The Salt City Seven is a septet of recurring features that let us relive the biggest moments, key performances and hot issues in Jazzland from various angles. Check in every week for the quotes, stats, plays and performances that tell the stories from the last 168 hours in the world of the Jazz.

Most weeks the SC7 drops on Monday. This week because of travel by your faithful chronicler, it's coming late and therefore includes an extra couple of days worth of action.

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Since our last edition, the Jazz crossed the midpoint of their season, so a little macro pulse check is in order.

But recapping the entirety of the now 15-29 season would take some serious time and pixels, so we're going to do this lightning round style: exactly 10 words on each of the Jazz's 15 standard-contract players.

Just for the heck of it, we'll also highlight for each guy one "stat to watch" over the second half of the year.

Lauri Markkanen. Not just back to "old Lauri;" somehow keeps getting better. (Stat to watch: he's attempting a career-high 11.7 twos per game, including nine a game from inside 10 feet where he's hitting 61.5% of them.)

Keyonte George. Didn't see this leap coming. Impressive volume and efficiency combo. (Stat to watch: efficiency differential in the Key-no-Markkanen minutes. Not hugely worried given the context, but would love for it to come up from -17.6.)

Ace Bailey. Encouraging stuff almost nightly, but ready to start seeing more. (Stat to watch: for someone who claims to love the midrange, he's shooting just 35.9% there.)

Brice Sensabaugh. A scoring machine when he's rolling. Defensive engagement needs work. (Stat to watch: Weirdly, his catch-and-shoot three is at just 32.9%, but only Markkanen scores more points per drive than his .77.)

‍Jusuf Nurkic. Average-ish rim defense. More paint finishing could help the offense. (Stat to watch: currently in the top 1% in differential for defensive rebound rate — and top 10% for offensive rebound rate.)

Kyle Filipowski. He's playing more center (and shooting worse) than they'd like. (Stat to watch: Utah allows 126 points per 100 on defense when Flip is on the floor without another center.)

‍Isaiah Collier. Quick, strong drives are his superpower. Defense still is not. (Stat to watch: Literally last in the league in defensive EPM.)

Kevin Love. Tremendous vibes. Helps the spacing. Just don't check defensive numbers. (Stat to watch: opponents shoot 10% better than expected when tracking cameras tag Love as the primary defender.)

Cody Williams. Finally looking like he belongs out there. Shooting still worrisome. (Stat to watch: up to 71% in the restricted area, but he's 2-for-15 on above the break threes.)

Taylor Hendricks. Patience is appropriate, but a stronger close would be encouraging. (Stat to watch: 43% corner shooting mimics his rookie season.)

Walter Clayton Jr. Utah plays better on both ends with the heady guard. (Stat to watch: His nice 55.6% midrange efficiency is important since he doesn't score a ton at the rim.)

‍Svi Mykhailiuk. Better than some fans want to admit. Plays smart. Cheap. (Stat to watch: he's Utah's best catch-and-shoot weapon at 44% from deep.)

Walker Kessler. Damn injuries. He looked poised for another solid step forward. (Stat to watch: N/A)

Kyle Anderson. Last in minutes (excluding Kessler), largely as de facto center. (Stat to watch: only three of his 94 shots were not preceded by at least one dribble.)

Georges Niang. Is it weird to think he's maybe the most tradeable? (Stat to watch: Games played?)

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"I would just put it in the category as tough love. At the end of the day, he's going to tell me the truth because he wants the best for me. He wants the best for everybody in this group... He was real brutal. For me, that was one of my first tough conversations. You've gotta be able to have tough conversations to really take your game to the next level."
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George on ESPN, speaking of his his now-infamous postseason chat with Will Hardy

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The end-of-season meeting between George and Hardy last spring has been talked about in so many different interviews and features by now. Sharing yet another quote about Hardy's "tough love" for his pupil is less about rehashing the story and more to say this: Keyonte George is having a moment.

