Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George had a rough go of it in his second year, and well-renowned NBA analyst Zach Lowe went into good detail for what went wrong. However, Lowe's harsh words on George should make Jazz fans cautiously optimistic going forward.
Lowe delved into why there are some who believe in George's potential but also explained why the young Jazzman's future is a little more uncertain after Year 2.
"George will do stuff on an NBA floor. We were like, that's an NBA pass right there... a left-handed laser beam pass into the lane," Lowe said on "The Zach Lowe Show." "But he's just been so bad defensively and hasn't been able to shoot it well enough that you're like, what is this amounting to? And what it amounted to this year was that he got demoted to the second unit halfway through the season or whatever."
Nothing that Lowe says here is wrong, and in fact, it adds more fuel to the doubts surrounding George. If that's not enough, there's been intel about how disconnected he is compared to the other Jazz players on the team, which only makes him look worse.
Both the Jazz and George have plenty of time to figure out what he's made of long-term. However, he came into the season with many believing he was going to take another step, and that never came. From a superstitious point of view, however, Jazz fans should be more optimistic about George following Lowe's words.
The last time Lowe trashed a Jazzman, they bounced back!
Lowe has harshly criticized current Jazzmen on the roster. In fact, before the season started, he talked about how John Collins had negative trade value following Collins' disastrous first year in Utah. Again, Lowe wasn't wrong about that, but look what happened right after that.
Collins bounced back so well to the point that the Jazz had a deal in place to send him to Sacramento that fell apart for reasons that had nothing to do with Collins or the Jazz. With the season over, Collins did a 180 in Utah that regardless of how his time ends with the team, there will be no hard feelings.
Is it just a coincidence that Collins had a much better season shortly after Lowe harshly criticized him? Yes, it is, but now that George has gotten the same criticism, perhaps this is the push George needs to get back on track.
For all the justified criticism George got throughout the 2024-25 season, it's easy to see why he had such believers going in. He could be the next great Jazz scoring guard they've lacked since Donovan Mitchell. Even the greats had stutter steps, and while George hasn't proven himself great, it's possible everyone will look back on last season as just that stutter step to take the next step.
The Jazz don't have much to lose in their efforts to develop George, so maybe, just maybe, after Lowe's remarks, Year 3 will feature his real leap.