The Utah Jazz will lean on their Rising Star rookie more after the All-Star break

Keyonte George carries the screenshot of his most unfavorable scouting report everywhere he goes.

Occasionally, the rookie Utah Jazz point guard will pull it up and look at it. It serves as a reminder to never relinquish the chip on his shoulder. The moment he does, the edge that’s gotten him this far is gone.

The words on the screen fuel who he wants to be as a player. At the same time, he’ll forever remain confident that he’s going to get there, whether or not that report exists.

“My approach to the game got a lot more intentional seeing stuff like that,” George told The Athletic in a lengthy interview. “They always tell us to stay off social media. But we’re young people. We’re going to look at that stuff. It’s how you take the criticism and go about it.

“Stuff like that charges my battery. I have to go about being intentional every day in what I do.”

Cloaked in green, adorned with easy-to-read white letters that alternated between capital and lowercase, the scouting report is clear. And the buzzwords, well, they hit like a buzz.

“WEAKNESSES,” the report says.

3-point consistency/Shot selection/Passing/turnovers

George’s field-goal percentage in his one college season at Baylor sticks out: 37.6%. He averaged 2.8 assists per game as a freshman in college. His professional comparison in that scouting report — current Jazz teammate Jordan Clarkson — is humorous and ironic, especially now that George and Clarkson have become close on and off the court. But the connotation is clear and not so funny. That report thought of George as no more than a sixth man at the NBA level. It’s one of the reasons the Jazz were able to draft George at No. 16 last June when, at the start of the draft cycle, he was widely thought of as a top-10 talent.

Friday night, George was set to participate in the Rising Stars showcase at NBA All-Star Weekend, representing the Jazz as their starting point guard.

Why was he given that position after starting for a portion of the early season then coming off the bench for essentially all of January?

“It was time,” Utah coach Will Hardy said. “He’s very talented. He plays well with the rest of the guys in our starting unit. We just thought it was time to put him back in the lineup.”

Nearly three quarters through a rookie year with ups and downs, we know multiple things about George. He’s immensely talented and blessed with rare skill as an offensive weapon. At 20, he’s wise and mature beyond his years in a number of ways. He hasn’t been negatively phased by being on an NBA court for one second. This is a guy who started on his high school varsity team as a freshman and dropped 20 points a night, someone who also was thought of as one of the 10 best high school players in the class of 2022. Every moment he’s been on an NBA court, whether good or bad, George has known he belongs.

That confidence, that maturity, has gotten him to where he is. George has been one of the best rookies in the league this season. He’s affected Utah’s bottom line of winning and losing. He’s had games where you can see just how talented he is, with Thursday’s career-high 33-point, six-assist showing against Golden State — which included an NBA single-game rookie record nine 3s — being the most recent. He’s also had struggles that lead to questions about what he ultimately can be in the league.

What we know without question is that George is an every-night rotation-level NBA player. His ability to get to the basket and into the lane, make shots and become a point guard in this league have made him a prize pick in the middle of the first round. But the Jazz want to know where his ceiling lies and where his canvas can be and needs to be filled.

His outcomes are still a little all over the place. But George’s spot in the Rising Stars event? He’s earned that.

He has star potential. You can see a consistent 20- to 25-points-per-game scorer lurking inside, especially on that one night in December where he dropped 30 on the Oklahoma City Thunder. You can see a world where he tops out as a consistent starting-level point guard but falls short of star status. Some of his struggles in January told the story of a potential — gulp — sixth or seventh man.

What’s important for the Jazz is that they know. That’s why, if you are a Jazz fan, you should expect George to play more minutes down the stretch of this season and to be given more responsibility. In some ways, his offensive aggression has been muted some, as he’s been naturally deferential because of his rookie status. In other ways, when you see him directing traffic on the court and running an offense, you see the maturity and the “it” factor that almost every player has to possess to develop into a star.

“There are a lot of times where he’ll do something in a game or in practice where it kind of stands out,” Clarkson said. “I just try and help him along with the process. If we’re on the bench together, we talk about what’s happening in the game. A lot of times before games, we’ll be in the back, and we’ll talk about that night.”

George said the 31-year-old Clarkson is more than just a veteran.

“He’s someone I look at like a close friend,” George said. “I know he’s always going to look out for me. The thing I have learned from him is that it’s important to be effective in all of your minutes. If I play 30 minutes, I want to be effective in all 30. He gives me tips like how to score the ball. He can make every move and every shot, and that has a lot of value.”

The Jazz know they have a star in Lauri Markkanen, and he’s expected to be a foundational piece going forward. They know George is a piece, but they don’t know what kind of piece. Is he also a star? Or is he someone who will play a more complementary role going forward? That, in part, is what the last stretch of the season will help determine. Similar to what the Jazz are doing with rookie lottery pick Taylor Hendricks, the home stretch with George is going to be about fact-finding, putting him in positions where he has responsibility and collecting data.

George is further along than Hendricks, and he already possesses the skill set of a guy who can make a real NBA impact offensively. George is averaging better than 11 points per night, and he’s also displayed passing chops that, frankly, he didn’t display much at any level before the NBA. He’s a terrific pick-and-roll player. He makes shots. With Kelly Olynyk now in Toronto, there’s a real argument George is the best passer on Utah’s roster.

“What I know that I need to do is to keep stacking days,” George said. “I need to take it day by day. I need to stay in the gym. I need to be the best version of myself every day. That’s something that I always believe in, and it’s something that I know is within my control.”

That might be his single-biggest skill right now. George is a worker. Last season at Baylor, he topped out at 230 pounds. That, and him playing out of position at small forward for much of the season, affected his draft stock. But George recognized the flaw, got into the gym and lost 30 pounds before his pro day, which he aced.

“I did a lot of cardio,” George said. “A lot of the credit goes to the people around me. I knew I had to get into better shape. We lost early (in the NCAA Tournament). I had almost two months, so I changed my eating habits. I stopped snacking. I knew I had to slim down and get my core right. I was super locked in on my body. I was walking, running. I was trying to do anything active I could to burn fat. Now, I’m just maintaining.”

On Friday, George was on a big stage. All-Star Weekend, no matter what capacity, is a big accomplishment. What George and the Jazz would love is for the success he’s enjoyed to this point to serve as a catapult to the remainder of the season.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.