The Triple Team: What kind of player can Keyonte George become?

Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 105-104 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. To call timeout or not to call timeout?

Collin Sexton hit a layup that would have won the game for the Jazz — but it just came too late. In the previous seconds, Will Hardy had called timeout. Here’s the play:

“Collin started to retreat, dribble backwards, and I started calling time out. It’s obviously loud. The hope would be to have a few more seconds than 2.1 but, yeah, it’s tough,” Hardy said. “I told (Collin) in the locker room, I robbed him of a moment at the end of the game. But you go into those situations, we practice these situations, you have cues and things that you’re looking for. It didn’t go our way.”

I tend to agree. Watching from inside the stadium, I thought the play was a mess, that Sexton had started moving laterally rather than moving forwards — and I verbally started calling timeout too. To set up a play seemed like the better call.

But then it just took too long to call the timeout, and by the time it was awarded, Sexton was on his way to the rim. Now, I do think Anthony Davis reacts differently on that play if there’s no timeout — we’ve seen him make plenty of game-winning swats in his career. But regardless, Sexton going downhill is a pretty good scenario for the Jazz.

My only real criticism of Hardy on the play is then to say that I wish he was closer to the action when the timeout was called. He was standing inside the NBA’s assigned hash mark where coaches can stand, but some mild cheating would have been in order there — standing near half-court to be ready to call the timeout more quickly if the situation called for it.

The timeout after the play, though, was worse. (Video is above.)

It looks like the Jazz thought the Lakers wouldn’t switch — Sexton said the Lakers defended the play differently than they expected — and tried to get Sexton to get the ball coming off a screen... and the Lakers simply switched it and killed the play right there. Ideally, there’d be a better second option, but it was Brice Sensabaugh’s first time inbounding at the end of a game, too.

Overall, the timeout that cost the Jazz the game was more of a funny problem than a real one. While the optics aren’t great on Hardy calling a timeout that leads directly to a loss as the Jazz tank, it’s hard to criticize the process too much.

2. Keyonte George’s turnovers, defense

Keyonte George has had five turnovers or more in four of the last five games, and had six tonight. Here’s the video of all six:

Look, these aren’t close. Dribbling the ball off the foot isn’t great. Those passes to Walker Kessler and John Collins are miles off. Even the turnovers in the paint are ones you’d like to avoid.

The other issue for George was how often the Lakers, especially LeBron James, chose to target him on defense. And at first, he simply didn’t treat the issue with the effort it deserved.

This is the kind of opportunity that kids dream about before they become NBA players. You get LeBron James switched on you in the fourth quarter of a close game, at home... and George didn’t really even provide any resistance or toughness. It’s just rough.

The Jazz decided to keep allowing that switch, though. Why?

“We made the decision... ‘we’re gonna do the same thing, and you do it better.' Because for us to get to where we want to go, that’s a moment of kind of long view thinking. You can’t hide in the playoffs. You can’t hide in the NBA Finals. We’re not going to build a defensive scheme where everything is about keeping you out of harm’s way,” Hardy said.

In other words, because it was a developmental opportunity. I support that decision. And I do think George did a better job after that timeout, especially with pushing James towards help. It wasn’t good defense, but it was passable.

3. Keyonte George’s career

Okay, so let’s get into the real conversation.

Overall, I’ve seen enough that I don’t think Keyonte George can be successful as a ball-in-hand point guard. He’s too far away there. The turnovers alone probably mean he can’t have the ball in his hands this much. But it’s not just that: he’s slow to set up an offense, and doesn’t seem to inspire terrific play from his teammates. In his defense, it’s not something he’d ever been in his career before getting to the Jazz.

The problem is that pushing him to the two-guard is difficult, too, given his lack of impact when the ball isn’t in his hands; there’s no defensive impact, no rebounding impact. He does have catch-and-shoot ability, but the other parts of basketball have yet to be strengths. And if you are going to be a shooting-only shooting guard in a starting lineup... you have to be really good at shooting. J.J. Redick good.

The early obvious Jazz comparison is Trey Burke, who also had a tremendously poor second year on his way out of the NBA. Here’s both of their second year statistics.

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