This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Tribune Jazz beat reporter Tony Jones will answer readers' questions in a Twitter mailbag each week. You can submit questions using the hashtag #TonyTalks. Here is the first week's questions.

Tony's response • The last two nights, Elfrid Payton and Eric Bledsoe both lit the Jazz up and had near triple-doubles. Goran Dragic from the Miami Heat did the same earlier in the season. Kyle Lowry and Isaiah Thomas both were dominant.

The Jazz play a variety of pick and roll coverages based on the guy they are playing that night. Simply put, the Utah point guards have to be better defensively at the point of attack.

The Jazz point guards are getting stuck on too many screens far too often, and that's allowing opposing point guards free rein on switches with the Jazz big men. The Jazz point guards ideally need to fight their way over the screens, while the Jazz bigs hedge just long enough to allow the point guards to get back into the play defensively.

But that presents a problem when the other team has a good shooting big man as the pick setter, like Boston with Al Horford or Memphis with Marc Gasol. It's an inexact science, but the Jazz have to be better against the opposing point guards of the league. There is no question about that.

Tony's response • Absolutely.

Dante Exum is 21 years old. There will be multiple players taken in the first round of this draft who will be older than Exum. And Exum is ...

A) Coming off a lost year to an ACL tear, and

B) Coming back to a franchise that is going in a drastically different direction than the franchise he was with before the injury.

Exum's lost year was a developmental year for he and the Jazz. He came back to a team that had passed the developmental stage, but he's still in the developmental stage. That means the Jazz are trying to win at all costs, and Exum has to earn the minutes that he's going to get. That means he's not getting as much leeway to play through mistakes, unlike his rookie year or what would have happened last season.

And in the NBA, the busy schedule makes it extremely difficult to improve during the season.

Exum is going to have to have a huge offseason. It's important to him and his development.

The franchise believes in him, and he's their guy for the future. But the Jazz are playing for the present so that they can set themselves up for the future, like keeping Gordon Hayward in free agency.

Tony's response • I can't speak for national media, but Gobert gets a ton of attention from local media. And he gets a lot of attention from the national media as well. Hayward gets slightly — he's still underrated here, too — more attention than Gobert when it comes to the casual basketball fan. In my opinion, Gobert has been one of the best three centers in the NBA this season. He's been the best defensive player in basketball this season, and he's been one of the top 10 players when it comes to on-court impact this season. He and Hayward both deserve to be in the All-Star Game.

Tony's response • Both Rudy and Mark Eaton were next-level shot blockers.

Both were terrific rebounders and terrific at clogging the lane — Eaton with his sheer mass, and Gobert with his 7-foot-9 wingspan.

Here's where Gobert has the edge. He's able to guard the pick and roll more effectively.

Last night against the Phoenix Suns served as a perfect example. With the Suns down 104-101 late in the game and needing a bucket, Gobert hedged Phoenix's pick and roll and shut down dribble penetration from Eric Bledsoe.

Then when Bledsoe found his open roll man Marquese Chriss cutting to the basket, Gobert rotated back to Chriss and blocked his shot to seal the win.

Eaton wasn't mobile and athletic enough to make that play.

Other than DeAndre Jordan from the Los Angeles Clippers, there may not be a big man in the league that could've made that play.

Tony's response • It may happen if Quin Snyder can't settle on a backup point guard.

But it isn't Snyder's first choice.

Burks is a shooting guard, not a point guard. He's capable of bringing the ball up and running pick and roll. But you want him on the wing, creating havoc off the dribble. That's his strength — his ability to score and find creases in the opposing defense.

The Jazz will find time for him in the rotation. He's going to play and contribute, especially now that Rodney Hood is out for a few weeks.

Snyder found ways in the past to get three wings onto the floor. He'll do so again as the season moves on.

The next Utah Jazz mailbag will appear Tuesday, so submit your questions on Twitter using the hashtag #TonyTalks.