SALT LAKE CITY — Notes from today's Jazz shootaround before they play the Memphis Grizzlies Monday night at Vivint Smart Home Arena. Quin Snyder, Dante Exum, and Rudy Gobert spoke to the media.

Injury report

The big news in today's shootaround was the injury report:

• Derrick Favors is questionable with the left knee soreness that kept him out in the preseason and prevented him from playing more than six minutes Saturday against Miami. IT band syndrome is no longer in the injury sheet, but regular knee soreness obviously isn't a good sign either. A good sign, though: he participated in shootaround.
• Boris Diaw is still questionable, making his way back from his right leg bone contusion. Having neither Diaw or Favors would obviously be bad for the Jazz, leaving presumably Trey Lyles to start. Diaw also participated in shootaround
• George Hill is still questionable thanks to his right thumb sprain. He went through shootaround as well with a brace, but I caught him pointing to his thumb afterwards, showing off some of the dribble moves he's not able to do. I'd be surprised if he played, but I've been consistently wrong about Hill's availability since the sprain originally occurred.
• Rodney Hood did not go through shootaround, due to the illness he was suffering over the past two games. He was actually at the doctor's this morning. Given how good he was despite the illness Friday and Saturday, I suspect he plays, but again, this is just a wild guess.
• Alec Burks remains out, but I saw him on the Zions Bank Basketball Center court for the first time since his surgery. He was taking short little eight-foot shots (no jumping), but it's nice to see him back out on the court. I don't expect him to return anytime remotely soon.

First game home

Snyder warned about the dangers of the first game back home after a long road trip.

"I think psychologically, there's a sense that you've finished something. From a physiological standpoint, you're probably in worse shape physically than you were on the last game of the road trip. You flew five and a half hours, you get in at 3:30, 4 in the morning, and then you're here Monday and ready to play. It's really the last game of the road trip," Snyder said.

Rudy Gobert agreed. "Every time I realize after a long road trip, the first home game is tough. Probably physically, just because you get home and relax, you know. And probably mentally too."

"I'm not sure if the numbers bear it out, but it's sluggish," Snyder said.

I tried to find any research done on the first game back after a road trip in the NBA, and all I could find was these two articles from a betting perspective. One says that teams actually significantly overperformed the spread in 2015-16 after coming back from a road trip, while another old article said teams played somewhat worse against the spread after coming back from trips. Of course, since it's possible that Vegas has started to take into account this effect in between 2000 and 2015, and moved the spread. So maybe we're not learning anything at all.

For what it's worth, since 2010-11, the Jazz are 15-14 after coming back after a road trip of three games or more.

Snyder said that, with the day off yesterday, he tried to get the team moving in shootaround today to avoid any potential sluggishness.

Bench play

One of the things at the front of Snyder's mind is his bench play. "When guys aren't ready, we struggle. Those are the games that we've lost," Snyder points out.

It's especially defensively that he's worried about his bench. "When we go to Orlando and give up eight points in a minute, that's not acceptable and usually gets you beat. Same thing against Miami: I'm upset when we give up 10 points in 2 minutes because those are the same guys that are going to be playing during the meat of the game."

I wrote Saturday about how Snyder's taking Rodney Hood out of the game first in the first and third quarters so that he can lead the bench units in the second and fourth. Obviously, that's for the scoring punch Hood provides. But Snyder pointed out something else he's been playing with: whether he inserts Joe Ingles or Joe Johnson for that sub. Johnson's the better player, but there's some logic in putting Ingles in with four starters, so that he can just sit outside the arc and make shots. It probably depends on the opponent, and who either Joe would be responsible for guarding.

Dante Exum playing more of the 1

One big consequence of the Jazz's shifting injury situation is that he's playing more point guard minutes than he did earlier in the season, where he was largely a two. Obviously, that put him more in a decision making role on offense, where he's still not brilliant coming off the pick and roll. He can get that first step, but hasn't been particularly efficient at making the right decisions once he does.

But defense is another issue. Exum's changing up his defensive strategy depending on the players he plays.

With Mike Conley tonight, Exum says it's about "not being able to stand over the top and see the offense and hit open guys. I want to make it as tough as possible and use my length so he has to take the extra dribble to get around my length." Exum figures to have a big advantage over the 6-foot-1 Conley.

By the way, Exum says his confidence is high in his shot right now. Exum's shooting 36 percent from three so far this season, and 43 percent overall. Those are roughly average numbers.

Even against Orlando, when he went 0-4 from three, Exum said he felt good about his shot and release on three of them, just the shots rimmed out. Exum came back with a 2-4 performance Saturday against Miami. Exum still has a long ways to go with his shot to become the player he wants to be, but this represents a step forward.

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