Over the past 10 days he dropped into ESPN's NBA Today program for this chat with Malika Andrews, sat down for a longer chat with Zach Lowe, added three more 30-plus games to his season résumé, and (oh yeah) set a new career high by powering his team to yet another improbable clutch win against a great team.

His splits since our last SC7 (6 games) are literally 50-42-91 (rounded). The only players with his combination of clutch usage (31.1%) and clutch true shooting (63.5%) are Anthony Edwards, Nikola Jokic, Devin Booker, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Coby White and James Harden.

SCH alumnus Andy Larsen correctly points out that not every guard to have a scoring season like George's current one at his age turned out to be an absolute star. However, I think it's also fair to note that most of the guards on that list didn't have anything close to George's current efficiency. Let's filter Andy's same list for TS% above 58% (George is at 61.5% right now, but the season is far from over). Suddenly the list looks significantly more encouraging.

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#17

At this point, Markkanen appears likely to miss the All-Star team despite having an on/off differential of +16.5 (behind only Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo among players with 600+ minutes) and ranking 17th in EPM wins added. The rest of the Jazz order in that stat goes: George, Nurkic, Mykhailiuk, Kessler (remember this is a cumulative stat), Sensabaugh, Love, Clayton, Filipowski, Hendricks, Anderson, Bailey, Williams, Collier.

5,801... 750

After going 5,801 days between regular season triple doubles, the Jazz only needed 750 days to get their next one. Nurkic's 16-18-10 came two years (including a leap day) and 19 days after Jordan Clarkson kicked off 2024 with a historic one.

43

On the same night, George's 43-point outburst moved him past Darrell Griffith for most 30-point games by a Jazz player before his 23rd birthday. Only Donovan Mitchell had more (44). The Jazz are 8-4 this season when he scores 30+.

5-28

The Jazz are just 5-28 when they trail or are tied heading into the fourth, but both of their recent wins (against 2022 trade partners, no less) came in that circumstance. They trailed Cleveland by four after three periods, Minnesota by 12.

+15.8

Relatedly, how on earth is Utah's clutch net rating the third best in the league?!

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Whenever you see the Jazz run basically the same thing on consecutive plays, you know they've found something they can pick at. Here are two plays from early in Tuesday's big win that look like simple DHOs for Bailey, but really are about how the Jazz chose to weaponize the threat of George's movement.

George goes over an off-ball flare screen that the Jazz use all the time to generate open threes. So Anthony Edwards has to "lock and trail" over the pick to respect that possibility, but then Key heads straight into a corner pindown instead.

Now Julius Randle (a superb talent but not the strongest defender in this lineup) has a choice to make. If he stays glued to Bailey, then George will just curl all the way around and receive the pass from the top. So Randle stays in to protect against that, and that's when George stops and signals for Bailey to use the pick. That's why Randle is late going around that first screen, and never really even recovers before the second screen with Nurkic. Bailey takes a single rhythm dribble and then squares up beautifully.

So... they run it again. Same basic setup except that this time they don't even bother having George go over the off-ball screen first. He just ambles into the general vicinity of where Randle is kinda-sorta guarding Bailey, triggering the same action. Randle goes under a pretty low screen, so Bailey has plenty of time to get into his shot.

Then they build on that further here:

Same five guys. By now, Randle has probably been yelled at for letting Bailey waltz into the 3-man action too easily, so he's going to try to cut Ace off from the top. Only this isn't actually a multiple-screen action for Bailey. In fact, George is going to get out of the way because as soon as Bailey gets Randle leaning hard in that direction, he's going to smoke him with a backdoor cut. Because of a little weakside "fluff" between Mykhailiuk and Williams, the potential helpers are all focused on that and nobody slides in.

And none of those were even Bailey's best play of the night!

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We've got a lot of work to do since the extra days mean we have to dole out credit for six total games.

