Will Hardy is as far from a Coach of the Year contender as the Utah Jazz are away from competing for the 2024 NBA Championship. The club has suffered time and time from his mismanagement, which has only gotten worse as the club has officially started the tank-athon portion of the season. Our very own Dan Lower recently highlighted how poorly Will Hardy handled the game against the Miami Heat, focusing on how he didn't use any of his timeouts for nearly eight-plus minutes of play. A really big mistake considering how the Heat were playing and the struggles the Jazz were having at times.
Now, you can point out that the Utah Jazz are *trying* to lose, and you'd be right. That is a new thing that the team is doing, so Hardy coasting his way through loss after loss isn't unexpected. It's also not new, however. Hardy hasn't had a good season at all through the 2023-2024 campaign, even when they were trying to win.
Keep in mind, the decision to tank only came last minute, allegedly, when the Jazz were unable to land the player they wanted. So that means prior to the deadline the Jazz were in fact coaching and playing to win games.
Yet Hardy made poor mistake after poor mistake. He forced Talen Horton-Tucker and Jordan Clarkson into the starting lineup and despite starting the season off worse than anyone expected, forced them to continue playing the same lineup despite its poor execution.
Then when the team started to find success, the Jazz opted to still play John Collins as a starter, despite his clear issues on defense that have held the team back. If that wasn't bad enough, he barely played Collin Sexton through the first chunk of the season, and considering how good he's been this season, that's even more damning.
There's also the constant starting and stopping on Walker Kessler, despite the second-year big continually being a high-energy guy for the club and a solid all-around player.
Hardy should absolutely be on the hot seat sooner rather than later, especially if guys like Taylor Hendricks and Keyonte George don't dramatically improve in season two. Hardy's on thin ice, or at the very least, should be after the season he's allowed to happen around him.