Injuries are a part of the game. Stay ready. Next man up.
Every athlete is used to hearing and saying these words, but living them is not as easy.
“I don’t think anyone really wants to get more minutes that way. What I’m trying to do is just stay ready ... keeping my mind right. That way when this moment came, and when these moments come in the future, I’m ready for being thrown in the fire.”
— Jazz rookie Kyle Filipowski
When Taylor Hendricks suffered a broken leg and dislocated ankle, ending his season with the Utah Jazz, those classic sports cliches became more than just words used to describe the way a team deals with players’ bumps and bruises.
“That’s never a situation you ever want,” rookie Cody Williams said. “Obviously, guys are gonna have to step up now. I think just the circumstance — this is not circumstance that I wanted to be in the starting lineup.”
It’s not what he wanted, but it’s the situation that Williams finds himself in. A few days ago he was a small part of the bench rotation, now he can expect to play heavy minutes every night as part of the starting unit.
The same can be said for Jazz rookie Kyle Filipowski, who was not really a part of the Jazz’s rotation to start the season. But, the injury to Hendricks would have shifted Filipowski into the fold. Then, Lauri Markkanen started experiencing back spasms. Now Filipowski has also been thrust into the starting unit.
“I don’t think anyone really wants to get more minutes that way,” Filipowski said. “What I’m trying to do is just stay ready ... keeping my mind right. That way when this moment came, and when these moments come in the future, I’m ready for being thrown in the fire.”
And thrown into the fire is exactly what is happening with Williams and Filipowski. There isn’t a ramp-up period, there hasn’t been any assignments to the G League for them to get reps with the SLC Stars. This is full on, competitive NBA action against the best players in the world.
On one hand, live, in-game action is the best teacher and there’s no better experience for rookies to have. On the other hand, it means that things are going to be really difficult and the learning curves might seem steep and at times daunting for these young players.
So, in an attempt to keep things from getting too chaotic, Jazz coach Will Hardy said that he’s trying to strip the game down and make things simple for Williams and Filipowski.
There are some general concepts and some plays that they’ll need to know, but mistakes are expected so they don’t have to play perfect. Rather, there are just two or three things that each player is going to be held accountable for and so long as the effort is there in those few categories, they’ll know that they are on the right track.
“Spacing the floor, being good at guarding the ball, not not being a defensive burden and rebounding,” Filipowski said. “Those are kind of the biggest things. And obviously with that being said, just competing and playing hard and then letting the rest of it just flow naturally.”
As Williams and Filipowski try to navigate their new on-court life, it’s important that they keep perspective and that they are paying attention to their own mental health. There can be feelings of guilt that creep in because of the way that the opportunity occurred. There can be feelings of doubt about whether they are ready to take the next step in their professional careers. And there’s obvious grief and sadness that are natural after seeing their teammate go down in such horrible fashion.
As a way to combat all of those feelings, the young players have said that continuing to stay in contact with Hendricks is hugely important. They want Hendricks to understand and believe that he is missed and that they want him to make a speedy recovery.
But, maybe most importantly, Williams and Filipowski are going to do their best to remember the privilege of their situation. They don’t ever want to take a moment for granted, because that would be doing Hendricks a disservice.
“When you have a teammate, a brother that goes out there and he gets hurt, he’s wishing he could play in a back-to-back, he wishes he could fly in at 1 a.m. and play the next day,” Williams said. “Knowing that everything can change in an instant, and not taking it for granted. I think that allows us to stay locked in and approach the game right, because we know we have a teammate who wishes he could be out there.”
