The Triple Team: How a blunt conversation with a young Utah Jazz player has led to a surprising start to the season

Three thoughts on the first week of the regular season from Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. This is what “not tanking” looks like

During the summer, I asked Will Hardy if he was excited to coach the Jazz this season, given president of basketball operations Austin Ainge’s declaration that the team wouldn’t be tanking.

“Very, very,” was Hardy’s two-word answer.

You see why through the season’s first week. This Jazz team looks significantly more competitive than last year’s version.

First, the team’s offense is a thing of beauty: It’s nearly entirely off-ball actions for Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler, and Kyle Filipowski, the Jazz’s three most efficient scorers. Over and over again, they run this off-ball stuff that gets defenders having to make choices.

One example: Suns center Oso Ighodaro is hedging way back to prevent any over-the-top passes from Filipowski to either Svi Mykhailiuk or Kessler inside. All of a sudden, though, Kessler now screens for Markkanen, who now has an open three.

And even if that didn’t work, even if Markkanen had been defended well, there’s Kessler open for a quick pass as he rolls to the rim.

We’ve seen that style of offense from the Jazz before, with the Kelly Olynyk 2023 team. That’s also the most competitive we’ve seen this era of the Jazz, and that’s not a coincidence.

Most impressive to me, though, has been the defensive effort.

Guys who were previously defensive non-entities are now significantly contributing on that side of the ball. Keyonte George’s effort is night and day from what he gave for most of last season. Brice Sensabaugh has visibly slimmed down and competes more on that end.

One contributing factor: The Jazz are being much more schematically aggressive than they were last season. On many screens, they’re having Kessler jump up higher to defend the point of attack, trying to force the ballhandler into passing. Then, the team has multiple defenders in the paint to prevent the easy basket at the rim.

Look how low Sensabaugh is on this play, for example.

This makes it really tough to play “lazy” defense. The system is just asking for much more aggression than before. The Suns were able to find a good amount of open threes, though, and I suspect we continue to see dangerous 3-point shooting teams take advantage.

Still, the Jazz this year have been legitimately fun to watch. Hardy, unshackled from the demands of tanking, appears to be a very good coach.

2. Keyonte George’s maturation

The strongest positive surprise of this first week has undoubtedly been George’s play. While the shooting numbers haven’t been awesome, I think literally every other aspect of his game has been a significant improvement from last season, when Hardy benched him in favor of the rookie Isaiah Collier.

George was asked about why his game has matured going into his third season.

“I credit, you know, Danny (Ainge), JZ (Justin Zanik), Austin (Ainge), Will (Hardy). My exit interview, it was pretty blunt,” George said.

What did they say? “It basically was about — you know, it’s time to grow up," George said.

By all accounts, George has led the Jazz’s offseason work, helping to organize the team’s training sessions. He’s also made an effort to hang out with Markkanen more, including in Finland.

His on-court approach right now is so much better because he’s calling his own number less and less. Instead, he said, his job is to “put the ball in our playmakers’ hands, whether it’s Lauri, Walker, Brice, or anybody. And then that’s when I can go get a layup every now and then, or make an open shot.”

There were moments in the Sacramento game when he still probably looked to do too much himself, including on the game’s final play. But in just as important a situation in the team’s very next game, he redeemed himself with some terrific decisions against Phoenix.

If it continues, he’s a legitimate piece of the Jazz’s core moving forward. That was at question in parts of last year. Now, he’s finding success by creating it for others. A terrific, incredibly encouraging start to the season for George.

3. Ace Bailey and the team’s future

If you had told me the Jazz’s fun level was this high to begin the year, I would have guessed it was because of Ace Bailey. Bailey, the Jazz’s highest-drafted prospect since Dante Exum 11 years ago, had a brilliant preseason before missing several days due to an illness.

First of all, it’s clear that the illness has affected Bailey on the court. He’s been visibly winded in the three games so far, even in shorter 4-5 minute stints.

Whether it’s due to that, or simply rookie inexperience, Bailey hasn’t reliably rotated in the Jazz’s defensive scheme, which has made the Jazz’s defense much more friendly with him in the game. He was a minus-15 in both the loss to Sacramento and the win against Phoenix, both in 13 minutes of play.

The offense has also been inconsistent. He’s clearly trying to walk the line of fitting into a team construct while showing off his best attribute, scoring the ball. I give him credit, frankly, for considering the former — there are plenty of rookies who would have simply said, “My goal is to be Rookie of the Year, and I’m going to take 20 shots per game until I am.”

Hardy is going to keep the leash relatively tight on Bailey until he begins doing those things, or until the games are uncompetitive enough in other aspects that the Jazz are losing them and it doesn’t really matter.

Until then, it’s going to continue to frustrate the fans who have longer-term priorities. It would actually be a shame if the Jazz skipped out on good odds at both Victor Wembanyama and the Darryn Peterson/A.J. Dybantsa/Cameron Boozer trio in their respective draft classes, potentially capping the potential of their rebuild.

I’m sympathetic to that concern — but I also think it’s way too soon to matter, and I do think there are benefits to being competitive early. I don’t think the Jazz will start this season 10-3 like that 2023 team did. If they win out next week, though, we’ll revisit this point again.