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.
In each of the Jazz's three games this week, lottery picks Cody Williams and Taylor Hendricks were back in the Jazz rotation. Williams had appeared just six times over the previous month, and for an average of just 11 minutes in those contests. Hendricks has now seen some action in the last 10 games, but made his return to the starting lineup.
The Jazz are highly invested in both, so their return to rotation roles makes it a good time to do a quick pulse check on two of the three highest draft selections in the Jazz's current team-building cycle.
More than anything, both had big defensive responsibilities this week. Hendricks was the primary defender for Boston's Jaylen Brown, and Williams took the Kawhi Leonard assignment in L.A. on New Year's Day.
Jazz coach Will Hardy clearly trusts them both on that end, and has had some fairly glowing things to say recently about Williams in particular. He called Williams' ability to understand the game plan "elite." Then, after an 18-point outburst in L.A., Hardy lauded the wiry forward's instinct for finding the right cadence on cuts. "Cody's understanding of the angles and the timing is what makes him good at (cutting)."
Even after that remark, Williams had another couple of nice dunks on Saturday, both the result of more good off-ball movement. GSW was trying to hide Quinten Post on him, so he simply ran into a DHO with Love to force the second-year big to make a decision. Moses Moody poked at the ball instead of switching soundly, and Post got stuck in no-man's-land, only to eventually get yammed on. (He even stared him down after!) Just a few minutes later, he knew to cut behind Keyonte George on the fast break into an empty side of the floor for an uncontested dunk. Angles and timing, like his coach said.
If Williams is in a team's playoff rotation in five years, it's probably going to be because of plays like that. Eventually he'll need to make enough spot-up threes to not get ignored completely (currently 15.6% on catch-and-shoot, yikes), but it's unlikely that his primary role will ever be as a 3-and-D guy. His tools lend themselves more to being an opportunistic slasher and defensive pest.
That's why it was fun to watch him pester Leonard a little bit. The superstar ultimately had the last laugh, although truth be told, he did most of his damage against other matchups or on switches. Importantly, Williams knew when to stunt-and-recover, and he contested well without fouling.
He's even been less shy about contact lately. In the Warriors game, Jimmy Butler kind of shoved him off a little bit near the 3-point line at one point, and little Cody Williams just pushed him right back. Butler did a double take. It's a stupid thing to read as some grand sign, and also it's not: Williams is developing a little bit of 'tude.
At this point, Williams looks more daring than Hendricks, which feels surprising to say. Hendricks' role in the offense right now is primarily as a corner shooter (48% there!) and a putback guy. And that's OK at this point. He has taken 11 shots all year that were preceded by more than two dribbles. Overall, he's pretty reticent about doing a lot on offense, which explains his career 13% usage and his 5.8 scoring average in 10 games since coming back to the rotation (even including his career-high 21).
Like Williams, most of his minutes right now are about defense. Players shoot 2.4% worse than expected with Hendricks defending, 5.0% worse with Williams. Hendricks especially impacts opponents in close. He's mostly guarding fours and stretch fives at this point, but his top 20 matchups by time also include ball handling wings like Jaylen Brown, James Harden and Luka Doncic.
Honestly, at the 9th (Hendricks) or 10th (Williams) draft positions, teams are mostly hoping to get high-level role players. Both could still realize that type of trajectory. It would certainly help the rebuild if one or both could accomplish something spicier in the long term, but for now it's just good to see signs of life.
"I can't really stress enough how this organization's good. I felt (Utah has been) under the radar the whole time I've been in the league... Me and Kevin (Love) talk every day to the young guys: we have such a great thing here. The people don't understand how it is somewhere else... It's such a great environment and you have everything you need to succeed."
Jusuf Nurkic, via JP Chunga, on the Jazz's environment
This quote has rightly gotten a lot of play already, and is encouraging when you think about Utah wanting to be able to attract talent with their $50 million in 2026 cap space and other assets. Nurkic has played for four other teams (and Love three), so without trying to guess at which franchises the Bosnian big is throwing shade at, there's some credibility to the comparison. It's nice to have the veterans spreading that message, not just to existing players who might on a given day feel frustrated (over their minutes or role or whatever), but also to the broader NBA community.
And Nurkic was also clear: part of the differentiating environment comes down to Hardy.
“I can’t really stress enough how patient he was with me,” Nurkic continued to the Deseret News' Sarah Todd. “Through my whole career, I didn’t have a coach like that...
"It's definitely the most fun I've had in a few years now."
66.7%
Boston's 24-for-36 performance in the midrange made it one of the most successful nights in that area for any team this season. The Jazz did a good job limiting rim attempts (just 14) and holding Boston to 30% from three, so the Green Machine simply feasted on non-rim twos.
24-3
Through three quarters in L.A., the Jazz and Clippers were shooting a combined 22.8% from beyond the arc. But then the home team got hot when it counted most, uncorking eight triples (on 15 attempts) to secure a 24-3 advantage in that department over the final 12 minutes. Leonard had four of the eight.
20
It took a vintage Steph Curry quarter — 20 points in the third — for the Warriors to erase a 12-point deficit against the Jazz. The Dubs outscored Utah by 18 from the 3-point line, which hurt even more because it pried open the interior defense. Utah allowed just 18 points in the paint before halftime, 28 after.
29.9
Keyonte George's 20-point streak is up to 10 games, the longest of his career. In the post-statues era, only Gordon Hayward (10), Donovan Mitchell (16, 13, 13 and 10), Collin Sexton (11) and Lauri Markkanen (20 and 10) have had such streaks. George is averaging 29.9 points and 7.2 assists over those 10 games.
+17.2
Of the 156 players with 700+ minutes this season, only 3-time MVP Nikola Jokic has a better on/off differential than Markkanen's +17.2, per Cleaning the Glass. And speaking of the All-Star...
