Royce O’Neale is this team’s X-Factor
A lot of the attention for Utah is on Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley and Sixth-Man of the Year Jordan Clarkson, but Royce O’Neale is this team’s x-factor and that was proven in this series against Memphis.
O’Neale made a name for himself with the Jazz for being an athletic, smart defender, but now, he has turned himself into a vital two-way player for them. Not only can he virtually guard any position, but he shot 53.6% from three-point range in this first-round series against Memphis.
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Between his three-point shooting, his defensive tenacity and his 7.0 rebounds per game against the Grizzlies, Royce O’Neale is a“swiss-army-knife” for the Utah Jazz and is going to be a key factor for them in any series moving forward.
When he is knocking down shots and making a difference not just on defense, but on offense as well, the Jazz normally win games, which is what happened in this series against Memphis. In Game 1’s loss for Utah, O’Neale only had 3 points and 5 rebounds. The rest of the series, he averaged 13.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and shot 56% from three-point range.
Guys like Mitchell, Conley and even Bojan Bogdanovic will have to knock down big shots in the postseason for the Jazz to reach the NBA Finals, but the production they get from Royce O’Neale does not go unnoticed. He is just as important to this team as anybody else and is a main catalyst for them on both ends of the court.
