What kind of offense do we run?

[Monkeyfeng06]

i know the lakers run the triangle offense and the deron and boozer runs the pick and roll but what about the rest of the team? i'm more knowledgeable about football offensive schemes... so any basketball profs out there?

[Pappyman]

we basically run the UCLA offense. we use flex-cuts to get our shooting guards/small forwards open jump shots.

[Hikari]

Ya it's the UCLA motion offense.

[suckfish]

The UCLA (high post rub) offense.

Set up in the 1-4 formation. There are various options and wrinkles that can be used and ran, still it's been run by Sloan and the Jazz for years. Opposing teams will know how it works but it's still fairly difficult to stop, the offensive players can react and cut/move accordingly to the reactions of the defense.

Basically the PG (Williams) will cut off a pick set at the high post elbow after he makes the entry pass to the wing, the wing can look to feed Deron off the high post cut.

From this point, there are multiple options. Deron can continue his cut around a double staggered screen set by the two players on the weakside, and at the same time the wing who Deron passed too can come off a screen and roll with the picker on the high post elbow.

Or instead of Deron cutting around the pick on the weakside, he can set a screen for the weakside big, this will have the big cutting across the key for the high percentage shot. After Deron sets his pick, he can continue to come off a single screen by the the remaining weakside player..

You will often see Matt Harpring come off the weakside down screen for the elbow jumpshot.

Basically the are a lot of picks being set, often picks across the key for easy high percentage shots.

Maybe somebody who watches the Jazz more often can explain the offense for you in more detail. It's fairly easy to pick up if you watch the players off the ball moving and cutting instead of watch the player with the ball.

[bleu]

A damn good one...

[Monkeyfeng06]

^ you can be a politician.

[Malone Strong]

When the Jazz execute their offense well, its a thing of beauty to behold. Watching Stockton run it was like watching Da Vinci paint....and when Deron is on, its just as good...

[carrottop12]

It is funny to see people come into the Jazz forum and claim that Malone only scored so much because of the pick and roll, or the only way Deron averages so many assists is because of the pick and roll.

The truth is that is the last resort if the offense breaks down, before that PnR is ever considered the Jazz run a very set motion offense which is set to find shooters off of running under the basket from both directions on the baseline, which is intended to spread the floor to open up things in the middle for the low post scorers, and also give the PG a few options on whether to pass the ball, or to drive and dish (something Deron has gotten much better at this season) or to score himself.

Only when those options are exhausted does the PnR come in to effect.

[jazzfan1971]

Well, PnR was our first option against the Lakers when they had shaq in the playoffs.

But, otherwise I agree with ya.

[LjJazzman]

If you want to put a name on it its basicly just called an "option offense". What suckfish said is right.

The difference between what the Jazz run and what other teams run is that the Jazz offense is very open, but at the same time very structued. the Jazz really only have 7 plays, and only run about 5 of the per game. The difference between the Jazz plays and other teams plays is the amount of options, and what going to each option creates.

Other teams have tons of plays, 50 60 plays, and are very structure on what has to happen. The Jazz is basically 5 big plays, that depending on the game situations changes into another player, into another, into another until the shot. Thats why it takes so long for players to figure out, especially pgs.

As even the coaches have said their are only 3 players on the team that REALLY understand everything pretty much perfectly. Those players are Deron, AK, and Collins. All 3 of those players know where every other player on the court should be, when, and what their option is.

[Malone Strong]

^So, Collins would be a better backup than Hart? Me thinks so

[LjJazzman]

^So, Collins would be a better backup than Hart? Me thinks so

If collins had a pg body hell yes he could. Collins physically doesn't have what it takes to be a good player, but there is no doubt that he is very smart and really understands the game. Anyone who goes to the game and sits in good seats can hear how much collins communicates and "orders" when he is in the game, and even on the bench.

[LjJazzman]

I'd also like to add that Tag was a better shot blocker than anyone we could possibly get, and better defender than almost anyone in the league right now not making 6+mill a year. Really think tag is the answer to our problems?

[Malone Strong]

I never understood why Sloan didnt use Tag more, especially after he traded to get him BACK!

[LjJazzman]

I never understood why Sloan didnt use Tag more, especially after he traded to get him BACK!

Let me first say that I was one of the few tag fans. We didn't use him much when we got him back because he was just to out of shape and old by then. He really couldnt play more than 9 mins at a time. He was more of coach and leader, funny as that may sound, when he got back.

But like I said, a tag type player is far from the answer to our problems.

[suckfish]

What could make for interesting conversation, at least for me as a bulls fan who isn't as familiar with the Jazz as you guys, is the offense against a zone defense.

I don't watch that many Jazz games, but I try to catch a few here and there when the bulls have a night off or don't play until late. I kind of like how the Jazz play, so it's fun watching some of their games.

Anyway, I saw that Utah seemed to struggle a bit last night against the zone. Early here tonight, Memphis are sitting back in a 2-3/2-1-2 zone and Utah seem to be really struggling. It's fine when they get beat the defense down the court in transition, however when they are slowed down and the opposition sets up in the zone, things slow down on offense and it struggles.

Has this been a problem? Or is me just picking up on recent struggles. Interested to here your thoughts.

I guess a lot of teams struggle against zone defenses as well as it isn't all that common to face a zone in the NBA, it's pretty much straight man to man for the majority of games until some team tries to throw you off with a surprise zone.

[Malone Strong]

Jszz simply could not score against a zone with Memo struggling before we traded for Korver. Now we are much better and more patient against the zone, though at times it takes us a few possessions to get comfortable...

[LjJazzman]

Just like most team the Jazz do amazing well against the zone, or can't buy a bucket. It hurts the jazz a lot because it cuts down on screen, and pick and roles that we can run. If all falls apart they just basically go to a dish inside, kick out around the horn until something seems to open. luckily the Jazz have a lot of good passes so this works ok.