The Utah Jazz opened their season against the Memphis Grizzlies at the Delta Center on Wednesday night.
The Jazz ultimately fell short, losing the game by just two points 126-124.
Although it is a loss on the stat sheet, there is a lot to build off for Utah.
Utah got a huge contribution from their best player in Lauri Markkanen as he went for 35 points and nine rebounds on the night. He was able to get to his shots and make them efficiently throughout the night. He shot 57.1% from three and was 60% from the field on the night. Nothing the Grizzlies did seemed to be able to stop him.
The Jazz’s third-year center Walker Kessler had some question marks surrounding him during this offseason after a mediocre sophomore season. Kessler showed up to play from the start as he was a menace on both sides of the ball throughout. He was able to corral six offensive rebounds out of his 14 overall on the night which largely contributed to his 16 points. He also added four blocks on top of it all to try to help lock down their defense.
“I play my best when I play a lot of energy, and so it’s (about) maintaining that consistency of playing with that energy,” Kessler said.
Aside from Kessler and Markkanen, Utah has veteran contributors Jordan Clarkson, John Collins and Collin Sexton to name a few. The story of this team will be about the rookies and second-year players.
In the last two drafts the Jazz’s front office, led by Justin Zanik and BYU alum Danny Ainge, has compiled six players that they hope to get contributions from. The second years include two starters with Keyonte George at point guard, Taylor Hendricks at power forward and Brice Sensabaugh coming off the bench early in rotation.
The rookies have yet to be tested and have their roles be defined. The ninth pick, Cody Williams, was the only one to make their career debut. He played for 19 minutes and was able to score two points and grab four rebounds. He also had a couple of tough matchups on both sides of the ball against a bonafide all-star Ja Morant.
“When Cody has been put in those spots where he has a problem to solve, he’s made more good choices than bad,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “And so I think that’s a good indicator for us.”
The other two rookies did not see the floor as Isaiah Collier is dealing with a right hamstring injury and Kyle Filipowski was not featured in their rotation on the night.
Ainge, Zanik and Coach Will Hardy have emphasized the importance of building this young core around their proven piece in Markkanen. George is one of those guys that needs to be a huge contributor for the Jazz going forward as the starting point guard. George was only able to score 12 points on the night on an abysmal 3 of 18 from the field and 5 of 9 from the free throw line. Despite the struggles from the field George was able to facilitate throughout the night with seven assists.
Despite the struggles, the Jazz were still in the game late. Led by Markkanen the Jazz went on an 11-0 run that tied the game up at 102. Late in the fourth after back and forth play from the teams Morant made an athletic up and under layup to give the Grizzlies a five point lead. This was too much with just 38 seconds left and the Jazz would fall by two 126-124.
Despite the loss the Jazz have much to look forward to. No matter what the season holds the Jazz will look to this young core they’ve compiled to improve and help the team's overall play.