With Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson, and John Collins all off the team, the Utah Jazz are now fully turning their attention to determining which of their young players should stay and which should go. One Jazz player in particular who will be heavily scrutinized is Keyonte George.
George was one of the Jazz's most exciting young players coming into last season, but he failed to take that step the Jazz hoped he would, which has made him go kind of unnoticed this offseason, in part because other Jazz youngsters like Ace Bailey and Kyle Filipowski look much more exciting as of now.
With Sexton and Clarkson out of the way, the Jazz are going to give a fairer shot to George than ever with nothing getting in the way of his minutes. Sure, they also have Isaiah Collier and Walter Clayton Jr., but they have a longer leash than George does because the latter will be up for an extension next summer.
George only technically had a better season because he had more usage, bur Utah gave him plenty of opportunities and he didn't exactly run with them. George has shown that he can go off, but has failed to maintain any consistency two years into his NBA career. While it's not like Utah should expect him to be their next franchise player, they should expect some progress next season.
Because if he doesn't show any, it's very likely that the Jazz will simply give up on him. They have a plethora of young players they need to develop to see if they are worth keeping around. George showed enough in his rookie year for Utah to give him the keys, but he failed to capitalize on it.
Will George start or come off the bench?
When it became clear that Collier was the better option for Utah to run its offense more smoothly, George was relegated to more of a sixth-man role. That didn't exactly change much in terms of his overall production, so it raises the question of whether the Jazz will put him back in the starting lineup or have him serve as a long-term replacement for Clarkson.
George's inefficiency as a scorer, when that's his calling card, limits his ceiling. If he can get better at that part of his game, that could be enough to pencil him in as a starter. The other problem is his lackluster defense. George already has enough problems being undersized, but because teams will pick on him for that, he'll need to prove he won't be that easy to take advantage of.
Even if George can rebound well in Year 3 with the Jazz as a scorer, what many should be paying attention to is his all-around game. That could be the difference between whether he gets the starting nod or if he becomes the new Sixth Man.
If he fails to do either, that could bad implications for his future with the Jazz and the NBA in general.