Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 122-120 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. The perfect game from the forward-thinking Jazz fan perspective
This tweet from Jazz fan @superfinn23 resonated with a lot of Jazz watchers tonight:
In many ways, this was the ideal Jazz game for the 2024-25 season. The Jazz competed well, and its rookies got significant playing time, including significant clutch minutes. The veterans that played, like Lauri Markkanen, showed out too. And in the end, the Jazz were beaten on a near-buzzer beater from Portland’s Scoot Henderson for the win with just 00.1 seconds on the clock. Such a bummer — if the organization was trying to win games.
Isaiah Collier was the team’s starting point guard, and Cody Williams was the first man off the bench, and finished the game. With Collier, the position was understandable: Keyonte George was out due to his ankle sprain.
For Williams? It was a drastic change in approach from the team’s last game, where Williams was a DNP-CD — clearly, they’ve newly decided to prioritize his playing time. He didn’t do much in his 25 minutes on the floor, with just five points, one rebound, and one assist, but he was out there anyway to finish the game.
This was, in other words, the Jazz embracing #TankNote. I understand if you have significant qualms with the Jazz tanking, not doing their best to win basketball games. But from my point of view, it sure beats subsisting in perpetual mediocrity, as they threatened to do otherwise. This is going to be an ugly period of Jazz basketball either way, but playing the young kids at least has the potential to change the state of affairs.
To be in a close loss like this was the best of both worlds: the Jazz’s rookies had the chance to gain some clutch experience, and the team looks more likely to acquire a difference-maker in next year’s draft.
2. Isaiah Collier, starting point guard
Isaiah Collier had his second career start tonight, with Keyonte George out. In his first start against the Spurs, though, he only played 24 minutes. Tonight, he played 35.
The results were a mixed bag. He had seven assists and eight rebounds, but scored just seven points on 3-10 shooting. He also committed four fouls and had six turnovers. If we were holding him to veteran point guard standards, his performance would certainly not be good enough.
There are times, especially in transition, Collier takes advantage like no other young Jazz guard can.
There are also times, especially in the half-court, where Collier looks wildly overmatched and irresponsible with the ball.
With the latter plays, Collier looks like a player who expects his high school approach to work. In the NBA, though, the other players are even more long and even more physical, especially when you drive to the rim. As a result, his approach will simply have to change in the NBA: passes will have to come sooner, and drives to the rim will have to be more reserved, more prodding, in order to succeed.
There’s a balance here Collier can find, if he realizes it: attack with the advantage, be more cautious without it. Some young NBA players find it, others don’t. We’ll find out through the course of the year, and years to come, if he embraces that.
3. The NBA TV ratings conversation
OK, let’s get into it.
The general conversation has been that the NBA’s ratings are down. The commonly-cited statistic is that ratings are down 19% from last year.
ESPN responded with terrific ratings on Christmas day, that were, as they spun it, up 84% from last year.
Any conversation about this has to start out with a fact: the NBA just signed a new TV deal worth $76 billion dollars over 11 seasons. That figure about the GDP of Belize, so, you know, pretty good. That means that absolutely none of this matters: Ryan Smith and fellow owners are going to paid tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars above what they currently pay in player salaries in just the NBA’s TV deals. The Delta Center could see zero attendance and Smith would be doing okay from a monetary point of view.
But I also understand why people care regardless: people who like watching basketball like watching basketball with friends. If you feel like you’re the only one of your friends who watches the NBA... well, you start to feel a bit siloed. A bit... weird.
I believe two things:
• First, the NBA is a league with many faults and could certainly use some improving. The TV ratings are not amazing.
• Second, the negative conversation about them is largely hooey driven by people with agendas.
The list of what people blame the NBA TV ratings on is lengthy. Is the NBA too woke? Or did it turn its back on those who care about social justice, say, with China? Are there too many games? Too many injuries? Do they not care enough? Is there too much offense, or too many threes? Or too little offense, with the teams tanking? Are there not enough stars? Are the stars being traded too much? Are the games blacked out too often? Is TV too difficult to watch? Is America’s youth to blame?
Heck, even I’ve gotten in to the act. Five years ago, I wrote a column blaming NBA TV ratings on how the NBA’s analysts didn’t talk enough about the league. I can attest: it’s fun to blame the league’s ills on your favorite concern.
So here’s what I’m asking, for anyone who makes these arguments now:
What evidence do you have?
Hold the NBA’s TV ratings to a real standard of investigation. Many things have changed over the last 20 years. If you’re going to argue that one in particular is responsible for the ratings decline, I want to see evidence as to how your particular talking point is at fault.
I haven’t seen much of that. I’m willing to learn. But I need more facts, and less talk, to decide what, if anything, is driving the NBA downward.
Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
