Make no mistake about it — the Utah Jazz have been kind of a mess defensively, allowing 128-plus points in three straight games heading into their preseason finale. For a team that has championship aspirations and prides itself on suffocating the opposition, that’s simply not going to cut it.
At Wednesday’s shootaround, head coach Quin Snyder indicated that integrating new players into his unique defensive schemes, which are built around reigning DPOY Rudy Gobert, would be a process. “To change some of those [defensive] habits does take time,” he said. Apparently, old habits die hard.
The Jazz wrapped up preseason play at the Viv against Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and the Portland Trail Blazers and it was not pretty.