Shootaround sessions on the morning before games tend to be low-key affairs. Coach Quin Snyder said if there’s an issue manifesting in shootaround, players tend to think they’ll correct the problem when game time rolls around.
But the Jazz’s (3-3) early troubles with turnovers have called for special treatment. Snyder said he took a few pauses in Monday’s shootaround — ahead of Utah’s game against the Dallas Mavericks — to address some situations that he and the coaching staff believe have made the Jazz the most turnover-prone team in the NBA.
“We’re fixated on that right now,” he said. “Hopefully that will go away, and we can fixate on something else.”
Mavericks at Jazz<br>Monday, 7 p.m.<br>TV • ATTSN
So far, no team has a higher turnover rate than the Jazz, who are giving away the ball on 20.3 percent of possessions. In the last two games alone, Utah has given away 45 turnovers. Point guard Ricky Rubio has the highest volume of turnovers (4.7 tpg), which has led Snyder to say recently that he needed to stop “chucking it all over the gym,” but four other players have at least two per game.
As in all, the Jazz are trying not to overreact to small sample size data. Context is everything: Snyder says he’s not as worried about turnovers where a player accidentally dribbles off his foot, or loses the ball out of bounds when contact isn’t called for a foul. But other situations call for stops in practice, and for their part, he says the team has responded well.
“Unfortunately we can’t go to summer camp right now, wind back the clock to [age] 16 and work on our fundamentals,” he said. “So when we get to shootaround, and you see that, correct it. Our guys are great, like ‘Oh OK, I can do that differently.’”
The turnovers are costly: Utah is also giving up a league-high 23.7 points per game off their turnovers. Rubio, who hasn’t averaged 3 or more turnovers per game since for a whole season since his second year in the NBA, said he’s working on his part to rein in the giveaways.
“I gotta control the ball more,” he said. “Way too many turnovers, that’s on me. And I gotta get better at that.”
Ricky Rubio says “no excuses” for Utah’s turnover issues, and he’s working to take care of it. pic.twitter.com/pjolZTBNh5
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) October 30, 2017
Except for Dante Exum (shoulder surgery), all Jazz players are expected to be healthy for Monday’s home game.