Every week during the regular season begins here at SCH with the Salt City Seven, 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.
There are already some hints of how the 2025-26 Jazz are going to want to play. It's way too early for stats to mean anything, but we can find plenty of evidence with our eyeballs of some things that may be a stylistic choice or strategic focus for Utah this year.
On offense, there are some interesting things happening with big man passing, and let's also keep an eye on pace.
By possessions per game, Utah is playing just a sliver slower than the most plodding team from last season, but that's an imperfect measure of pace, which can mean a lot of different things. Jazz coach Will Hardy has talked a lot about increasing the speed of individual decisions, and the zippy passing from the home opener especially hints that the players are willing to experiment. Their 234 unique touches in the forecourt on Wednesday were 13% higher than last year's average.
Pace can also mean how quickly within a possession you're putting pressure on the defense. For example, five of Keyonte George's 10 assists on Friday were against a set defense, but the pass to a shooter/cutter was made less than three seconds after he crossed midcourt (and another three were true transition plays). Last year, George would often wait until much later to run even the first action on a play, so this feels like a concerted effort by both him and the Jazz staff to strike early.
They also appear to want to use big men as hubs for the offense. Bigs have been flashing to the elbow and reading all of the off-ball screens and cuts to find a target. They were so effective at it on Wednesday that the Kings two nights later made it a huge part of their game plan to push the Jazz's bigs off those spots. Because of that, this stylistic preference won't be totally obvious in the numbers yet, but it's obviously a big part of how Utah wants to generate offense.
On defense, the name of the game has been deflections and paint denial.
Utah has been the league's worst defense for the past two seasons, so it makes sense to adjust the risk tolerance in some specific ways. It's not like they can be worse than 30th, so betting on a certain amount of disruption couldn't hurt. They were also last in deflections per game last season, but are up more than 50% on that figure so far. (Again, it's early for stat comparisons, but the focus on it is visually evident in how they're playing.)
Hardy also really cares about paint defense. Opponent paint points is often one of the very first stats he mentions proactively in postgame pressers, and he has talked throughout the preseason about how that will be a key to his squad turning a corner defensively. So he'll be glad to know that no team is allowing fewer opponent attempts at the rim than the Jazz's 12.5.
We'll know more about what the Jazz want to be when there's a bigger sample and when certain players have been deployed more fully. For example, Isaiah Collier hasn't played at all yet, and Ace Bailey is going to average more than 17 minutes per game whenever he shakes the flu/tendonitis/jitters that have conspired to limit his action and effectiveness.
But a new version of Jazz basketball is taking shape in front of our eyes, so we'll keep parsing what we can about the apparent philosophies on both ends of the court.
"It was a blast. Everyone was scoring, everyone was passing, everyone was playing with ferocity... We came out fast, came out hard and it was great."
-Walker Kessler on the Jazz's season opener
For a team that won only 17 games last year, it had to feel good to feel so invincible for 48 minutes.
"We came out shot out of cannon," added Brice Sensabaugh in the postgame interview. "We put ourselves in a good position early on and we just rode that wave."
Sensabaugh said his confidence in his shot is "through the roof" right now, and looks like a good bet to fill the bench scoring void left by departed Jazzmen. Only Lauri Markkanen is averaging more than the third-year wing's 17.5 points, and he's doing it on (I know, I know, it's early) 54-43-100 shooting splits. There looks to be a big role for Sensabaugh as a scorer this season, although he talked on Wednesday about how he understands his pathway to a fruitful NBA career also includes defense.
48:00
The Jazz didn't have a wire-to-wire win at all last season, but they open this season with one.
38
A huge ingredient in the win: Utah's 38 assists, also something they never achieved in 82 games last season. The last time they had that many was midway through the '23-24 season. Also notable: 17 of those assists came from Markkanen, Filipowski, Kessler and Nurkic.
11-5
That was Utah's quite decisive margin on the offensive glass on Friday — but the Kings got the one that mattered the most. Usually when you win the paint points battle by 12 against the Kings while going to the line more, you're going to have a pretty good night. But Sacramento's 44% shooting from three (Malik Monk made six) kept the door open, and then Utah couldn't quite grab the basketball on Sacramento's last possession.
20.5
Utah had 19 deflections against the Clippers and 22 more in Sacramento. Last year, they averaged 13.3 per game, the very lowest total in the league.
