Will Hardy uses playing time to teach a lesson in Jazz’s loss to Clippers
The Jazz rookies started the game, but were benched after less than six minutes and did not return until midway through the third.
Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy wants effort and intensity and urgency from his young players. But that’s not what he got in the first quarter of the Jazz’s 131-102 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night.
After the Clippers had run up a 26-7 lead over the Jazz midway through the opening period, Hardy subbed out four of the Jazz’s five starters — Collin Sexton, Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks and Brice Sensabaugh — leaving only Ömer Yurtseven on the court with the incoming bench players.
Some poor defense, bad fouls, ugly shot selection early in the shot clock, slow recovery and a lax approach overall was enough for Hardy to leave his three rookies watching from the sideline through the rest of the first quarter, the entirety of the second quarter and giving a different group a shot at starting the second half.
George subbed back into the game with 8:21 on the game clock in the third quarter. Sensabaugh and Hendricks came in with three minutes left in the third.
“There are a lot of different methods to teach, there are a lot of different methods to hold people accountable, and we’ve cycled through a bunch of those methods,” Hardy said. “Sometimes minutes are the only thing that will reveal to you what needs to be done. And that’s not meant in a malicious way. I love every person in that locker room … but we’ve got to begin to learn and adapt and there are certain things that being young is not an excuse for.”
The Jazz trailed by as many as 38 points in the loss to the Clippers and it was a rough night for the rookies. The silver lining was the debut of both Darius Bazley and Kenneth Lofton Jr. for the Jazz, and both showed some versatility in their minutes, especially Bazley. Lofton and Bazley, along with Kris Dunn, Talen Horton-Tucker and two-way players Johnny Juzang, Micah Potter and Jason Preston, gave Hardy what he was looking for.
It wasn’t about scoring. Hardy was looking for sound fundamental play despite the numbers on the scoreboard.
“The habits that we want built are generally the things that you would think are unimportant or small,” Hardy said. “Do I space correctly? Do I sprint the floor both ways? Do I crash the glass when I’m supposed to crash? Do I cut when I’m supposed to cut? Do I sprint back on defense? Do I communicate the coverage? Can I execute the coverage? Can I get my matchup? Am I physical? Am I playing as hard as humanly possible on every possession? It has nothing to do with making and missing a shot.”
Hardy had taken a timeout early in the first quarter, and mentioned that the first group on the floor had a chance to correct their mistakes and adapt to how well the Clippers were playing. But when the players didn’t make adjustments Hardy wanted to see, he took them out.
Bazley and Lofton had been playing with the SLC Stars since the Jazz had signed them back in early March. Now that the Stars season has wrapped up, they’ve joined the Jazz on the road.
Lofton played just 12 minutes on Friday, showing flashes of scoring versatility and energy. Bazley played a team-high 34 minutes in his debut, scoring 12 points to go with six rebounds, three steals and a block.
“I thought Baze was great,” Hardy said. “His energy, his athleticism, moving his feet defensively, his length really stood out. I thought the switching was really good with him on defense and offensively, he showed the ability to put the ball on the floor and play versus a close out, get the ball to the second side. He was sort of a secondary playmaker for us a little bit. I thought both of those guys represented themselves very well tonight.”
As the Jazz head into an unsure offseason and are still trying to find diamonds in the rough, it’s players like Bazely and Lofton that could end up sticking and getting a closer look on the 2024-25 roster.
