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Game Thread Oct 31, 2025 08:00PM MT: Utah Jazz @ Phoenix Suns

Added to Calendar: 10-31-25

I wonder what has happened to the big-to-big passing that was great in the first few games of this season? It feels like the great chemistry between Walker, Lauri and Flip has sort of disappeared... but I'm not really able to pinpoint whether its movement, vision or decission making that has gone worse... or have our opponents started to defend that area better.
 
I'm not done.

Forcing Kessler to defend PnR's far from the basket is his kryptonite (and that's why every team is doing it). It's year 4 and he still isn't close to being able to recover back to the paint in time. Just doesn't have the body for moving like that. When Walker finds himself on the perimeter, it's over.

I seem to have overreacted to Walt looking momentarily decent. He's been *** since then. The constant freelancing (I'm using the nicest word I could think of) in team defense is probably making Hardy crazy. WCJ is like Kris Dunn without the steals or ability to bother ballhandlers. For a four year college player, WCJ's terrible awareness guarding the perimeter is really troubling. He looked relaxed at first, now he just looks lackadaisical. And he's not in a position to look lackadaisical. Wouldn't be shocked to find him in the doghouse soon.

Keyonte still can't / won't navigate screens properly at the point of attack. It's like he uses the presence of a screener as an excuse to quit on the play and make a big show of getting "stuck" while his guy is somewhere diving to the basket. It's really disappointing after he clearly improved his body.
 
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AJ Dybantsa plays his first real game on Monday against Villanova

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Hendricks getting so few minutes just seems kind of stupid.

1. Yes, he's extremely bad currently
2. The main reason he's bad is because he can't defend but he's gotten basically zero important defensive reps in his entire life so that probably contributes.
 
nateboz said:
I wish Bryce was better defensively, he could be starting.
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I wish I was a millionaire.

HermanG said:
... or have our opponents started to defend that area better.
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Yes. Because, obviously, if you take that out, the Jazz don't have many more solutions.

HadAnEffectHere said:
Hendricks getting so few minutes just seems kind of stupid.

1. Yes, he's extremely bad currently
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-currently

Can anyone still remember when the Jazz had ALL the assets. Bragged about being able to trade for KD - twice! Now they've turned those assets into bad players, whose NBA futures are in doubt. Good job, I guess.
 
So disappointing to check out the box score and see the youngsters once again not being force fed minutes. At what point will the front office learn that you can't give Hardy other options or he is going to play them. I don't care how bad the youngsters are playing. This season is about being bad and giving them tons of minutes to go through growing pains.This is an epic draft so let's not **** around for even one minute.
 
It's hard to say "player development doesn't work like that" with Hendricks in particular simply because he's bad mostly because he doesn't know how to play perimeter defense and he's played 150 minutes of perimeter defense in his entire life that wasn't on the hard tanking 2022-2023 Jazz post trade deadline.

Maybe he's just a bad player, but he needs minutes in general to see if he can learn how to defend.

(Also, I don't think the 40 pounds the Jazz have had him put on since he was drafted has helped him even slightly)
 
sip said:
So disappointing to check out the box score and see the youngsters once again not being force fed minutes. At what point will the front office learn that you can't give Hardy other options or he is going to play them. I don't care how bad the youngsters are playing. This season is about being bad and giving them tons of minutes to go through growing pains.This is an epic draft so let's not **** around for even one minute.
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Im with ya. Hendricks, Brice, and Clayton should all play at least 15 minutes per game imo. I dont want to see Anderson out there at all. Its not like he is all that good anyways. If the goal is to win as many games as possible its not like he is amazing enough to have a large effect on winning anyways (he was a negative in plus/minus just like every player on the jazz not named Keyonte). Nurk is out there limiting Kesslers minutes with his 5 turnovers in 17 minutes and a minus 13. I get it to some extent if you have dudes like Collins and Sexton who could be starters on a lot of teams and are near all star level players (and of course Lauri). But we got rid of those dudes to play the young guys. Hopefully Niang doesn't start getting into the rotation soon as well. Smh.

