Ed Davis Wants To Win; Utah Jazz Want His Defensive Capabilities

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Former lottery pick Ed David has bounced around the NBA, with the Jazz being his sixth team in nine years. Though not a scorer, the forward is a defensive presence on the floor.

This Utah Jazz team has a brand new look, having made additions across the board to help make them become a legitimate Western Conference contender. Davis was brought in to help the Jazz get there.

Davis averages just 6.5 points per game over his career, but he’s above-average rebounder. He had a career-high 8.6 rebounds in just 17.9 minutes of floor time per game last year with Brooklyn. His main role with the Jazz will be defense. During his team introduction, Davis said he wants to play for a quality organization that is dedicated to winning.

“At this stage of my career I wanted to play on a veteran team – a team that had a chance to contend for the title at the end of the year,” he said. “(The Jazz have) always been respected. You don’t hear about a bunch of B.S. happening. There aren’t really a bunch of players coming in and out. There’s a lot of consistency. A team that every year is respected and they’re going to fight and be in the playoffs.”

What the Jazz needed to round out the team alongside signing some of the bigger names scorers like Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanović, were role players and defenders. Each player will have a specific role that will be best suited for this Utah Jazz team to be the best possible version of itself.

How Can Ed Davis Help The Jazz Win?

Davis is not a guy who will come in and score a lot of points for the Jazz. That’s just not going to be what he does for this Jazz team. He will get some points here and there, but KSL Sports’ Alex Kirry points out that Davis will have a role on the team.

“Over his career, he is a seven points a game guy, and what will the Jazz will get from this guy?” Kirry asked on KSL Unrivaled. “The whole thing is that when you don’t know a lot about this guy and don’t know a lot about him and what effect he will have on this team. These are important cogs, because Ed Davis will come into games with the second group and you will have to figure this out (with him).”

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All signs point to Davis coming in with the second set of five and give Rudy Gobert a breather here and there throughout the game. Defense is what the Jazz are pining its hopes on with this Davis signing. If he can score five to nine points per game that is just an added bonus, plus Davis knows what type of player he is.

With the loss of Derrick Favors in the trade for Conley, Davis is going to have to step in and going to be instantly compared to Favors. So there is some pressure that but the Jazz have a few guys who they brought in for defensive purposes.

“Jazz player recognize with Derrick Favors, no one had to be told he was a tough player but he had that reputation and everyone loved how hard and big-time player he could be in Rudy Gobert’s place,” Kirry said. “Davis will be compared to Favors and will he be at that same level of toughness and can you come in and create something. When Rudy Gobert was having an off night, Favors would come in and he would have a better night sometimes.”

That is a lot of pressure to put on Davis but asking him to come off the bench and have games where he is better than Gobert is unrealistic. Head coach Quin Snyder knows that is not going to be the case but fans need to realize the production lost by Favors will be made up from a collection of players. Davis’ main goal is to hit the glass hard to get rebounds and play great defense when he is on the floor, and if he ends up scoring double-digits from time to time then that is just gravy.

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