The Utah Jazz need one, and preferably both, to show that they have the potential to be an NBA star.
The Utah Jazz insist there isn’t any pressure on Ace Bailey or Taylor Hendricks this year. The front office and ownership are careful not to get too specific when talking about timelines and when the team might be able to really compete again.
But, if we’re being completely honest, there is a lot riding on the success of Bailey and Hendricks, and that success (or failure) is going to have a major impact on the Jazz’s rebuilding timeline. So, like it or not, the pressure is on.
“We’re not waiting on somebody to come and save us. You’re not waiting for somebody to come and walk through the door and, oh, now we’re good."
Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy
When Jazz owner Ryan Smith, president of basketball operations Austin Ainge, and head coach Will Hardy sat on the dais on media day this week, they all said exactly what they were supposed to say.
They don’t want to put any unnecessary pressure on these young players. Bailey just turned 19, they want to give him time to settle in and learn the ebbs and flows of the NBA. Hendricks is just coming back from a year off after a traumatic injury, there’s no pressure to be anything other than healthy and happy.
Again, it’s the right thing to say, but it isn’t exactly the whole truth.
Let’s imagine a world where Hendricks and Bailey turn out to be average NBA players. That would be really, really bad for the Jazz. It would mean that they came away from the 2023, 2024, and 2025 drafts with nine players and zero stars. At that point, the total future of the franchise could completely be on the shoulders of whoever the Jazz pick in the 2026 draft.
No pressure, right?
While the powers that be aren’t directly applying expectations to these young players, they did say a couple of things that point to the reality of the situation.
“However we add to this team in the future — whether it’s through free agency next summer or trades at any point — a lot of our development has to come internal," Ainge stressed. “We have to. The salary cap dictates it, our market dictates it and everything ... we have to improve with a lot of these young guys in that room.”
Exactly.
The Jazz can hope and pray that there will be a day when a top-tier free agent wants to come and play for the Jazz, but even if they want that to happen, they’ll need a striking and exciting young star to help lure them in. Lauri Markkanen is certainly a good start — versatile, strong, well liked across the league, but he’s not enough to lure the big game the Jazz want to hunt.
Certainly there is still hope that some miraculous improvement will happen with Keyonte George, Isaiah Collier or Cody Williams, and there is definitely still room to grow for Kyle Filipowski and Brice Sensabaugh, but you’d be hard pressed to find many people who really think any of those guys are going to turn into franchise cornerstones.
But it’s not like Jazz brass or Hardy can come out and say that the future of the team or the success of the rebuild depends on the performance of these two players. But they’ll flirt with and get really, really close to the truth.
“We’re not waiting on somebody to come and save us,” Hardy said. “You’re not waiting for somebody to come and walk through the door and, oh, now we’re good.
“Every good player in our league has had a breakout year. Some of them it’s their first year, some it’s their third year, some it’s their fifth year. And there’s nothing that says that somebody in our locker room can’t have a breakout year this year.”
To be clear, the Jazz don’t need a super-duper, ceiling shattering breakout year from Bailey or Hendricks. They just need to see that the star potential is real.
They need to see that putting all of their eggs in the draft basket hasn’t returned them a roster full of replacement-level players. The Jazz need to know that there is actually something they can actually work with.
Because, if Hendricks and Bailey aren’t able to live up to the expectations, that means the Jazz are a lot farther away from being a good team. It probably means that Markkanen and Kessler don’t fit the timeline. It means that the future of the team depends on the Jazz being able to actually have a top-three pick, and even then, they’ll be years away.
So, whether the Jazz brass or coaching staff want to say it into a microphone or not, it remains true that the success of Bailey and Hendricks is necessary for this Jazz team to succeed.
Category: General Sports
