How might the Utah Jazz compensate for the absence of Ed Davis while he is injured?

Utah Jazz center Tony Bradley (13) goes up for a dunk over Portland Trail Blazers guard Troy Caupain (10) as the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trail Blazers play at Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. Portland won 126-118. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY — A significant talking point heading into the 2019-2020 season for the Utah Jazz was how the roster was constructed in such a way that staying healthy was more imperative than it had been the previous few years.

Just five games into the campaign, the Jazz have suffered their first major injury beyond Dante Exum still rehabbing from a partial tear in his patellar tendon he suffered last season. The team announced Saturday night that backup center Ed Davis will miss at least four weeks because of a fractured left fibula he suffered Friday night in a 102-101 loss to the Sacramento Kings.

The injury occurred with 2:14 remaining in the third quarter.

Before the season, it appeared center would be a position in which it would be particularly challenging for Utah to have a significant injury. Although losing Davis is much less impactful than losing Rudy Gobert would be, the Jazz don’t have much depth at the position.

Outside of Gobert, Tony Bradley is the only other traditional center on the roster. Bradley, in his third season in the NBA out of North Carolina, has appeared in just 16 games in his career, as he has spent most of his time with the NBA G League’s Salt Lake City Stars.

Ten of those appearances came in his rookie season, he played in just three contests all of last season and he has three appearances this season. Most of them have come at the end of games with the outcome already decided.

Has Bradley developed enough to where he can at the very least not be a detriment out on the floor if head coach Quin Snyder needs to use him? At 6-foot-10 and 248 pounds, Bradley has shown to be a legitimately good rebounder at the NBA level, and he can score a little bit, too. Can he be good enough defensively if called upon?

On Friday night immediately after Davis exited the game, Snyder put Jeff Green at center alongside Donovan Mitchell, Emmanuel Mudiay, Joe Ingles and Bojan Bogdanovic. The 6-foot-8, 237-pound Green has played center some before in his career as teams employ smaller lineups more frequently.

In the final 2:14 of the third quarter, Green struggled defensively and on the glass against athletic Sacramento big man Richaun Holmes, although he made a 3-pointer as time expired in the frame, which showed both the potential negative and positive of using a smaller player like him at center.

Gobert wound up playing the entire fourth quarter. Such won’t be feasible over the course of an entire month (at least) while Davis is out, so at this point, barring a move by the front office, Bradley will need to be counted on. Otherwise Snyder will have to come up with the right lineup combinations to keep the Jazz steady at center when Gobert is on the bench.

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