Welcome To Jazz: Utah Jazz basketball Head Coach Will Hardy Announced The New Signing….

The second year Jazzman was one of the bright spots in SLC.

We’re a couple of weeks removed from Utah Jazz basketball, and it feels like a good time to go back and grade each Jazzman’s season. While nobody looks at a 51-loss season as some grand success, several players had promising individual campaigns, gave us flashes of a promising future, or some combination of both. Next up on our list is Collin Sexton.

If I could only pick one notable thing that happened from this Jazz season, my vote would be Collin Sexton’s breakout party. It’s hard to find the words to summarize Collin Sexton’s leap from the first handful of weeks of the season to the level he played from post-December. It was as stark of a turnaround as I’ve seen from a player during the season.

In the 59 games he played since December 1st, Collin averaged 20.9 points, 5.5 assists, and 2.7 rebounds on a blistering 49.8% on field goals, 40.5% on threes, & 86.1% from the free throw line. He cemented himself as the team’s second-best player and is comfortably among the top 100 in the league.

Still just 25 years old, I expect Sexton to come back even better next season, given his tireless work ethic and desire to improve. Jazz head coach Will Hardy talked about how valuable it is to have a guy with Collin’s persona around, improving the whole organization.

One of the best parts of Collin’s season was that he stayed healthy. Had it not been for an illness (and an organizational incentive to lose), we might’ve seen him suit up for all 82 games. Especially for guys with major knee surgeries, the further removed from those you can get without complications, the better. Giving Collin another summer with a clean bill of health to work on his game is nothing short of a huge positive.

To get nitpicky, Sexton’s decision-making still has some left to be desired. He is elite at getting downhill and finishing at the hoop, but unfortunately, there are still some playmaking blinders he’ll hopefully continue to address going forward. If he can pick his spots better and try to find Lauri Markkanen at a higher rate, the arrow will continue to look up.

I find it encouraging that he averaged a career-high 4.9 assists per game this year, a sign that his playmaking continues to improve. It’s worth noting that Sexton’s overall play took off once the Jazz stopped trying to saddle him with point guard duties. When he is allowed to play free and be himself, he’s very effective.

Anything less than an A wouldn’t be right for Sexton’s leap this year. ‘Young Bull’ has turned himself into an unquestionable positive and intriguing young piece for the Jazz. He represents nearly everything you want in a player and has embraced the Jazz.

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In the final interview of the season with Utah Jazz CEO Danny Ainge, the session started out with a question from broadcaster Craig Bolerjack. He asked Ainge what kind of players the Jazz needed, what attributes the Jazz were looking for. Ainge then posed the question back to Bolerjack. He wanted to know what Bolerjack thought the Jazz needed.

“I think obviously youth is one, athleticism would be another, length would be one, defending would be, I think another high level need or want. But I only call games and you get to solve the players,” he said with a laugh.

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Ainge wasn’t being confrontational at all. He wanted us all to understand that the problems with the Jazz, and the holes on the roster that we all see, are the correct ones.

“It was a good answer,” Ainge said. “You answered your own question. I tell my grandchildren that all the time, ‘You can answer that question.’”

On a bit of a deeper level, I think it’s obvious that the Jazz want to put together a team that is built for the playoffs, and that means getting players that are not one-dimensional. The Jazz don’t just want a player who is young and athletic, or another player who is long and a defense-first guy. They want every player to have all of those attributes. They want versatile players that will sustain long-term careers and make the team successful when the games really matter in the postseason.

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It’s what I’ve been thinking a lot about as I’ve been watching the first round of this year’s NBA playoffs. What works, and what doesn’t work?

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“Optionality of being able to do multiple things is a huge factor for me as you get to the playoffs,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “I just don’t think you can throw fast balls the whole playoffs and win. You have to be able to pivot to something else on both sides of the floor, because certain matchups give you different problems. We are building a foundation with our players of being able to switch their mindset in a game or before a game.”

So as we continue to move through the playoffs and we get nearer to the draft and free agency, it’s important to look at what players end up on the Jazz roster. We don’t have to try to talk ourselves into believing that a one-dimensional player will end up on the roster long term. There are going to be plenty of players over the next couple of years that are with the Jazz short term.

But, when the Jazz find players that fit the bill and really feel like they fill a need, one that we can all see and understand, those are the players that will stick and that the Jazz want.

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Now that the Utah Jazz offseason is officially upon us, it’s time to once again look for ways to fill the hole that Jazz games once occupied.

It probably is a little obvious to say that watching the playoffs is a great way to get a basketball fix, but it really is! More importantly, as I mentioned above, watching playoff basketball is really helpful when considering where the Jazz are in their rebuild.

The playoff matchups have been really exciting, and the second-round series between the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves, which kicks off on Saturday, is one that I can’t wait to watch. On a broad scale, the playoff games have reminded me of how far the Jazz are from being able to compete at the highest level.

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Think about how the results in the postseason will impact the Jazz. Do the Jazz have a player that could match up with some of the emerging stars in the Western Conference? Can the Jazz capitalize on some of the teams that were upset in the first round by making deals for players? What do the shakeups mean in terms of what could happen on draft night?

The NBA playoffs, in my opinion, are the best time of the year, and that’s not only because it’s the best basketball of the year. It’s also because everything that plays out during the playoffs impacts what happens for the upcoming season.