After underperforming season, Cody Williams gave the Jazz something they needed

Cody Williams made himself stand out during the Utah Jazz's Summer League. Williams looked confident, aggressive, decisive, and composed during their time in Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. While it's not necessarily a turning point, Williams gave the Jazz something they needed after his underwhelming rookie season: hope.

Williams' rookie season was inarguably a disaster. That horse has been beaten to death by anyone who watched the Jazz this season, so he definitely had something to prove this summer. He may not have been the Jazz's biggest standout - he may not have even been the second-biggest, for that matter - but he proved that it's way too early to write him off.

With his Las Vegas performance overall, Williams showcased why the Jazz rolled the dice with him. All in all, he looked like the jack-of-all-trades wing Utah had in mind when they picked him at No. 10 last year. On both sides of the floor, he looked so much better out there.

Are the warts still there? Of course they are. Williams still lost the ball in embarrassing fashion multiple times, and the stupefying airballs are still very much a thing for the young Jazzman, so much so that Williams simultaneously proved that he had improved but there's still a ways to go.

The biggest problem for Williams in his rookie year was that he often felt invisible on the court. It didn't feel like he was doing anything. And when he was given opportunities to show what he could do, he lacked the confidence to go right ahead. Make no mistake, Utah gave him chances throughout the season to figure himself out, and it never quite happened.

Watching him put on the show he did in Summer League is exacvtly what both he and the Jazz needed. While it wasn't like he was bad during last year's Summer League, Williams does look different, and in a good way for Utah.

He talked about how his training regimen has changed since his rookie year, and to start, it looks like it has paid off. It won't erase how bad last year went for him, but it will give the Jazz hope that he can figure out his niche in the NBA.

Now he needs to prove it on a bigger level

One may think Williams proving himself on a stage where it counts for pretty much nothing ultimately doesn't mean anything for his career. Sure, Summer League doesn't truly measure how good an NBA player can be, but if Williams' bad rookie season extended into Summer League this year, that would have been a problem.

The fact that it wasn't shows that he certainly isn't a lost cause, but it also shows he's not out of the woods. The next check on his to-do list is to prove that he can keep this up in the preseason. While he'll make the team anyway, there are some starting jobs very much up for grabs this coming season. If Williams continues to impress, he might work his way back into being a starter again.

Maybe it's baby steps for Williams right now, but after the concerningly little he showed his rookie season, the hype train isn't necessarily going at full speed, but the wheels are turning again thanks to Summer League, and that's exactly what the Jazz needed to see.