| 24 December 2010
At numerous times during the season, Jerry Sloan has played Deron @ the two, a position that he played in college very well. The offense still runs the same, they just run it through AK, Bell, Price, or Watson. As most of us know the motion offense has been used in Utah for the past....well forever. Following is a short clip and break down of the motion offense and all of the options coming of one of the sets.
There are a ton of possibilites coming out of this set if you include secondary and third level options. Deron is always the number one option on this set however each player has to sell their pick, cut, roll hard even though they probably won't get the ball. It is like a receiver that has to block on a running play. Even though the guys setting the picks probably won't get the ball they have to run through the play so when the option comes, they can slip the pick and Deron will hit them rolling to the basket.
It is important to note, that in the Jazz motion offense, the Jazz players make split decision judgments on how the defense reacts to picks, curls, screens, slashes and so forth.
Al Jefferson knows the Utah Jazz offense, the thing that he is still learning is the split decisions that he has to make to get open. The Utah Jazz offense is very similar to many in the NFL teams. When the coverage goes "cover two" or the safety move up for a blitz the slot receiver is the hot route. The Utah Jazz have hot routes basically on every set and every play. Many times you will hear players on the Jazz talk about "well we just took what the defense gave us", because usually our offense is reactionary. This is why the zone defense causes us so many problems.
Here is the video of a play that I will be talking about.
Let's break this down with some pictures. Jazz fans have seen this play for the past forever. Everyone on the floor, including the Timberwolves, knows the ball is going to Deron, however the Jazz can run about seven different plays out of this set. Keeping in mind that Deron is always the first option, let's take a look at some other options on this play. Any player can be put into any of these positions, so when I use names you can insert any player into the scenario depending on who is on the floor. 
This play is designed for Deron, as he is the first option for this play.- I won't go into detail about that play.
Option #1 Raja Bell has the initial option of running a screen and roll/pick and pop with AK's pick or just driving to the basket. However, Kevin Love, who is guarding AK has back side help from Koufous, who is guarding Al Jefferson. Like I said earlier though everyone knows this ball is going to Deron. It is good to know the options though.
Option #1A Occasionally you will see the defender (Love) try and pop over the screen and Ak ( or whoever is in this postion) can slip the screen and basically have a drive to the layup or cause Koufos to jump over on Ak which leaves Jefferson open for the Wheezy or easy layup.
Option #2 Cj Miles can actually use a pick from Al Jefferson and slash right between Koufous and Love for a right handed layup or dunk. Since Miles is left handed he is more effective and comfortable runninof the screen the other way so he driver harder to the basket.
Option #2A Deron Williams can come over and put a screen on Cj Miles' defender and then CJ can roll to the basket for an alleyoop, considering he has a size advantage on Luke Ridnour. This option allows Cj to go to his stong side against a considerably shorter player.
Option #2B C.J. Miles can set a pick for Jefferson setting up a high low option or as we see with Millsap a 18 foot jumper. We saw this play a lot with Boozer last year because he was so good from 15-20 feet away. Jefferson doesn't have as good of range as Boozer so this option usually results in reset in the offense or a bad shot by Jefferson. 
Deron is moving off the pick toward the foul line at this point. He has two options as far as keeping the ball.
Option #3 Shoot the ball (which he does) from the free throw line or if Koufus and Love don't close off the middle of the lane drive to the bucket for a layup/dunk.
Option #4 Deron with the ball in the air surrounded by four Minnesota Timberwolves. Rarely does Deron do this, but he has the option now to pass to Cj Miles who is drifting back towards the three point line free throw extended, Ak who is floating back to his right, or to a semi cutting Al Jefferson to his right.
Problems with this picture---There is no one to rebound if Deron misses the shot. Al Jefferson should have crunched down sooner than this knowing that Deron was going to take the shot. The only chance we have of getting the rebound is if it long and to the left, which is unlikely because Deron does miss by much when he misses. Raja and Ak are protecting a fast break on the other end not letting anyone leak out ahead.
Generally, when Millsap is in the game he will crash the boards on this shot just in case it doesn't go in.
This play has been runs thousands of times for many different players. Korver, Hapring and Hornacek were probably the best at running this particular curl route. It seems though, that Deron is embracing the two positions when he is asked to play it. The next time you watch a Jazz game, see if you can catch all of the split decisions being made during this set.
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