KJ Martin makes his Utah Jazz debut after being sidelined for nearly 2 months

Before Friday night, the last time KJ Martin had played in a game was Dec. 23 for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Since then, he’s been through a whirlwind trying to get back on the court. He’s been sidelined and going through grueling rehab to stabilize the stress reaction in his left foot, and then he was traded and traded again before landing with the Utah Jazz and finally making his return to play on Friday night.

“It felt kind of weird,” Martin said after a 130-107 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. “That was just a long process — being in the boot to get off my foot, and then after that, getting on the anti-gravity treadmill and running without all my body weight, then running with my body weight, then getting on the court to run.

“It was a long process. I just texted the guy who worked with me in Philly and told him I played my first game back today and that I appreciate him for getting me back healthy.”

Martin played just 16 minutes in his first game back, but he was full of gratitude for being able to come back and feel completely healthy and be in a place where he feels like he can thrive.

Since the Jazz play both Friday and Saturday night, and Martin had been sidelined for so long, the Jazz thought that playing him in the 15-18 minute range would be best, though getting more and more playing time will depend on how he performs.

What the Jazz and head coach Will Hardy like about Martin is his instinctual and athletic ability on the defensive side of the ball. That’s also what the Jazz like about Jaden Springer, whom the team signed to a 10-day contract on Thursday.

“I want those two guys to be good individual defenders, and also sort of model what being a competitive defensive player looks like,” Hardy said. “I think both those guys have some very natural ability on that side of the ball. That’s good for our group.”

Martin said he’s always viewed himself as a good defender, but that recently he’s tried to really make that part of his game the part that stands out.

“These past two years, I kind of took a step forward in being physical with guys, trying to not let them get to the stuff that they want, just make it difficult,” he said.

“Obviously I’m strong enough to hold up bigger guys in the post also, so I think I can give the team a little bit of both, which is good in certain situations, be able to guard on ball, then if we switch, be able to hold up a big guy.”

It would be a huge boon if Martin could prove himself to be a useful and longterm player for the Jazz who can defend at a high level and have the versatility to switch.

The team has struggled for the last couple of years with being able to hold their own, especially on the perimeter, so any help they can find along they way — through the draft or in trades — is exactly what they’re looking for.

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Cody Vs. Jalen

The Utah Jazz’s No. 10 overall pick from the 2024 draft, Cody Williams, had been looking forward to playing in a game against the Thunder all season long.

Not because the Thunder are the Western Conference’s leading team and not because they feature MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but because his older brother Jalen is on the team.

“It was kind of weird,” Williams said. “I know everyone on their team just because I’ve known them the past like three years, so it was kind of like a pickup game, how we all just know each other and were just having fun hooping, so it was really good experience.”

The brothers were rarely guarding one another and paid more attention to their team’s game plans rather than attacking one another, though Jalen Williams did hit a 3-pointer as the younger Williams was scrambling to closeout in a help situation, but since he wasn’t the primary defender in that scenario, he doesn’t feel like it counts as his brother scoring on him.

No matter, the brothers were just happy to have the chance to play against one another, something they dreamed about when they were growing up.

“Especially with our age difference, we always knew the one way we could play on the same team, or even against each other, is in the NBA,” Cody Williams said.

“The difference is four years. When I was a freshman in high school, he was a freshman in college, so we always just joked about the one way we’re gonna play against each other is in the NBA. It’s just crazy that it came true.”