There doesn't seem to be as much hype around Isaiah Collier as there is around some of the other young Utah Jazz players. Even though he broke a Jazz franchise rookie record previously held by John Stockton, there doesn't seem to be as much excitement about Collier. That can be attributed to one reason: his inability to shoot.
Collier's progression over the course of his rookie season wasn't something to brush aside. While it's not like Utah miraculously started winning more games once they replaced Keyonte George with him in the starting lineup, the offense flowed more smoothly with Collier, given his playmaking proved to be excellent.
However, this season is a whole new season. Now, Collier not only faces competition from a new version of Keyonte George but also has Walter Clayton Jr. to compete with. Sure, there's no more Collin Sexton or Jordan Clarkson, but now Collier will be even more under the microscope.
Which only puts more pressure on him to improve as a floor-spacer. Teams will dare Collier to beat them with his jumper now that there's more footage of what he can do as a player. Shooting slightly under 25% from three will only stand out more like a sore thumb, especially when the Jazz decide that it's time to win some games.
If Collier turns a corner in that department, that could be all it takes to convince Utah that he is a key cog in the Jazz's future. For some players who had similar issues early on, they managed to turn the corner, but for others, nothing changed no matter how hard they tried.
Collier's jumper showed some progress last season
Some is the operative word here. Collier's shooting splits when he first started his NBA career were dreadful. That's why it's no coincidence that as he showed improvement, Utah started depending on him more as it went on.
By the end of the calendar year of 2024, Collier's splits were 32.3% from the field and 16.7% from three. Epic yikes. However, they got better once 2025 rolled around. Those splits went up to 44.2% from the field and 27.1% from three.
Not only was the sample size larger, but his shooting splits went from downright hopeless to... just a little underwhelming. Improving from putrid is a good sign of improvement. Now it's a matter of hoping that's not where it stops.
It's not like the Jazz will count on Collier the same way they are with Lauri Markkanen or will with Ace Bailey. However, once they have their franchise cornerstones, it's easy to see how much tougher they will be to beat if Collier adds a jumper to his arsenal.