‍Jazz 123, Cavs 112: Lauri Markkanen. There wasn't that much difference between Markkanen's 28-12-2 and George's 32-5-9. In fact, they shot an identical 8-for-16 from the field. The only difference was how they gotthere: George exploded with 25 second-half points after a slow start, while Markkanen was steady throughout and led the team in plus-minus. (+18 on, -7 off). George scored a little more because he nailed all his free throws, but the narrative kind of leans to Markkanen: this was his former team, and he basically outplayed the superstar guard he was traded for.

‍Jazz 127, Wolves 122: Jusuf Nurkic. This is a brutally tough call, even before we mention that Bailey looked about as aggressive as we've ever seen him, or that Collier led the comeback in the early fourth. Collier scored 12 fourth-quarter points and assisted another 10, keying a 32-15 run that took the Jazz from -12 to +5. And he couldn't even make it to the podium! Hardy got the actual game ball after coaching win #100, but he himself couldn't even decide if George or Nurkic was more deserving from a player standpoint. Key had a career high 43 and three assists. Nurkic had 16-18-10 and was +8. Ultimately, I went with the accomplishment that's only happened twice in the past 17 years of Jazz basketball over the thing that's happened 13 times over the same span. Nurk also gets narrative points for wrestling with Minnesota's quality bigs all night and sacrificing literal blood to the cause.

Strong in defeat:

• Jazz 126, Bulls 124: Brice Sensabaugh. Sensabaugh was spectacular, from the moment he stepped on the floor. He had 26 points in his first 13 minutes of play! He hit nine of his first 10 shots! Even when the Bulls adjusted to him and started pressuring him more, it didn't matter because he was having one of those unconscious nights: 43 points on 22 shots. That said, George's fourth quarter was pretty special too: 15 of his points on a 25-3-7 night came on downhill drive after downhill drive in the fourth, as Utah came close to winning it. Filipowski added 19-7-4 and three steals.
• ‍Jazz 122, Mavs 144: Brice Sensabaugh. This probably needs to go to Brice again: 27 points on 15 shots, and nobody else particularly had it rolling. Collier had a double-double in a rare start, but wasn't super efficient, and George had 17 but didn't check in again after his third quarter rest. Clayton deserves mention for 15 and 7, in his season-high (up to that point) 31 minutes.
• ‍Jazz 120, Mavs 138: Keyonte George. An efficient 29 for George, plus six assists to just one turnover. Pretty easy. Sensabaugh had 20, but had to work a little harder for them, and Bailey impressed with 18 and 8, but wasn't super efficient. After Key, the next best candidate might have been Flip with 13-12-5 as a fill-in starter.
• Jazz 110, Spurs 123: Keyonte George. It says a lot about George's season that 30-3-6 didn't feel that overwhelming, but he was pretty easily Utah's best MLK Day performer. Nurk deserves some love for a 20-9-5 night and having to battle with the ineffable Victor Wembanyama, but George carried the torch in this one, including with 26 of his 30 coming when the game was still theoretically there for the taking.

The Jazz have two games left this week, the second and third dates of their current 6-game homestand.

Thursday 1/22 vs. Spurs: The Spurs are holding down the #2 spot even though they're a pretty underwhelming 7-7 since Christmas. This game bookends a 3-games-in-4-nights stretch for both teams, and also will decide the season series since the teams come in 1-1 against each other. Word is Utah will take on this challenge without Markkanen, and may have to do so without George, who strained a forearm.

Saturday 1/24 vs. Heat: Both Jazz-Heat matchups take place over the course of 16 days. Tyler Herro has already been ruled out of Miami's 5-game trip after appearing in just 11 games so far, so the burden largely falls back to Norm Powell (averaging a career-best 23.7) and 3-time All-Star Bam Adebayo (17 and 10). Love spent two and a half seasons in Miami, and Anderson will face a former team for the fourth straight game (Spurs, Wolves, Spurs, Heat).

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It's been really cool to follow the story of Jazz owner Ryan Smith inviting 32 Jazz fans from across Latin America to come see their favorite team in person. This story will keep getting bigger, too, as the group is here for the entire 6-game homestand!

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