sorry, but this is so bad! He shoots over a triple team — hey, thanks for the shoutout — with 10 seconds left on the shot clock from behind the hoop, and airballs.

Even when Gay giveth, he taketh away. Here he gets a rebound (good!) and misses the layup so badly it doesn’t hit the rim.

Here he gets a steal, and then just turns the ball over by carrying the ball.

The man has a 7 PER. He currently has a negative Value Over Replacement Player, which means that a replacement-level player the Jazz could pick up from the G-League would likely do better. Things are, in other words, an extraordinary level of bad. Frankly, Gay knows it, too: you can tell from his body language.

But it is rare that we see someone do this kind of stuff on an NBA basketball court, and for that reason, there’s a novelty and entertainment factor here. It is actually kind of funny! Given that the Jazz aren’t exactly championship contenders — and I’m on record as preferring the Jazz try to get a good enough draft slot to have a chance at Victor Wembanyama — why not?

I invite more Jazz fans to just embrace the experience while it lasts. I’ve found that it reliably lowers my blood pressure.

I do expect, however, this period to end relatively soon. I can’t imagine they’ll keep doing this all season, and I really think they’re keeping him in the rotation largely to keep the locker room having positive vibes. If the trade deadline passes and he’s not in a deal, I think they’ll move his minutes to Simone Fontecchio, Talen Horton-Tucker, Ochai Agbaji, and so on.

3. Walker Kessler’s closeouts

Jazz fans know the deal with a big rim-protecting center: sometimes, if he stays too close to the rim, you give up open threes in the modern NBA, when most centers actually can take the 3-point shot.

For example, Will Hardy was pretty mad at Kessler after this play:

Wendell Carter Jr. is a 36% 3-point shooter, and takes a lot of them per game. He’s definitely a threat from deep, which means that Kessler’s lazy closeout wasn’t good enough.

But look at how high he is on the next play:

Carter thinks because he’s so high that he can just drive around Kessler. But the rookie big man moves his feet extremely well, and blocks the shot — one of seven on the night.

That’s something that was a constant issue with Rudy Gobert, too: convincing him that being up on the 3-point shot was possible, given his truly incredible recovery time. Kessler has some of that too, but with more youth and time to develop flexibility into him.

Kessler’s really, really spectacularly good when he’s playing his hardest, but there are moments in this rookie season where he’s kind of happy to just linger. The more consistently the Jazz can wake him up and turn him into an absolute force, the better.

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