Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 117-112 loss to the Charlotte Hornets from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. Breaking down at the point of attack with no help inside
This was almost the perfect tank loss: the Jazz had a 13-point lead at one point before the team pulled out a loss in the final minutes. This was as intended, too, as the Jazz’s injury report once again featured six players, some of whom aren’t actually injured.
The Hornets, though, came into the game with an even worse record than Utah, and generally found it surprisingly easy to score on the Jazz. Charlotte center Mark Williams had his career high of 31 points, and the Jazz allowed 66 points in the paint on the way to the loss.
Why? Here’s Will Hardy:
“We did not do a good job containing the ball, and the secondary plays in the paint were very non-physical tonight, the crackdowns on the bigs,” Hardy said.
So here’s an example, from a wonky camera angle the Jazz used to begin the second half:
In the end, Micah Potter just whiffs on the closeout, and as a result there’s a straight line to the basket. Walker Kessler comes over to help, and actually forces the miss — but there’s no support for the rebound from Collier or elsewhere.
I don’t mean to criticize Potter or Collier too heavily, as the formula happened in a variety of ways tonight and from a variety of players. The Hornets got running towards the rim way too easily, and in the end, Kessler can’t control the paint by himself.
As we’ve discussed, the Jazz have the worst defense in the NBA. This is good tanking, to be sure. But ultimately the players that are on the next good iteration of this team will need to play much more physically and with much more athleticism to make an impact on that end.
2. Keyonte George’s coaching
Keyonte George made a pretty remarkable statement after the game Wednesday.
The media asked him about how he feels he’s developing on the defensive side of the ball — pretty clearly his biggest weakness at this point. In particular, Hardy said he’d been challenging him to play better defense, and so it was natural to ask George how that’s gone. Here’s what George said.
“I’m honestly just grateful that he’s challenged me. I think, honestly, that’s the first time that a coach that I’ve had has really been, you know, on my bumper about that side of the ball. So it’s been — I don’t want to say interesting — but it’s definitely helping me expand my game and be more versatile."
I’m sorry, what? Keyonte George has never had a coach get on him about his defensive play before?
That explains... pretty much everything, actually.
I’ve been monumentally critical about George’s defensive play, to the point where I called him the worst defender in the NBA recently. He’s the worst defender on the worst defensive team in the league, so that’s a rough place to be. But look, if he’s never actually been coached about his defensive play before, everything makes sense.
It’s a major indictment of the basketball prospect development world, though. Like, Scott Drew, what are you doing at Baylor? How did George’s AAU coach not try to make an impact there? On the other hand... the strategy did work — it got George drafted in the first round, and guaranteed him tens of millions in the NBA.
Given that he’s really starting from scratch there, I’m interested to see if Hardy’s coaching really does lead to strides defensively.
3. Cody Williams' inconsistency
Two games ago, I wrote about Cody Williams' career night in Phoenix. Sure, it was only 13 points, but there were legitimate steps taken.
I asked Hardy then about what he told Williams after that night, to try to get him to repeat that performance in the upcoming games. The goal would be to find some measure of consistency as he comes along in his rookie season.
“I try not to overtalk to Cody. I try to check in with Cody after little chunks of games. It doesn’t mean I ignore him. I’m still coaching him, but we don’t need to have like, a kind of recalibration after all the games, I try to just let him move through some of the little mini ups and downs as we go,” Hardy said.
Hey, fair enough. But Williams has really, really struggled in the two games since, going 2-10 against the Nets and then 2-8 tonight. He was a -16 in the game the Jazz won by 1 against Brooklyn, and a -22 tonight in a game the Jazz lost by five.
The other worrying thing, besides the lack of scoring and overall downward trend when Williams is in the game, is that he’s not doing anything else. He’s not rebounding, he’s not passing, he’s not getting steals. He’s just out there, more than any player in recent Jazz memory.
The level of play simply has to improve from the lottery pick.
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