The Utah Jazz have to decide if winning is more important than development

The Utah Jazz need to decide now if the focus is on winning or not, to avoid raising fans’ hopes too high.

The Utah Jazz may not be able to develop their players and win at the same time. That’s the cold reality of the NBA and pro sports; it’s rarely if ever possible, to both build a contender and develop players simultaneously. The Utah Jazz have three rookies and two second-year players who are all the rage right now, but those five, coupled with half-court liabilities like Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson, may prove to be too much for the team to focus on.

And the players, they want to win. That’s what everyone is saying to the media. In fact, for many, it’s “playoffs or bust”. Star player Lauri Markkanen told KSL;

"That’s really one thing that I’m looking forward to, getting on that stage (playoffs) and really experiencing that. …That’s the goal. That’s what we’re trying to work towards."

Fellow big, Kelly Olynyk, believes the team is ready to go, but admits if they can’t finish in the top 10 then the team may need to rethink things;

"The playoffs are 10 teams or whatever (counting the play-in teams),” Kelly Olynyk said. “So if you can’t make it there then we have to work to do."

Olynyk then talks about how the younger players are being incorporated into everything;

"We had some younger guys (last season) who were here that worked hard, but they weren’t really in the mix in the beginning. Now we have a lot of young guys who are in the mix trying to figure out what positions and roles and definition, and we have a couple of guys who kind of know what they have to do. So it’s kind of flip flopped a little bit."

Even head coach Will Hardy believes that winning is the goal;

"That doesn’t mean that we’re not trying to win every night. We’re going to come at the season like we did last year with a really high competitive spirit, and we’re trying to win every night. Whether that results in us making the playoffs or play-in, so on and so forth, we’ll find out."

And if all that is how they feel, then why focus so much on players like Keyonte George? George is going to be an interesting player to watch and his minutes should come, but there is no rhyme or reason to justify playing six guards against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday. It makes more sense if you have a Luka Doncic, Ben Simmons-sized point guard, someone who could double as a forward if need be; but the Jazz don’t.

The largest of the six guards they played, Ochai Agbaji, is only 6’5.

And that lack of size for five of their players was a huge detriment to them.

Now, if the goal is to get George minutes, then either trade (or release) someone so they can actually get minutes. There’s no reason to have five (not including Agbaji) guards who have similar skill sets to one another, and not shoehorn George into a role just to get him on the court.

Either clear room for him, or put the four best guards out there.

Realistically, the Jazz could play Jordan Clarkson, Kris Dunn, and Ochai Agbaji for most of the game. The team was always deep at guard but maybe it’s too deep. Which admittedly is an odd thing to say but Hardy’s desire to run a 10-player rotation just means the guards will have an even harder time breaking out from the pack.

Fans want to see this club win, and if the goal is to give minutes to George on top of five other guards, it’s hard to see that as a winning formula. And if this team continually struggles as they did against the Sacramento Kings and nothing is done about it, then fans are going to get upset.

Let’s avoid that and just be honest about what direction this club is going in because shoehorning (which is the issue) George into a 10-man rotation just seems like a decision that lacks foresight.