Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 123-100 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Will Hardy didn’t play the kids
Over and over again, the Jazz’s front office, coaching staff, and even their players have said that this is a season about youth development.
And then tonight, Jazz head coach Will Hardy didn’t play the youth.
As Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson returned from injury, three young Jazz rookies and second-year players found themselves out of the Jazz’s rotation: Kyle Filipowski, Isaiah Collier, and Brice Sensabaugh. Instead, Hardy played Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills.
On its face, this doesn’t make any sense.
So we asked Hardy about it postgame. At first, Hardy demurred, noting that Filipowski had only moved his way into the rotation in the first place as a result of injury, and that Collier had only practiced with the team one time.
Then I asked Hardy about the philosophy in general: how do you balance youth development vs. what’s best for the team from a wins and losses standpoint?
“I have the long view in mind for all of these guys. The reality is that we can‘t play every young guy every night. That’s not how this is going to work. This is the NBA, and there is a level of earning minutes that has to happen,” Hardy said. “I think this notion of like, just getting minutes helps you get better is not true. Just playing for playing’s sake doesn’t just make them better. That’s why we have practices. That’s why we have the G League. There’s so many ways that we’re going to use all of our resources to help all these guys get better.”
“Like I understand the sentiment of, ‘why did Kyle not play tonight?’ But we also have to maintain that this is a team, and that we have 15 guys — 18 with all the two-ways — that are in the locker room every night, and they see what happens at practice, and they see what happens in the games. And we have to maintain a standard of like, doing your job well means that you get to play."
And this is where I get off this train: Mills and Eubanks are not good players right now. Mills was waived by Atlanta last year, then really struggled in his Miami minutes when he was given a second chance. The Suns were so bad in the Eubanks minutes last season that their fans clamored for Udoka Azubuike minutes. By their final game of the playoffs, they just decided they‘d rather play without a center at all than play Eubanks.
Meanwhile, while I understand that Collier and Sensabaugh have struggled. But Filipowski had played really well in his NBA minutes, to my eye. He should be rewarded with more playing time. Collier wasn‘t on any minutes restriction, so the training staff didn‘t have any problem with him playing more, just the coaching staff did. I‘m fine if — heck, I‘d prefer if — the Jazz used NBA minutes to get Collier adjusted. He, by the way, doesn’t need that much adjustment: he played the majority of training camp and preseason.
Most critically, Mills and Eubanks are what they are: fringe NBA players at best, in or past their primes. The three youth who weren’t in the rotation are fringe NBA players now, but they might be useful to the Jazz one day.
What about practice? Well, the Jazz have practiced once in the last week. They‘ve played four games in that stretch. During the season, games are going to have to be the youth’s primary path to development for schedule reasons alone.
I understand Hardy‘s “no free minutes” mantra, I do. I also understand Hardy’s point that game minutes are not the be-all, end-all of player development. Other stuff has to happen.
But right now, Hardy and the Jazz are being too cute by half. By three-quarters, even. Instead of Collier getting the chance to experience guarding Damian Lillard tonight and maybe learn a thing or two, he watched as Johnny Juzang just got blown by from the sidelines. Filipowski got to watch Eubanks and John Collins meekly defend Giannis Antetokounmpo time and time again without the chance to prove he might have done better. It‘s a wasted developmental opportunity, one they’re not going to get back.
Hardy seemed to think the playing time worries were an overreaction to one game‘s rotation. “If we‘re going to have — not meaning you guys, if anybody — is going to have an emotional reaction to who plays every single night, it’s going to be a really hard year."
Maybe so — but the truth is that this isn’t Game 1 of this decision being made, it’s Year 3. Rudy Gay played over Ochai Agbaji two years ago. The team benched Walker Kessler, and sent Taylor Hendricks and Brice Sensabaugh to the G-League last year.
The idea of this season was that the team was finally, actually going all in on youth development (oh yeah, and getting a draft pick that will change the franchise). Playing Patty Mills and Drew Eubanks over three youth players harkens back to those last two wasted seasons — and that’s why even rational, unemotional observers were quick to be concerned about it.
2. Turnovers from the vets
Phew, okay. Two quick remaining points, now that rant is over.
The Jazz‘s biggest problem point of the season has been turnovers. They’re last in the league in that category, giving up 19 per game. They had 22 tonight.
Who‘s committing the turnovers? Well, here‘s the Jazz’s Cleaning The Glass page on offensive production. Each column shows how each player compares to the rest of the league at their position, percentile-wise. The last column is turnovers. What do you see?
(Cleaning The Glass)
It‘s largely the vets — plus Walker Kessler — who are turning over the ball most. Keyonte George’s turnover rate is below average, but at least near the median. But Collin Sexton, Walker Kessler, Jordan Clarkson, Patty Mills, John Collins, and even Lauri Markkanen are doing worse, when compared to their positions.
Some of this is due to how CTG is positioning these players; calling Collin Sexton a wing isn‘t quite right. But regardless, the veterans are simply turning over the ball way too much. Tonight, it was the two JCs who led the team, with four turnovers each. They need to lead by example if the Jazz’s turnover problem is going to improve.
3. A weird travel schedule
Mostly just a fun note, but: the Jazz didn‘t get a hotel in Milwaukee. I can’t remember that having happened before, the Jazz not getting a hotel in a city they played in.
Instead, the team stayed in Chicago from Sunday through Thursday, then took busses up leaving at different times to Milwaukee from their Chicago hotel mid-day on the day of the game. Some players and staff arrived quite early for the game, while others arrived quite late, probably as traffic started to make an impact on the commute that takes 1.5 hours if the road is clear.
Their bags stayed on the bus, then after the game, the team took those busses to the Milwaukee airport to fly to San Antonio.
Meanwhile, us writers took an Amtrak train from Chicago to Milwaukee. That option’s nice because it eliminates the impact of traffic and is slightly faster. I asked Jordan Clarkson if he had ever taken the train to a game, and it turned out he had, on a trip from Philadelphia to D.C., in 2017 when he was with the Cavaliers.
But the journey went awry. The train they were on hit a pedestrian, so Clarkson remembered getting delayed for several hours on the way.
There’s one more weirdness left on this road trip: note that the Jazz’s game against the Spurs Saturday is at 3 p.m. MT.
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