Will Hardy is getting a raw deal. Pretty much everyone around the NBA agrees that the Utah Jazz head coach is a talented young basketball mind, but the franchise has yet to give him a talented enough roster to try and win consistently. Hardy's career coaching record of 85-161 isn't pretty, but context is important here; Hardy has yet to coach a roster that is expected to compete in any meaningful way.
And while a rebuild is necessary for the Jazz, it's also a tough spot for Will Hardy to be in. We don't know how he would manage a team with high-level talent, and he won't get a chance to show his full chops as a coach for at least a few more years.
Developing young players while also losing consistently enough to secure high draft picks is a nearly impossible balancing act, and asking Hardy to do that isn't particularly fair to him.
Will Hardy shouldn't be the fall guy if Jazz continue to struggle
Rebuilding teams like to say they're willing to be patient... And then fire their head coach. Hardy is only 37 years old, which is a baby by NBA coaching standards. He's just beginning his NBA coaching journey, and he's been thrown to the wolves in his first three seasons.
If the Jazz believe Hardy's the guy to lead this team into an era of contention (and I haven't seen anything that would convince me otherwise) then Hardy needs to be assured that his coaching spot is safe. This team, despite adding Ace Bailey and some veteran talent, is nowhere near contention in the West, and they're not fooling anyone into thinking they want to win this year. They can't, in good faith, expect Hardy to win when they're clearly trying not to win.
And, as we've seen in the past, the head coach is often the fall guy when young teams play, you know, like young teams. There's nothing more ironic than a tanking team successfully tanking and then firing the tank commander for doing too good of a job.
I'm not sure what the magic number is for Hardy to stay in good standing with the organization; maybe it's not a team record, but individual player success. But as of right now — just like it often happens with young players in bad situations — Will Hardy's potential is being capped due to the circumstances the front office keeps putting him in.