Utah Jazz patch a starting five together with three guards

Who is in the Utah Jazz starting lineup? The Utah Jazz depth chart has Darryn Peterson, Airious Bailey, Jaxson Hayes, Josh Green and Keyonte George expected to start at the Houston Rockets tomorrow. That is three guards, one forward and one natural center, and it is a five built around who is missing.

Out are Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic. Markkanen averages 30.9 minutes and Jackson Jr. 26.1, so two of the Jazz's top five minute-getters are on the injury list, with Nurkic joining them. Confirmed lineups come about 30 minutes before tip-off, and this five allows for everyone on the injury report.

The Jazz are 0-10 over their last 10 games at the time of writing. Below are the return dates, the minutes and shooting of the players filling in, and how thin the rotation looks once you read it from the starters down.

The expected five comes from recent starts, minus anyone ruled out. Peterson and George are the guards, Green is the third guard, Bailey plays forward and Hayes is the only listed center in the group. It is a patch, not a plan: nobody picked this five for its balance, it is simply who is left.

The cost shows up in the games-played column. Peterson and Bailey have played 12 games each, while Markkanen has played 8 and Jackson Jr. just 4. The Jazz's best players have barely been on the floor together, so the group starting tomorrow is closer to the full-strength team's understudies than to the real thing.

The Utah Jazz roster lists 21 names, but only 14 of them have logged minutes this season. That is the pool the coaching staff is drawing from while three regulars sit.

The Jazz list three players as out. Here is who is out for the Jazz, with the expected return dates from the injury report and each player's numbers where the page carries them. For the league-wide picture, the NBA injuries page tracks every team.

Nurkic is the first on the list to come back, with 20 Nov the expected return date. The page carries no games or minutes for him this season, so there is nothing to say about what he has done in a Jazz uniform. What it does show is his position: he is listed as a center, in a group where Hayes is the only center starting.

That makes the 20 Nov date the one to watch for the front of the rotation, since it is the earliest of the three and sits at the position the current five is thinnest.

Jackson Jr. is expected back on 14 Dec and Markkanen on 4 Jan, so the two bigger names are the longest absences. Jackson Jr. has played only 4 games, scoring 16.3 points with 1.3 blocks in 26.1 minutes. Markkanen has played 8, averaging 18.0 points and 6.8 rebounds in 30.9 minutes, and his 39.7% from three is the best long-range mark among the regulars with a real workload.

Their numbers explain why the lineup looks the way it does. Markkanen is second on the team in scoring and first in rebounding, and Jackson Jr. ties Peterson at 16.3 points a game despite the shortest run of games. Take both away and the Jazz lose two of their top four scorers.

Here is the expected five with their season averages. The ordering is the lineup order from the page, and all five have played between 10 and 12 games.

The full Jazz rotation by minutes on the depth chart ranks every available player, and it reads straight down from the starters to the end of the bench.

George is the engine. He leads the Jazz in minutes (32.2), points (20.4) and assists (6.5) across 11 games, and nobody else on the team is within two assists a game of him. With Markkanen and Jackson Jr. out, the offense runs through him more than it would at full strength.

Peterson is the second option at 16.3 points, 3.9 assists and 35.7% from three in 30.9 minutes. Between them, the two guards are the only starters averaging more than 14 points.

The efficiency is where the load shows. George shoots 43.2% from the field and 29.9% from three, so the volume comes at a cost, and with fewer scorers around him he has less help than the minutes alone suggest.

Bailey is a rebounding and rim-protecting forward more than a shooter. He grabs 6.6 rebounds and blocks 1.4 shots in 31.0 minutes, the second most minutes on the team, but he is 26.1% from three. Hayes is a pure interior presence at 62.1% from the field, 6.1 rebounds and 1.5 blocks, and he is 0.0% from three.

Put those together with Green at 28.6% from three and George at 29.9%, and four of the five starters shoot below 30% from long range. Peterson, at 35.7%, is the one starter above that line. The spacing the Jazz would have with Markkanen on the floor, at 39.7%, is not there in this five.

The fifth spot is the strangest one. Josh Green starts, yet he averages 3.6 points on 36.1% shooting in 20.0 minutes over 10 games. He plays more than any bench player, but he produces less than most of them.

Look at who comes off the bench. Okogie averages 4.0 points on 28.9% from the field in 18.4 minutes, barely ahead of Green's scoring and shooting worse. Mykhailiuk scores the same 3.6 points on 28.8% in 16.1 minutes. Collier, at 16.0 minutes, scores 7.2 points and hands out 4.1 assists, nearly doubling Green's output in less time.

By the page's numbers, the fifth starting slot is the weakest scoring spot on the court. Brice Sensabaugh is the bigger contrast: he scores 8.1 points in just 14.8 minutes and shoots 40.9% from three, a better long-range mark than any of the five starters.

The depth chart names the first four off the bench in order: Okogie at 16.0 minutes, Bamba at 14.5, Collier at 13.1 and Mykhailiuk at 12.6. Those are the rotation figures, the minutes the page projects for the game. The table below uses season averages instead, which is why Okogie shows 18.4 minutes there.

All four of those bench players have a lower rotation figure than Green's 20.0 minutes, so the starter plays more than any of them. The order is a ranking of minutes, and Green sits above the whole bench.

Mo Bamba is the standout. In 17.4 minutes over 8 games he scores 7.3 points, grabs 5.5 rebounds and blocks 1.9 shots, with a 72.7% field goal mark that is the best on the team. He plays only eight games, so the sample is short, but nobody on the bench protects the rim the way he does.

Isaiah Collier is the bench's playmaker. His 4.1 assists in 16.0 minutes are second on the team behind George, with Peterson third at 3.9, and he shoots 45.3% from the field and 35.7% from three. Josh Okogie and Svi Mykhailiuk both shoot under 29% from the field, so the first two guards off the bench are the least efficient scorers in the rotation.

Sensabaugh is listed as a forward and plays the fewest bench minutes of the group at 14.8, yet he is the top scorer among the reserves at 8.1 points, ahead of Bamba's 7.3 and Collier's 7.2. His 40.9% from three across 12 games is the best long-range mark on the whole roster.

He is not among the first four off the bench named on the depth chart, so the rotation list does not rank him in that group.

Tomorrow's game at Houston is the next test for this five. The Rockets v Jazz preview has the fixture, and the Houston Rockets page has their side. What the Jazz bring is the five above: three guards, Bailey, and Hayes at center.

Confirmed lineups come about 30 minutes before tip-off, and the expected five allows for everyone on the injury report. The NBA starting lineups page is the place to check the confirmed fives for every team on the night, and the Utah Jazz team page has the wider picture.

Each return puts pressure on a current starter. Nurkic is back on 20 Nov and is a center, so the candidate he displaces by position is Hayes, the only center in the five. Jackson Jr., listed at F-C, is back on 14 Dec, and Markkanen, a forward, is back on 4 Jan.

Until then, the starters are the players minutes have flowed to. George, Bailey and Peterson all play more than 30 minutes a game, and Markkanen's 30.9 and Jackson Jr.'s 26.1 are minutes that will have to come from somewhere when they return.

For the latest order, the Jazz starters and bench order on the depth chart updates with the injury report, and the NBA injuries page covers the rest of the league.

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