If you thought Taylor Hendricks was going to tear it up in the G-League, you're probably going to be very sad about the truth of the situation. Being the Utah Jazz's top pick, ninth overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, Hendricks has not only failed to make the rotation or starting lineup out of camp as many expected, but he's now struggling to find success in the G-League.
The highly touted, uber-athletic forward is struggling to find his way with the Utah Jazz G-League affiliate, the Utah Stars. Hendricks has not been an impactful player for the squad, averaging just 13.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists (but 2.0 blocks), all in just 26.4 minutes per game.
And if that wasn't bad enough, he's doing it all on subpar shooting splits. Hendricks, so far for the G-League club, his shooting splits are just .418/.357/.778. He's got a great three-point shot for a man in his posititon, that's not untrue, but he's struggling to make your more standard two-pointer. And as he's a lob threat with supposedly great skills to score inside, that's concerning.
He's also turning the ball over a lot for a non-ball-handler, putting it on the floor more than twice a game.
That said, he's having a decent defensive outing. He's putting up a defensive rating of 117.8; not spectacular, but not terrible. After all, Jordan Clarkson is putting up a 124.7 currently. He's got a lot of room to grow but it's possible he does just that, but he's got to start playing better against the more subpar competition.
He's got so much potential but if he's not able to dominate the G-League talent, then what hope does he have in improving the Utah Jazz? He's a key piece of the Jazz's future and while yes, it's only been five games, it's five games after the fact that he already didn't do enough to make the Jazz in the first place.
So clearly he's not having a good rookie year, or he'd be playing serious minutes for the NBA, not the G-Legaue.