Markkanen was just unstoppable against Golden State, a team that allows nearly 69% shooting at the rim. Markkanen and the Jazz knew that, so their plan was basically to have him just bully people inside. He had 14 paint buckets on 17 tries.
A lot of his interior success came by simply running simple stuff and finishing over the helpers...
...or even putting the ball on the deck because he knew he could finish over whoever he found down low.
But there were a couple of cool little play designs thrown in. Let's look at them.
You can tell this one is a set play because of how the Jazz run simultaneous wide pindowns on opposite sides of the court:
Svi Mykhailiuk doesn't curl around his pindown because he doesn't want to invite his man any further into the middle of the floor. Markkanen does curl, and catches on the move against a static big man playing "contain" defense. That's an easy target for the 7-foot, agile Markkanen, who simply dodges Trayce Jackson-Davis for a downhill finish.
Here's another one that's scripted and relies on timing:
Mykhailiuk waits to set the backscreen here until the ball is in the hands of George (who probably gets away with an extra step or two). Steph Curry knows exactly what's coming, and is calling for the switch immediately, but there's just not a lot for them to do here. Given the size advantage when LM catches seven feet from the hoop, GSW sends everybody and their mother to help, but none of them are big enough to bother Markkanen, so he just finishes over four guys. El Oh El, as the kids say.
Just a dominant scoring night for #23. Or as club owner Ryan Smith said: "This might be the smoothest 30 points through 2.5 quarters I’ve ever seen. Lauri Markkanen is definitely an all star."
The 0-3 week means no fake Wilsons to give away this week, but we'll still recognize the top performers from each of Utah's outings.
Strong in defeat:
- Jazz 119, Celtics 129: Keyonte George. Jusuf Nurkic had his highest point total as a Jazzman (26) and nearly completed a triple double (8 points, 8 assists), but with apologies to the Bosnian Beast, this one wasn't even closer. George's 37-6-7 line just blew away the competition. It was the sixth time this season George had 20+ before halftime. He, Nurkic and Markkanen (22 and 9) were all +8 or better in a game the Jazz lost by double digits.
- Jazz 101, Clippers 118: Kyle Anderson. Williams' 18-point outburst was as big a story (and certainly more relevant in the macro sense), but it's hard to ignore Anderson leading the Jazz in points (22), rebounds (8), blocks (2), steals (2-tied) and plus-minus (+7). His maturity made an instant difference for the Jazz in this one, and he was 8-for-10 including on some tough iso plays. Actually, Collier might be #2 ahead of Williams based on his 16-10-6 line, and Sensabaugh's big thid quarter (12) helped him recover from a slow start on the way to 20.
- Jazz 114, Warriors 123: Lauri Markkanen. The Finnisher was simply unstoppable on Saturday, especially in the paint where he shot 14-for-17! He wasn't even getting cute about it, in most cases just elevating over the help because the Warriors simply don't have great rim protection. Utah played within a bucket of the Warriors in Markkanen's 41 minutes (!!), but lost by 11 during his brief rests. George contributed 22 and 9, but had turnover issues in this one (7 giveaways).
The Jazz have the dreaded 4-in-6-nights stretch this week, including some pretty wild zig-zaggy travel (Portland to OKC is 1,500ish miles, only to turn around and fly back to Utah).
Monday 1/5 at Blazers: It's the third game in four nights for Portland, who swept a weekend back-to-back in New Orleans and San Antonio. Deni Avdija capped a triple double (29-11-10) with a late three to seal the win. He's among Markkanen's primary competition for an All-Star spot, and honestly it's hard to argue against his 25-7-7 averages and +13.3 on/off differential. Overall, the Blazers have won four of five after hitting their 12-19 nadir, and beat the Jazz in SLC back in October.
Wednesday 1/7 at Thunder: Last time the Jazz faced the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander came down with a sudden case of elbow bursitis that curiously only lasted that one night. OKC won anyway, with big nights from several deep reserves, including former Utah Ute Branden Carlsen. Weirdly, OKC is 6-5 since mid December, including three losses to the ascendant Spurs. But don't worry too much about OKC: they still have the top defense by a silly margin (6.2 per 100 below the next stingiest team) and also a top-5 offense.
Thursday 1/8 vs. Mavs: This is the first of three Jazz-Mavs showdowns that will happen in a 10-day span. The Mavs have evened out some, at .500 over their last 16 games since bottoming out at 5-15. Anthony Davis got back into action this weekend and hung 26 and 12 on the Rockets in a surprise win, but most of the narrative about this team circles around Cooper Flagg, who's been averaging 23-7-6 starting with the overtime loss in Utah last month. Dallas hasn't won a road game in more than a month, though.
Saturday 1/10 vs. Hornets: This and the Mavs game might be the only games this month in which Utah is favored, although the Hornets are 5-5 in the last three weeks. Their last four road wins have come against teams with better records, and Kon Knueppel appears to have The Stuff. He's the only rookie ever with 10 straight games of 16+ points, and he's doing it with unreal efficiency. He's on of four Hornets averaging within a point of each other: him, Miles Bridges, Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball.
Since this is already a Markkanen-heavy SC7, let's check in on his progress toward repeating his historic 2022-23 accomplishment of piling up 200 threes and 100 dunks in the same season.
With 41.5% of the Jazz's schedule completed, Markkanen is technically just ahead of the pace he'd need to hit both marks. However, that assumes he'll have the same type of games played, minutes, shot attempts and success rate over the remaining 58.5%. So if he misses more than another seven games or so, or if his shot diet changes, those things could slow him down.
Whether he makes it or not, he's been spectacular again this season on a varied and dynamic shot diet. (Also, watch out: NOP's Trey Murphy has 96 triples and 55 dunks at present.)
