Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 116-105 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Keyonte George sat to start the 2H
Now that Isaiah Collier is healthy, Keyonte George has real competition for the point guard spot — and it’s starting to show in the rotations the latter is getting on the floor. In tonight’s game, Will Hardy moved George to the starting lineup to start the second half, and in his stead the Jazz played Collier.
Let’s break it down, first from the George perspective, then from Collier’s.
Hardy was pretty clear about the reason for the change: “I wasn’t happy with Keyonte’s defense in the first half. Keyonte knows how much I believe in him, but sometimes you have to make changes in the moment to reinforce your point.”
I also saw what Hardy saw: George’s defense simply didn’t reflect that he was particularly worried about that end of the floor. This clip has a few examples — him gambling for a steal but then not really worrying about the consequences, him being in position to confront James Harden but not doing so, him switching off of Harden for no real reason — in the first half.
After the switch, George did play with the second unit, and then played the final 19 minutes of the game. The Jazz were better in that stretch, a +7 overall.
George was extremely supportive of the message sent in his postgame interview; he said all of the right things and seemed to mean them, too.
“Urgency levels should be at an all time high no matter what — but we’re all humans," George explained. “I don’t know if you have a boss, but if they say you should take a break, when you come back you’re going to be on your Ps and Qs.” He honestly seemed to appreciate the call out.
That’s good. I continue to like how George approaches his job off the floor; I think he has a maturity in his approach that’s rare among 20-year-olds.
But now that we’re in year two, that solid approach does have to start paying dividends on the floor itself, where George has been too frequently unfocused, too frequently making poor shot/pass decisions, and generally leaving a lot to be desired. Many basketball metrics put him below replacement level, and if that doesn’t improve, well... he’ll be replaced.
2. Isaiah Collier started the 2H
The other side of that coin is Isaiah Collier getting a season high in minutes (26) as a result of the change.
Collier only had four points tonight, which reflects that he really only has one way of scoring right now: beating the opposition to the rim in a fast break situation. He’s really fast, but if that first step isn’t past the opponent, he’s not able to score much.
But the good thing about him so far is that he’s avoided making too many bad decisions with the ball in his hands. In fact, he’s been the Jazz’s best (and perhaps only) pure point guard, setting his teammates up for more shots than he takes himself. He had eight assists tonight.
When he gets into trouble, I’ve been impressed with his ability to find an escape.
He’s also making quicker passes earlier in his pick and roll drives than his guard counterparts.
“We know who our scorers are, we know where the ball needs to go,” Collier said. “Doing those little things, it definitely helped us in the second half.”
Finally, he’s just faster down the court in setting the Jazz up in their actions. We’ve talked about how slow the Jazz’s half court offense has been, but Collier pushes the tempo in a really pleasing way. There aren’t a ton of wasted dribbles at the top of the arc.
I’m looking forward to seeing if and how his performance evolves over the course of the season, if he can pick his spots to get a little more scoring. He also definitely needs to develop his jump shot further to stick in the NBA. But at the very least, his skillset does give the Jazz a change of pace that they sometimes desperately need.
3. Parking costs
Speaking of Isaiah Collier, we got in a chat after the game about the cost of parking in Los Angeles. Collier knows L.A. — after all, he played his one year of college ball at USC.
He also knows high parking costs. He said he had a penchant for parking tickets at the college. Why? Collier explained simply that parking was more expensive in L.A. than what he was used to back home in Atlanta.
To wit: parking at the new Intuit Dome for Clippers games is $70.
The Intuit Dome is a wonderful facility in a lot of ways. I have an article to be released soon about the arena, how it was influenced by the Delta Center, and how it might influence the upcoming renovations coming up. But $70 for parking? That’s its most fan-unfriendly feature. It’s simply too much.
Relatedly, parking costs for Jazz games have also gone up by a lot: it now costs $25 to park at the Gateway Mall for Jazz games. That’s not a price controlled by the Jazz, but it is simply a big burden to ask Jazz fans when those same parking spots were so recently $10.
I get it: demand is high for parking, and supply is low. At least at the Delta Center, there’s a viable public transit train option to the arena. No such train exists to the Intuit Dome, instead, the team has set up various bus shuttle options from points nearby.
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