Kelly Olynyk on Jazz’s Key to Limiting Turnovers: ‘Keep It Simple'
The most notable sore spot during the beginning of this Utah Jazz season has surrounded this team’s turnover issues. They average a league-high 18 giveaways a night, amounting to over 20 in four of their first nine games. Needless to say, it has been at the forefront of conversations revolving team’s early struggles.
However, the Jazz took much better care of the rock in their most recent game against the Portland Trail Blazers. Utah posted a season-low 12 turnovers in the contest, showing better decision-making and an improved ability to find open looks for teammates. It’s that brand of basketball that will find much more success than this squad saw earlier in the year.
Kelly Olynyk hit the podium after the team practice before their upcoming In-Season Tournament game against the Phoenix Suns. He gave some insight into what has allowed us to see improvements in taking care of the ball, and it all comes down to simplifying the offense.
“Just keeping it simple, taking it easy,” Olynyk said. "Not trying to force anything. You know, turnovers are a weird thing. And sometimes, you can’t overcoach them or overharp on them. Some of them are just going to happen in the game, offensive fouls and stuff like that where you’re just playing hard and stuff happens. It’s the careless ones and the ones where, okay, we’ve turned the ball over a couple of times, now we need to make sure we don’t try anything crazy and don’t try and force too much stuff."
Olynyk continued to voice some of the key factors of this offensive success, and what allows this team to play comfortably night in and night out.
“Set good screens, move the ball, and get some good looks,” Olynyk said. "I think for us, we know we still want to play free and easy, because that’s when we’re at our best. Making sure that situationally, we know how the game is flowing and keep things simple."
Utah will have the chance to continue to build this win streak to three games during Friday’s game against the Suns, set for 8 PM MT in the Delta Center.
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