Keyonte George's disaster Jazz performance vs. Rockets show why he's a keeper

The Utah Jazz just suffered their most embarrassing loss of the season since losing by 40 to the Minnesota Timberwolves three weeks ago. The Houston Rockets beat the living crap out of them, winning 129-101. At the center of the Jazz's problems was Keyonte George, who had his worst game of the season. However, him playing that badly further proves why the Jazz must keep him.

When it was all said and done, George put up a goose egg in the points colum to go with eight turnovers and a team-worst plus-minus of minus-27. Was it just an off game for George? Yes, but he was also questionable coming into the game because of an illness.

It was pretty clear how much the Jazz struggles were because he was clearly not himself. When the Rockets started pulling away in the second quarter because the Jazz couldn't stop coughing up the ball, George was responsible for two of their costly turnovers that sealed Utah's fate against Houston.

While George isn't entirely responsible for the loss, he is primarily responsible for how it went down, from what may have been the worst performance of his career. However, with how badly Utah lost, it also shows how important George is to the Jazz's (limited) success. When he plays with a clean bill of health, Utah has a shot, and when he doesn't, games like today's happen.

George's ascension has been on full display since Opening Night for the Jazz. When the Jazz don't have the ascended version of George playing, it leads to a curb-stomping at home, demonstrating how badly they need him when he's healthy.

Most of all, this all further solidifies that the Jazz's best choice with George is re-signing him when they get the chance. Utah may have played games with Walker Kessler this past offseason, but George clearly demonstrated how important he is to winning, which shows they should not do the same thing with him.

However, something else is very apparent from games like today.

If you're sick, don't play!

Hopefully, no one gets the wrong impression from George's play. This was undoubtedly a downright terrible performance, but it was the exception, not the norm. It was also pretty cool that George made the effort to be available despite being sick.

However, it was clear his play was hurting the Jazz as a team. It's not a coincidence he put up his worst statline as he was getting over an illness that was bad enough that his game status was in jeopardy before he got the go-ahead.

So, as awesome as it is to see one of the Jazz's most important players fight through it, it was also clear he shouldn't have. It's not like Utah will have a problem with losing a game, especially if the odds weren't high anyway coming in (Houston's pretty good in case you guys didn't already know).

Luckily, George's health will improve from here and in little time, everyone will forget about today, but seriously, guys, when it's clear you need the day off, take the day off.