In the wake of the Utah Jazz's Monday night loss to the Dallas Mavericks, much of the focus has been on the immediate and long-term health of 2nd year forward Taylor Hendricks, and rightly so. The young man will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season due to injury and faces a long road to recovery.
However, as they say at the circus, the show must go on. And the Jazz now have to pivot, being down a starting forward in Hendricks, who played decent defense and was doing some nice things on the floor, including helping to force Luka Doncic into a rough shooting night before the injury.
There are multiple options available to Head Coach Will Hardy. Moving Lauri Markkanen to the 3 is a possibility, even though he seems to play his best at the 4 spot.
Putting Jordan Clarkson or John Collins back in the starting 5 would be the "veteran move", but the defensive optics of either starting long-term outweigh any benefits.
Rookie Cody Williams is likely to get a look as a starter. He has length and defensive potential that could translate at the 3, but his lack of strength (190 pounds) would leave him exposed against stronger players.
Brice Sensabaugh, the 2nd year swingman, has enough bulk to play as a forward, but his ghastly shooting thus far would be on full display with a bigger role (38.9% from the field and 29.5% from deep in 35 career games). And his defense hasn't been pretty either.
Another rookie, Kyle Filipowski, could see a 'starter' role at the 4, similar to Omer Yurtseven's short-minute stints a year ago, getting 15-20 minutes and letting Will Hardy work other players behind him for depth. This would allow Markkanen to play at the 3 and be on the perimeter more often.
Putting Svi Mykhailiuk into the lineup at the small forward spot would allow the Jazz to have a good three-point shooter aside Markkanen, George, and Sexton, with Kessler the only non-shooter in that lineup. Defensively, it would be an uphill battle to have him chase guys on the perimeter, but his experience would be valuable compared to that of a rookie in the lineup.
And finally, the Jazz do have the option to make a roster move, bringing someone new in to provide short-term depth while the young guys get their feet. If the Jazz had a veteran forward to get them into January or February.
Someone like Reggie Bullock (formerly of Dallas) or Jalen McDaniels (formerly of the Toronto Raptors) could slot in and provide minutes either as a starter or off the bench. Or even a guy from last year's team - Kenneth Lofton Jr., might be worth a 2nd look.
We will see how this plays out in the coming week or two. It's likely we will see more changes as Hardy finds out what works and what doesn't moving forward.