Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 130-110 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.
1. The youngest possible lineup
For the first time this season, the Jazz played a lineup with all of the team’s draft picks over the last two years on the court together. Isaiah Collier, Keyonte George, Cody Williams, Brice Sensabaugh, and Kyle Filipowski played in the fourth quarter, and were a +2 together. All of them, remember, are 21 or younger.
To be sure, the biggest reason for the lineup was the game’s absences. Lauri Markkanen, John Collins, Collin Sexton, and Walker Kessler all sat as the team tries to lose as much as possible.
But in my opinion, playing all of the young guys together is just about as good of a use for the remaining 31 games as there can be. For one, they’re not likely to be that good together, so you’re not risking your team’s draft position.
More importantly, though, it pushes them into bigger roles from a leadership and a execution perspective. With veterans on the floor, the rookies can simply yield to them for a big basket, or decision making. The veterans are expected to be the ones to diagnose the opponent’s offense or defense and provide a solution. With all of them on the floor together, there’s no hiding — someone young will have to step up.
“In that moment of the game, I intentionally backed my communication down some because I wanted them to solve some problems together, to get organized together on both sides of the court,” Will Hardy said. “Doesn’t mean I stopped talking, but you try to pull back a little bit and let them take up that space.”
It’s also nice because it allows the youth to learn about how to play together. For example, Brice Sensabaugh turned the ball over in that fourth-quarter run, because Cody Williams slipped to the rim when Sensabaugh expected him to stay spaced at the 3-point line. Next time, hopefully, they’ll be on the same page.
Yeah, I’m being a bit simplistic. No one expects all of the Jazz’s six rookies and sophomores to all be big NBA successes, to all be part of the next good Jazz team. Some of them will likely fail, and even the successful ones might be traded or sign somewhere else. But in a season mostly about getting to the next season, some sense of chemistry on and off the court might be one thing that carries over from 2024-25 to the future.
2. KJ Martin’s first day with the team
After the game tonight, we got the chance to meet with new Jazz player KJ Martin. After all four trades this week, he’s the lone player that the Jazz are keeping from the chaos.
These next thirty days constitute, essentially, an extended tryout for Martin: he’s making $8 million this year, $8 million next, but next year’s contract is nonguaranteed, so the Jazz can choose to waive him if they think they can use their $8 million in a smarter manner.
(By the way, it’s still unclear how the Jazz will use their 15th roster spot after they waive Josh Richardson. They could use it to try out another young guy, or transition a two-way player to a full contract. It’s probably worth seeing if the buyout market shakes loose a really promising young player over the next week or two, before then shifting to the general free-agent and G-League player pool.)
Martin’s in-a-sentence scouting report: he’s a very athletic, low-usage wing who basically has to play the 4 because of a iffy jump shot. The rebounds, blocks, steals, rim finishing, all of that is very much there, but the skill stuff like playmaking, shooting, decision making is up and down.
“The biggest thing is to go out and compete on both ends of the floor and try to help my teammates get better and win games,” Martin said.
Speaking of, he has a number of connections with the Jazz. He grew up in L.A., playing basketball in elite circles at the same time as Johnny Juzang. He’s also known John Collins and Jordan Clarkson for a while now, and then, in his time in Houston, worked with Jazz coaches Rick Higgins and Jeff Hornacek.
And then, of course, there’s his father: Kenyon Martin, who many of you will remember in the NBA, including in a tough playoff series with the Denver Nuggets against the Jazz in 2010. I asked Martin if he remembered that series, he said he did.
“As much as I can now that I’m older, I try to go back and watch his games,” Martin said. “I still remember when he was in Denver; I remember a good amount of his career. He retired when I was in ninth grade, so throughout lower school until high school, I got to see him play.”
3. Mock drafts, two years out
Two years ago, who did people think the best high school basketball players in the world were?
Here’s NBADraft.net’s 2024 mock draft exactly two years ago today, Feb. 9, 2023:
NBADraft.net mock draft on Feb. 9, 2023.
Hey, that’s two Jazz players at the top of the mock draft!
Cody Williams came back tonight, and while he was on a 20-minute restriction, he didn’t make much of an impact: two points, two rebounds, one assist. Collier, too, had the triple-single: five points, nine assists, five rebounds. (That assist number is still very good, and the Jazz won the minutes Collier was in the game.)
Both ended up falling to Utah’s selections because of iffy-to-poor college seasons. I wondered: does Will Hardy take their unique path to the Jazz in account while coaching them? After all, it’s not every day that you get two players who were at the top of their high school class, but then experienced significant basketball adversity so young.
“I do recognize that if you had those really high expectations, then maybe it didn’t quite go as planned, as far as where you got drafted, that could impact you some,” Hardy said. “But unless something massive happened in that period of time, I try to, just like all the guys, take them at face value and try to help them transition to the NBA as quickly as we can. We try to help them diagnose where they’re at, what their skills are now.”
That approach makes sense. I also think it’s worth watching how Williams and Collier approach that moving forward, how they try to build off of their college seasons. From my perspective, Collier has legitimately changed his approach to be very pass-first and pretty engaged defensively. Williams' struggles are both because he’s been very tentative on the court and because his body is too slight; it’ll be interesting to see if the former changes when the latter does.
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