Las Vegas • When the Utah Jazz used the No. 40 selection in the 2021 NBA Draft on Baylor guard Jared Butler, it was widely viewed through two specific lenses:
One, as an opportunistic, low-risk talent-grab on a player whose stock had unexpectedly dropped due to circumstances beyond his control.
And two, a chance to upgrade the team’s backcourt depth, specifically at point guard, given how off-kilter the Jazz became last season when one or both of Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell were out injured.
The thing is, what if the Jazz had that option in-house?
Butler was presumed to be an upgrade over two-way signee Trent Forrest — and may well turn out to be — but the improvement that the second-year Florida State product has displayed in summer league play these past few weeks could make the hierarchy far less cut-and-dried.
Yes, it’s summer league play, but there’s no getting around the simple fact that Forrest looks like a much-improved player than the one thrown into the fire as a rookie.
“The game has slowed down for me,” Forrest said simply after one of the team’s victories in the Salt Lake City Summer League.
Sure seems like it.
He’s been confidently setting up Utah’s offense and directing traffic — a pass to open 3-point shooter here, setting up big man Udoka Azubuike for a lob there (and there … and there again), and in between, deftly probing into the paint, getting younger defenders guessing one way, then slicing through the hole for a layup at the rim.
It can be stipulated that of course he’s been doing it against lesser competition than what he faced as a regular-season fill-in this past season. But then, such dismissiveness belittles the apparent growth in both skill and confidence he is putting on display.
“You see him — Trent’s been working. Trent’s in there daily, just working and crafting his stuff,” said teammate Jarrell Brantley, another Jazz grinder looking to secure a full-time roster spot. “… That comfortability comes from work, and it’s in him. And you’ll see it. So the more time he gets on the court, the more you’ll see he’s special.”
The 3-point elephant in the room
There is, of course, a very simple explanation for why Forrest went undrafted a year ago despite a stellar career for the Seminoles. A clear reason why he was on a two-way contract as an NBA rookie, and will be again as a professional sophomore (the Jazz signed him to another two-way deal this past Wednesday). A straightforward rationale for why Butler was drafted to supplant him.
“Obviously, his 3-point shot is the one part of his game that he needs to work on,” said Bryan Bailey, a Jazz assistant who’s overseen the team’s summer league squads. “And he knows that.”
As both a collegian and a first-year NBA player, Forrest was a pretty abysmal long-range shooter.
At FSU, his high-water mark was the 28.1% he converted as a senior; he was at 24.8% overall over his four-year career. Meanwhile, with the Jazz, when coach Quin Snyder found himself short-handed and threw Forrest into games to have someone capable of getting people in the right spots while not being a sieve on defense, opponents all too often simply ignored the point guard when he spotted up behind the arc.
And with good reason, as he made just 5 of 26 attempts — 19.2%.
Forrest, of course, is no fool. He quickly recognized that even with all the things he does well, he won’t be long for the league if he’s that big a liability in that crucial an area of the game. And so he availed himself of the people around him and got busy.
“The main focus for me [this offseason] has been my shooting; I’ve been working on that, and I feel like it’s gotten a lot better from the season until now,” Forrest said. “That’s still going to be a focus even after summer league. It’s been working, the things that we’ve been doing.”
What exactly have they been doing, though?
Forrest said the key advice from the Jazz coaches has been developing a rhythm to his shooting motion. Just as it’s important to maintain the proper speed in running the offense, so too is it crucial to adhere to the proper pace in firing away — be ready before the catch, keep the motion consistent, don’t get sped up.
It’s been a small sample size, but there have been some encouraging results in Summer League: 2 of 3 vs. the Spurs; 0 for 2 against the Grizzlies; 2 for 5 vs. Jazz-Blue; 1 of 2 in Vegas against Phoenix …
“He’s put in the time and effort every day to get in the gym and is just shooting shots,” Bailey said. “He’s in there, he’s working on his 3-point shot — he’s determined to be a good shooter.”
Making his case for more
In spite of his shooting deficiencies, Forrest has enough to his game to have enticed the Jazz to sign him to a pair of contracts now.
At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, he brings a level of physicality and aggressiveness to his perimeter guarding, as made evident by his being named to the ACC All-Defensive Team as a senior.
He also brings an innate understanding to running things on the other side of the court, too.
“Since day one [that] he’s got here, we knew he could play pick-and-roll. It’s something just about his demeanor,” said Bailey. “Trent’s kind of a laid-back guy, he’s real quiet, but when he’s on the floor, he doesn’t get sped up, he’s always poised and under control and makes the right reads. That’s kind of his character and his demeanor.”
Forrest agreed, noting that in spite of all the things hanging over him — criticisms of his shooting, family and friends constantly inquiring about him getting a full NBA contract — he’s got an admirable ability to tune out all the peripheral noise and focus on what’s important to him.
“Just go out and play ball,” he said. “… I just go out and do what I’m supposed to do and live with the results at the end of the day. And that’s how I’ve always been.”
And that’s how he’ll continue to be.
He’s loved the summer league experience thus far after missing out on it a year ago due to the abbreviated offseason and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He’s relished the opportunity to once again play a large role, to get big minutes, to have an outsized impact on a team’s performance.
In the Salt Lake Summer League, he was inarguably the Jazz’s best player, averaging 23.4 minutes per game and 14.3 points, 9.0 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.0 steals, while shooting 50% from the field and 40% beyond the arc.
Bailey praised him for his performance there, noting that he “controlled the game” and “ran the show for us.”
Forrest says he’s acclimated both to the pace and the physicality of the league.
“My coaches, they’ve been just talking to me about the situations that I would be in this summer, and how those situations that I had been in would help me,” Forrest said. “So I’m just learning and getting better.”
And he remains keenly aware that he’s still got so much work ahead of him — especially when trying to prevent newer players from being seen as better options for minutes than him.
