In Utah, there won’t be minutes for everyone

Rather a good surprise in the Western Conference last season (37 victories and 45 defeats), even if the dynamic had run out of steam somewhat at the end of the year, the Jazz became denser this summer.

Between the contract extension of Jordan Clarkson, the recruitment of John Collins and the Draft selection of three promising talents (Keyonte George, Taylor Hendricks and Brice Sensabaugh), while retaining the major players from the previous campaign (Lauri Markkanen obviously, but also Kelly Olynyk or Talen Horton-Tucker and Collin Sexton), the Salt Lake City franchise has indeed operated rather well, and has strengthened.

To the point of being confronted, when it’s time to start training camp, with a rich man’s problem: in this particularly dense squad, which players will make up the rotation?

“ I have an idea of ​​what the training camp will be like, and I would say it’s close to the ‘Hunger Games’ “, simply sums up Will Hardy, which refers to the series of films released especially in the early 2010s, in which the protagonists… have to kill each other to survive. “ It’s going to be vicious, and I can’t wait. »

Flexibility and adaptation, watchwords of the Jazz season

Clearly, it’s easy to imagine a competitive training camp in Utah. Because if Jordan Clarkson, Lauri Markkanen, John Collins and Walker Kessler are certain to be starters, the fact remains that other questions persist. For example, who will be the second starting back, or who will inherit the majority of minutes coming off the bench? For the Jazz coach, these answers could vary…

“ Nothing is set in stone. We could absolutely be that team that changes its five majors every ten days simply based on the evening’s opponent, in relation to the ‘matchups’. If we can convince our team that this is the right mentality, we will be in good shape. This will be a strong point for us », Adds Will Hardy, who hopes that the collective interest will remain at the center of concerns. “ Individual motivations are important, and we need to take advantage of them. But at the same time, we must also remember that the season lasts 82 games and that we all wear the same jersey. »

No doubt then that Collin Sexton, Kris Dunn, Talen Horton-Tucker, Ochai Agbaji or even the rookie Keyonte George regarding the “backcourt”, or Kelly Olynyk, Simone Fontecchio, Omer Yurtseven or the other rookie Taylor Hendricks for the “frontcourt”, will have to accept living in uncertainty throughout the season.

“ Training camp is just the beginning of the process, of understanding who is going to play what role, and what combinations work », concludes Justin Zanik, the GM of Jazz. “ There must be a culture of flexibility and adaptation, and we must understand that the ultimate goal is to win as a team. Some nights it will be with a rotation of eight or nine specific players, other nights with other players. »