Before every Utah Jazz game this season, the opposing head coach has been asked some version of the same question.
This team has a brand new, first-time head coach and a lot of players who have never played together before, how do you prepare for that?
“I have not begged him to be a playmaker. I’ve just tried to explain to him where I think he fits in this group and try to empower him in that way.” — Jazz coach Will Hardy on Jazz veteran Jordan Clarkson
And every coach has given a similar answer.
Sure, Will Hardy is new, and sure, Mike Conley has never played with Jarred Vanderbilt, but these are veteran players that have been around the league for a while and coaches are familiar with their games and how they operate on the court.
The problem with that is that nearly every veteran player that has significant NBA experience on this Jazz roster has taken on a different role with this Jazz team than they’ve had on any other team in the past. Players have seemingly reinvented themselves for Hardy’s Jazz, and that’s what has made this team so unique in the early days of the 2022-23 NBA season.
This isn’t a case of saying that the NBA game has evolved or that there has been slow change to the way that Conley, Vanderbilt, Kelly Olynyk, Jordan Clarkson, Lauri Markkanen and Malik Beasley are playing the game. That’s the most surprising thing. This change has been sudden and stark.
These players have changed their game for this Jazz team. These players have bought into the way that Hardy wants them to play in a matter of weeks. And, with every win the Jazz add to their surprisingly hot start, the changes are being reinforced and rewarded.
The most obvious changes to individual games have been with Clarkson and Markkanen.
Clarkson has been a starter in this league before, but until as recently as last season he had built a reputation as a bench gunner. He won the Sixth Man of the Year award for the Jazz in 2021 and has proven to be a scorer who can get a bucket no matter the circumstances.
But, when Clarkson looked around during training camp this year and surveyed the situation, he noticed that there weren’t very many players who were known facilitators.
Joe Ingles was gone, Donovan Mitchell was gone, and even Trent Forrest was gone. During the preseason, when Conley was given the night off, there was a moment when Clarkson literally was looking around thinking, “Who is going to initiate the offense, who is going to be the one to communicate what needs to happen?”
“I was like, ‘Where they at? Who’s talking?’ Then I was like, ‘Oh, it’s me,’” Clarkson said with a laugh. “I’ve got to speak up and become that guy, that person to communicate and get those messages across and make sure that we’re still playing good basketball, moving the ball and in a flow.”
Clarkson admits that he’s been taken out of his comfort zone. He’s starting games and he’s taking on a larger role as a facilitator, but even out of his comfort zone, Clarkson is thriving. He’s putting up career-highs in assists (5.2 per game), shooting at a career-high clip (44.4% from 3), and scoring just as much as he was during his 6MOY campaign (18.3 point per game).
While Hardy has said that he has encouraged Clarkson to continue in this vein, he maintains that this has all been revelation and initiative from Clarkson.
“I have not begged him to be a playmaker,” Hardy said. “I’ve just tried to explain to him where I think he fits in this group and try to empower him in that way. I’ve told him that if the game tells him to shoot 10 times in a row, then he should shoot 10 times in a row. But I just think he has more to offer us on that end.”
Hardy, like many others, watched Markkanen play for Finland in the EuroBasket tournament over the summer and thought that there was potential to give the 25-year-old a larger role on a team.
Though Markkanen had showed with the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers that there were many components to his game, he was never really given the freedom to use all of them at once.
“His previous stops in the NBA, I’m not sure that he was considered the premier player on his team,” Hardy said. “And then you put him with Finland, and he’s very clearly the best player on the team and so you get to see him in a different light. We’ve tried to build on some of the stuff we saw this summer and try to put him in situations where, at moments, he is a premier guy for us.”
Markkanen is no longer standing in the corner and spotting up as a shooter. He’s not just being put in the post. He’s not just working in the mid-range. He’s doing it all and putting up a career-best 21.9 points per game, even as his shooting has been a little down at the start of the season.
Conley, while long considered a calming veteran presence for the teams that he’s played on, has never really had to be the vocal leader for a team in the way that he has for this Jazz roster.
He’s been viewed as a game manager who is steering the ship and is able to bring experience and wisdom to his role. But that’s been expanded exponentially with this Jazz team.
“I think Mike’s role as our leader maybe is different than it was in the past,” Hardy said. “He’s taken on a very prominent role in terms of having a big voice with our team. I also think he’s somebody that I’m relying on a ton to communicate with the rest of the guys and kind of set the table for us. … So it’s not a role that Mike hasn’t played in his career, but I think it may be a different role than he’s had the last couple of years.”
Conley has taken it upon himself to help Collin Sexton in-depth in learning how to run offenses and try out different things based on coverages or game situations. Conley has also taken the time to help out rookie Walker Kessler and teach him some of the finer points of playing NBA pick-and-roll and what different screening angles can do for the action.
Conley can often be seen leading timeout discussions, talking with Hardy during free throws or dead balls, and has shown quite a bit of fire in the Jazz’s early season wins.
“He’s quiet sometimes, but if you make him mad … watch out,” Sexton said. “He’s more than you think he is.”
Then there’s Vanderbilt who is taking 3-pointers and committing to himself to become a better finisher and more of an offensive threat.
Beasley wants to be known as more than just a 3-point shooter and wants to show the NBA that he can be relied on for his defense and that he too can set the table and distribute in a meaningful way.
There were many who thought that 31-year-old Olynyk was on the declining side of his career, but with the Jazz he’s shooting the ball better than he ever has before (a staggering 58.8% from 3) and is showing that he is as versatile as ever on the defensive end.
There are theories on what has gotten the Jazz to this point and how Hardy has been able to get the players moving and trusting each other so quickly and playing in a way that they never have before or haven’t for many years. But the truth is that it’s probably a combination of everything in this situation.
The Jazz don’t have the classic go-to star that they can rely on, so they’re moving the ball more and looking for unconventional stars and answers. They don’t have a classic go-to vocal leader so that’s meant Clarkson and Conley have had to step up. They don’t have defined roles for players the way that other teams who have been together longer have, so everyone is trying to fill in the gaps with whatever skill set they have.
“I think we’re perfectly imperfect,” Hardy said. “We’re a little chaotic at times, but that’s how we like it. We don’t want the game to be too neat and tidy. That doesn’t really suit our group very well. Offensively, I think that’s really where we’ve shown that the guys have bought into being a team. It’s not one person setting the table for everybody else. It’s a collective effort. And every night it could be somebody else’s night to sort of be the focal point. But that versatility and flexibility is what gives us a chance every night.”
While chaos and imperfection and improvisation have been the name of the game for the Jazz this season, it seems that the way Hardy is allowing the veterans on this team to grow and change is actually perfect and right on time.
