Report: Former Utah Jazz guard Rodney Hood refused to enter Game 4

Things have gone from bad to worse for former Utah Jazz guard/forward Rodney Hood since being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

As memorable as the 2017-18 season has been for Utah Jazz fans, it hasn’t exactly been a great one for former Jazzman Rodney Hood. Hood entered the year with the expectation of filling the scoring void left by the recently departed Gordon Hayward. It was presumed by many that he would become Utah’s next go-to guy.

However, rather than shine in that spotlight, he instead floundered. He was quickly replaced in the starting lineup by rookie sensation Donovan Mitchell. His inconsistent shooting was a reoccurring issue once again as was his seeming refusal to play within the Jazz’s system. Rather than move the ball and look for his teammates, Rodney was often guilty of over-dribbling and taking poor shots.

Then there was his unreliable defense, which is another matter entirely. In short, whether they were fair or not, Rodney Hood failed completely to live up to the expectations placed on him in Utah, which ultimately led to his frustration and a parting of ways between he and the Jazz. He was involved in a three-team trade that sent him to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Jae Crowder.

Crowder has had his ups and downs in Utah, particularly in the postseason where he’s fallen into some bad habits regarding shot selection, but overall he’s been a fabulous addition for the Jazz and has certainly played much better than he did in Cleveland.

Meanwhile, many fans thought that Hood would be able to thrive in Cleveland alongside LeBron James. With James demanding so much attention, it was figured that Hood would have ample opportunity to spot up for wide open threes on which he could burn the nets down, much like Kyle Korver has been able to do.

Unfortunately, things have once again tumbled quickly for Hood. Initially in the playoffs, Rodney Hood was in the starting lineup. However, after the Cavs fell in blowout fashion in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Indiana Pacers, Cleveland head coach Tyronn Lue opted to make a change and replaced Hood in the starting lineup with J.R. Smith.

Originally, Hood still received ample playing time as a reserve off the bench, but he continued to struggle mightily throughout both the series against the Pacers and the series against the Toronto Raptors. In the playoffs thus far, Hood is shooting under 40 percent from the field and an atrocious 13.3 percent from deep. He’s also been a minus-6.7 during his time on the court and, once again, I won’t even go into his defense or shot selection.

His poor play resulted in his playing time taking a complete dive in the final game against Indiana and his first three games against Toronto. In those contests, he averaged 11.5 minutes, 0.5 points per game, shot 11.1 percent from the field and didn’t make a 3-pointer in three attempts. He went scoreless in three of those four contests.

It’s pretty obvious that Hood has lost any sort of rhythm or confidence and it’s led to his impact absolutely plummeting. However, the situation reached rock-bottom in Monday’s Game 4 contest against the Raptors. Hood found himself out of the rotation during the game, replaced by Cedi Osman. This obviously didn’t sit well with Hood as reports have indicated that once the game was clearly out of reach for the Raptors and both teams were entering garbage time, Hood simply refused to enter the game.

Below is a link to the article from The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd describing the incident as well as a screenshot of the section regarding Rodney Hood courtesy of David Locke:

The obvious speculation is that Hood was upset about falling out of the rotation and felt disrespected to be asked to play in garbage time. That’s certainly an interesting take from someone who had played as poorly as Hood in the prior four games, but that’s where his decline this season has gotten him.

To me, this is reminiscent of his “I’m a starter” rant in his end-of-year interview with the Utah Jazz following the 2016-17 season in which he was moved to the bench behind Joe Ingles due to the fact that his play wasn’t representative of a starter whatsoever. This situation is obviously even worse, though, as Hood now finds himself out of the rotation, losing the respect of his teammates and with an attitude that might find him sidelined for the remainder of the playoffs.

As was mentioned in the above article, Hood should have relished the opportunity to get in the game, take advantage of low-pressure minutes and get back in a rhythm. Instead, he let his frustration and apparent poor attitude keep him sidelined.

Honestly, this is a real shame. Hood had so much potential and truly still does. To see him handle adversity this way is a bad look, especially considering that he will be a restricted free agent this summer. This news is sure to dramatically lessen his stock and could very well result in the Cavs letting him walk and few teams being willing to throw significant offers his way.

The refusal to play and the expectation for more minutes when he hasn’t proven at all worthy of such a reward is certainly going to be a red flag for potential suitors. I was wary of Hood’s attitude and lack of team-first mentality for quite some time while he played with the Jazz, and news like this only goes to further show why the Jazz were so willing to trade him.

I tend to agree with the Twitter user below that Hood was so focused on being a top option this season that he has forgotten how to be a good teammate  – a trait which would have ultimately made him more valuable than anything he could have achieved on his own.

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Quite frankly, I hope Hood gets this figured out and that he does so sooner rather than later. It might take signing with a new team and a new situation to do it, but perhaps his Cavaliers coaching staff and teammates can talk sense into him and get his head right sometime during their next series. For the Cavs to be at their best, they could really use the good version of Rodney Hood, if he still exists somewhere deep down.

For now, though, don’t be surprised to see his playing time continue to be next to nothing. And, sad though it may be, don’t expect the Jazz to feel regret about trading him away any time soon.