On the other hand, maybe constantly messing with the rotations will result in a successful tank.
 
One thing you could argue is that we're trying to boost Lauri's trade value currently and Ace and Hendricks are such horrendous fits with Lauri (all three being PFs who can't dribble) that we'll start playing Ace and Hendricks more after Lauri gets traded.
 
sip said:
So disappointing to check out the box score and see the youngsters once again not being force fed minutes. At what point will the front office learn that you can't give Hardy other options or he is going to play them. I don't care how bad the youngsters are playing. This season is about being bad and giving them tons of minutes to go through growing pains.This is an epic draft so let's not **** around for even one minute.
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I agree, but only up to a point.

I fully believe that with Brice and Hendricks, in particular, there are a couple of doghouse issues that Hardy has. I'm guessing that Brice needs to show a couple of awareness-level issues on defense, for example. You can't just be an unaware turnstile.

Everybody should have been expecting Hendricks to need a ramp into more playing time.

As for last night, I'm 100% with someone like Kyle Anderson getting some burn if the team is just flat-out embarrassing itself.
 
NAOS_pt2 said:
I agree, but only up to a point.

I fully believe that with Brice and Hendricks, in particular, there are a couple of doghouse issues that Hardy has. I'm guessing that Brice needs to show a couple of awareness-level issues on defense, for example. You can't just be an unaware turnstile.

Everybody should have been expecting Hendricks to need a ramp into more playing time.

As for last night, I'm 100% with someone like Kyle Anderson getting some burn if the team is just flat-out embarrassing itself.
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This.

Hardy needs to continue to give the young guys minutes, but part of their development is holding them accountable. I have no problem with what happened last night
 
It's not just defense for Brice, he's not moving the ball well. He's already gotten in trouble with over dribbling when he acknowledged in the off-season that's not his game.

The doghouse strategy does work. Ace has already shown some ball movement improvement because he knows if just chucks he's probably coming out.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
This.

Hardy needs to continue to give the young guys minutes, but part of their development is holding them accountable. I have no problem with what happened last night
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Same, as long as Harkless is the one getting minutes.

I also don't mind Anderson starting moving forward (though Id rather start Harkless, I think he can do more on ball than he has been allowed to show). Flip playing out of position isn't great for him. It kind of feels like Walker Year 2 when the coaches kind of put him on the back-burner to a degree and wanted him to figure out how to contribute when he isn't a focal point.
 
I still believe in Walt, but it's to be expected a college guard who wasn't a true PG is going to struggle learning to be a NBA PG. Collier will help him out when he gets back by taking off the burden that is Collier's strength
 
Cody has looked better. He still does some laughable stuff and looks awkward. Still feel like he has another gear of speed that he just doesn't show because of how unsure he can be. He's probably the player I flip on during the most in my mind between "maybe he can be something and holy **** he's garbage"
 
Hendricks is just a bad basketball player right now. He has actually shown some decent touch around the rim, but he's one of the worst ballhandlers in the NBA and he can't even show whatever athleticism he does have when he has to dribble. If he never learns how to be active off ball, he's never going to amount to much.

And of course there is the caveat of him recovering from injury.
 
Saint Cy of JFC said:
Hendricks is just a bad basketball player right now. He has actually shown some decent touch around the rim, but he's one of the worst ballhandlers in the NBA and he can't even show whatever athleticism he does have when he has to dribble. If he never learns how to be active off ball, he's never going to amount to much.

And of course there is the caveat of him recovering from injury.
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I mean, sure, he's a total zero on offense, but he needs to learn how to defend and dribble to be a viable NBA player. The dribbling probably won't come from NBA reps, but the defense probably does need NBA minutes! The Jazz need to play him even though he sucks to help him learn how to defend or to see if he can't defend in the NBA and the Jazz have to move on from him.
 
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