1-for-10
So yeah... let's talk Bailey. There's no reason to be super worried yet, especially with the context of knee soreness interrupting his preseason and then a 6-day bout with the flu. It has also been encouraging to see him stay within the flow of the offense and not get caught trying to force his way onto the stat sheet. But after that eye-popping preseason start, let's hope this next batch of games and shots goes better for the 19-year-old.
Let's get things kicked off this season with a pass I'm convinced we've never seen Markkanen throw in his 168 previous Jazz games:
This is a designed play, but the outcome is clearly read-based. The design is obviously for Markkanen to use this off-ball screen, and he appears to already know he's driving, despite the fact that Ivica Zubac is playing back and conceding the catch-and-shoot three.
But Lauri drives in a way where he welcomes (almost invites) the double-team. He dribbles straight toward where a sagging James Harden is waiting, and then turns as if to say, "OK, who's open." He and the Jazz were ready for double-teams all night, so it was just a question of where the help would come from and whom that would leave unguarded. (You can also see Derrick Jones Jr. considering digging down from the top.)
Because Harden stays in long enough to halfheartedly poke at the ball, Kyle Filipowski sees nothing but clean hardwood in front of him. And then Markkanen makes a delightful pass, flicking the ball over his shoulder. Gorgeous.
Jazz 129, Clippers 108: Walker Kessler. Kessler did a little of everything as the Jazz shocked the Clippers: 22 points (perfect shooting!) to go with nine rebounds, four assists, four blocks and two steals. He also dominated defensively, allowing just three rim attempts during his time patrolling the paint. Markkanen had himself a very nice season debut (20-6-5), George looked really comfortable facilitating (9 assists) and Brice Sensabaugh was smooth off the bench with 20. But in a game Utah won with otherworldly shooting and defensive disruption, Kessler was the poster child for both: 7-for-7 shooting including two threes, and led the Jazz with 4 deflections and six "stocks."
Strong in defeat:
- Jazz 104, Kings 105: Lauri Markkanen. The Finn's 33 points damn near kept Utah undefeated. He had 21 after halftime, and his free-throw trip with :28 left gave Utah their last lead. George looked solid again with 18 and 10, and one or both of those two were involved as scorer and/or assister on each of the Jazz's field goals in the final 11 minutes. Sensabaugh had 15 points in just 22 minutes, and Walter Clayton Jr. earned the close.
Monday 10/27 vs. Suns: Devin Booker and company have been blown out twice since besting Sacramento at home in their season opener. Their lone All-Star is averaging nearly 27 a game, but Jazz alumni Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale are both playing huge roles for the retooling Suns. Both are in top four for minutes and points. This will end a 3-game trip for the Suns, who then play 10 of their next 14 in Arizona.
Wednesday 10/29 vs. Blazers: Portland is team turmoil after its coach was arrested on Thursday. But that hasn't stopped the Blazers from thumping Golden State in interim coach Tiago Splitter's debut, and then taking the Clippers to crunch time in L.A. Deni Avdija has been doing a lot of the lifting with 23-6-4 averages. That has allowed Porltand to start 2-1 despite Shaedon Sharpe's early struggles (<21% outside shooting through three games).
Friday 10/31 @ Suns: This Halloween affair starts the NBA Cup competition for Utah, and also starts the first extended road trip of the year. This is the first of five straight on the road. More on Phoenix: Jalen Green has yet to debut for the Suns, and Mark Williams missed Saturday's 22-point loss in Denver. Nurkic played 101 games for the Suns, and Markkanen knows Arizona well after starring for the Wildcats.
Sunday 11/2 @ Hornets: The Jazz don't have to wait long for a reunion with Collin Sexton, who averaged 17.5 on 60% true shooting during three entertaining seasons as a bouncy and efficient Jazz guard. He has been 2-1 Charlotte's third-leading scorer, but the head of the snake is a reinvigorated LaMelo Ball (28-10-8). Kon Knueppel has also been shooting lights out (58% from three), so a good Bailey game could make this a fun battle of 2025 top-5 picks.
About nine seconds apart in Wednesday's home opener, Clayton and Bailey each scored their respective first NBA buckets.
In pick-and-roll action with Nurkic, Clayton put none other than Chris Freaking Paul in proverbial jail. After snaking the pick the same way Paul has done to lock countless defenders behind his derrier, Clayton dropped an and-1 floater. Then, non the very next Clippers possession, Clayton recovered a fumbled hand-off and whipped it ahead to Bailey for a fast break dunk.
In honor of the event, here's a little trivia for you: all 15 regular roster players' first career field goals.
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There you have it: the first of 26 Salt City Seven columns for 2025-26 is in the books.
