Will the Student become the… oh, never mind that. No one should be getting a Bud Versus Pop vibe when Quin Snyder’s Utah Jazz stroll into Philips Arena for a mid-week entanglement with the Atlanta Hawks (7:30 PM Eastern, SportSouth, Root Sports Rocky Mountain). Unlike the Spurs, Mike Budenholzer’s Hawks (3-3) are still out to prove they’re ready for prime time. Meanwhile, nobody should confuse the well-traveled Snyder, Budenholzer’s assistant for just one season, with a spring chicken.

Snyder was brought to Salt Lake as a player development guru, and his crew has just one minor player, Steve Novak, with over four seasons of NBA experience under his belt. He is deploying a low-pace style (93.2 possessions per-48, second-lowest only to the Knicks) allowing the youngsters on the Jazz (3-5, 2^nd almost by default in the Northwest Division) to get acclimated to his offensive schemes. He’s combined that with a low-pressure defensive approach that relies more on Utah’s potential to win rebounding battles than on disrupting their opponents’ offensive flow. The Jazz have snared 61.8% of their rebounding chances, 4^th highest in the league.

With all due respect to Born Ready, how much trouble might the Southeast Division be in if the Jazz chose not to match Charlotte’s summertime offer to Gordon Hayward? Guarding the newly Flowbee-coiffed swingman (career-high 19.4 PPG and 6.3 RPG; team-high 5.1 APG; 97.2 FT%, 4^th in NBA; 61.0 2FG%) has been a hair-raising experience for many an NBA opponent this season, and the Hawks’ degree-of-difficulty is heightened as they will be without DeMarre Carroll (groin strain). In addition to a large heaping of Thabo Sefolosha to try and contain (or at least partially offset) Hayward, look for some meaningful minutes out of Kent Bazemore. Opponents have shot just 22-for-66 with Bazemore on the floor, and one of the makes was Lance’s miracle game-winning bankshot 3-pointer last week.

The Jazz have been turning to Hayward in the clutch to pull off victories, including a well-screened buzzer-beating jumper to fell a cavalierly-passing Cleveland team. Hayward scored the final 11 points in the last five minutes for the Jazz on Sunday, turning the tables on Detroit for Utah’s sole road win so far. Bouncing back from a disappointing contract year where he tried to do too much under Ty Corbin to compensate for Utah’s losses of Paul Millsap and Al Jefferson, Hayward is finding his groove in Snyder’s offense.

Conversely, Delta is the only Burke around who could be shooting the basketball worse than Trey right now. Through seven games, the young point guard is hitting jumpshots at an atrocious 21.7% clip. 2013’s collegiate player-of-the-year managed to bring that percentage down even lower on Monday with a 2-for-12 performance (1-for-8 on threes) during the loss to Indiana.

You never know when a young offensively-volatile player like Burke (whose 22nd birthday is today) is going to go off, such as last March when he piled up a team-high 20 points and four threes in Atlanta, mostly in the second half before the Hawks could pry the game away in the closing minutes. Burke remains the starter for the Jazz because of his ability to take care of the ball (8 assists and no TOs at Indiana; 2.5 Assist-to-TO ratio past four games) and his ability to occasionally get stops (1.3 steals/game, only Jazzman with more than one per game), something on that team that’s as rare as the Wasatch mountain air (NBA-low 11.1 opponent TOs per game). Still, the clamoring from Jazz fans for 2014 lotto-rookie guard Dante Exum (44.7 FG%; 3.5 Assist-to-TO) in the starting lineup, supplanting either of Burke or shooting guard Alec Burks (39.8 FG%), is growing louder.

Lacking NBA-quality quickness for his size, Burke could stand to use screens from his sizable starting bigs to drive more to the hoop for layups and to get to the free throw line (90.3 FT% last season). In any case, Burke’s wayward shooting is creating ample offensive rebounding opportunities, none moreso than for Atlanta native Derrick Favors (career-high 54.3 FG%, 2.8 O-Rebs per game).

The Hawks, who cede an NBA-high 19.3 second-chance PPG to opponents, will have quite a time keeping Favors, Enes Kanter and stringbean Rudy Gobert out of their defensive paint. Atlanta’s frontcourt corps is depleted further without Mike Scott (back soreness). One will have to wait and see if rookie Adreian Payne, out at the season’s start due to plantar fasciitis, will be brought in tonight to help Atlanta on the boards, or if the Hawks will rely more on one of Elton Brand or Mike Muscala. Jazz rookie wing player Rodney Hood has had the same foot ailment as Payne and remains sidelined.

Utah’s most significant major free agent pickup was former Wizard Trevor Booker. While he was initially perceived to be the starting power forward, the advancement of Kanter and Gobert has allowed Booker (career-high 9.4 PPG; 61.1 eFG%, 11^th in NBA) to thrive offensively off the bench behind Favors. As was the case for Paul Millsap last season, Booker has been pushed by Snyder to expand his range a bit, and the player who was 1-for-10 on three-pointers over four seasons in Washington is now 6-for-14 beyond the arc through just 8 games this season. To breach the lineup in crunch time, though, he’ll have to pick up his shooting from the free throw line (52.9 FT% this season; 61.3 career FT%).

Consistent with Budball, the Hawks shoot a league-low 13.3 FG% on pullup threes (2.5 shots per game, 3^rd fewest in NBA); but 43.6 FG% (2^nd in NBA) on catch-and-shoot treys, a league-high 9.7 makes per game. Staying consistent in the flow of the offense should give Atlanta the points it needs to outlast the Jazz, even playing against a team coached by someone that knows their gameplan quite well.

In addition to playing sounder defense from the jump, Budenholzer will look to Jeff Teague to set the table and adhere the Hawks offense to one dependent on motion and ball control, a task that’s a bit harder tonight without either of Scott or Carroll. Dennis Schröder (team-high 65.2 FG%), who starred in the fourth quarter on Monday as Teague sat, continues to perform admirably in a reserve role, but will need to boost his passing efficiency in order to fully move past Shelvin Mack on the depth chart.

As defensively deficient as Utah has been (109.2 opponent points per 100 possessions, 3^rd worst in NBA), they remain a threat so long as their foes’ shots aren’t falling. They’re 3-0 when opponents shoot under 42 percent from the floor, 0-5 otherwise. Atlanta has shot 40.7% and 38.0% from the field in the two-game series with New York, so superior shot-selection will be key to putting the Jazz on ice like Riunite.

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3