Picking the starting point guard now for the Utah Jazz is short-sighted.
Who should start at point guard for the Utah Jazz? Kris Dunn, the defensive-minded passer? Collin Sexton, the mid-range mauler? Jordan Clarkson, the team’s second-best scorer? Keyonte George, the team’s youthful and super-athletic rookie? Talen Horton-Tucker, the…no, not Horton Tucker. Stop that train of thought there.
Realistically, the Jazz do have three realistic options at point guard, four if you can’t Clarkson. Personally, Clarkson doesn’t make as much sense to start at this point, considering you’d then still need to fill the hole at shooting guard, and frankly, the Jazz may be better off starting Dunn and Clarkson at the guards than say, Clarkson and Ochai Agbaji.
So that means that Sexton, Dunn, and George are your most realistic candidates. Sexton is your best option if you want a pure scorer, Dunn if you want a pure passer and defender, and George if you’re more worried about seeing what the new rookies can do.
All three are options but none of the three can truly say they have the reigns for the job, at least not yet. The candidates have to play with the other four starters to see if they have styles that mesh with the rest of the core. Saying that a guy like George, who played six games this Summer League and only impressed in two, is the guy who should start is short-sighted.
George looked played in two leagues this summer, one in Salt Lake hosted by the Jazz, the other was of course the NBA Summer League. George looked rough in the first few games out in Utah but looked much better when the team went to Las Vegas.
And George looked really good. But two games against G-Leaguers isn’t a sign that he’s everything you expect him to be. Outside of baseball, no sport is harder to predict a rookie’s progression than basketball, but yet, so many people want to draw conclusions; two games aren’t enough to warrant starting George.
The Jazz have to go to camp with the focus on finding the best fit. Right now, on paper, that’s Dunn, but it could be Sexton, it could be Clarkson, it could be George or it could be Johnny Juzang for all we know. We have to let the training camp and preseason portions of the schedule play out before we talk about who really should be starting.
Taking a blind risk isn’t going to do anyone any good.