When digesting a season like the Utah Jazz are beginning to embark upon, it’s important to take the moments bite by bite, rather than in one giant mouthful. Utah will not win many games this year — that’s
a given, and a point that’s been beaten to death at this point — and the remedy for that agony ironically lies within the root of the issue.
Utah’s biggest detriment is the fact that the roster is over-saturated with youth. This is by design, as the Jazz are determined to construct a competitor through the draft and internal development, and for the moment, they’ll let young players be young players. On the flip side of this, player development and individual performance have become the most fascinating wrinkle for a team without much else to compete for in the short term.
The future is at stake, and every drop of production moves a player closer to cementing their place in Utah’s scrapbook (I love Tommy, but I hate Jordan, ew). A pattern of poor performance, on the other hand, and the front office may begin carving out another cell in the dungeon beneath the Delta Center. I’d imagine that’s where they’re keeping Mo Bamba these days.
So, with no further rambling, I’d like to introduce you to the Utah Jazz optimism index. A metric whereby we place a stethoscope on the chest of Will Hardy’s roster and keep track of each player’s pulse — or rather, their observable upside — in the view of the organization.
Utah Jazz optimism index
Keyonte George | 22.6 ppg, 7.1 apg
Index rating: Every time we touch, I get this feeling
Have you ever listened to Cascada’s breakout hit Everytime We Touch? The beginning is slow, methodical, and overall passable, but the moment the chorus kicks in, all bets are off, and it’s pure artistic euphoria. I’ve felt the exact same while witnessing Keyonte spring into stardom after a promising, though middling, start to his career.
Keyonte George is the breakout star in the Beehive State this year. Every ounce of optimism the Jazz clung to when they selected Key 16th overall in 2023 has blossomed during this 2025 harvest. He’s spreading the love and moving the ball offensively, and that’s only been magnified thanks to his tighter handle and scoring spread through the early portion of the season. Optimism is absolutely through the roof.
Ace Bailey | 6.1 ppg, 3.1 rpg
Index rating: Revving the engine
It’s been a slow start to the season for Ace, thanks to an illness and a lack of consistent minutes, but he just posted a 20+ point game in his second game as a starter, and on the wings of soaring slams and tough shot-making, Ace could be Utah’s best bet for stardom in their current young core.
He’s revving the engine — the car has yet to peel out and take off down the highway, but all indicators are that there is a lot of power under the hood.
Kyle Filipowski | 6.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg
Index rating: Truck stop French fries
It sort of feels like the Utah Jazz already have a pretty clear picture of what they’ve got in Kyle Filipowski, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. He’s a versatile, capable offensive weapon, and there is no shame in being an off-the-bench jumbo scoring threat capable of collecting a few rebounds along the way. In fact, every team in basketball needs players like Flip at their disposal.
But the sentiment around the former second-round selection out of Duke is that he’s not flashy, nor is he exceptional at any particular aspect of the game. Like truck stop French fries, Filipowski is a reliable and at times surprisingly excellent weapon for the Utah offense, but he’s not the side you’ll likely build your meal around, if you get me.
Cody Williams | 3.4 ppg, 1.0 rpg
Index rating: He was so young
Funeral arrangements are already being made for the upside of Cody Williams. There’s no other way to slice it: Cody has been inadequate on offense, and is still a few years away from being a few years away from his physical maturity. Utah has plenty of time for patience with a player like Williams, and no developmental chart will be linear, but optimism for Cody Williams is nearly dead in just his second season. He’s appeared in as many games as Elijah Harkless this year; Harkless is on a two-way contract.
Brice Sensabaugh | 7.6 ppg, 2.2 rpg
Index rating: Brice on ice
After taking over Utah’s offense as the team’s premier scoring option in the preseason, Sensabaugh’s minutes and production have taken a dip. He’s knocking through just 27.1% of his three-point attempts, and hasn’t been strong enough since the regular season’s onset to warrant consistency in Hardy’s rotation.
All the same, at his best, he may be the most talented pure scorer of Utah’s young core, and has rotation-level skills when it comes to putting the ball in the basket. Otherwise, unfortunately, Brice is often lacking in most other aspects of the game.
Taylor Hendricks | 4.4 ppg, 4.2 rpg
Index rating: Are you really going to make me say it?
He’s coming off an injury, yes, but regular-season Hendricks has been nothing short of a disaster. I will not put this man down while he’s still finding stable ground in the NBA (please believe me when I say no pun intended), for the first time since a freak accident against Dallas at the beginning of last season, but after a promising preseason, it’s clear that Taylor Hendricks has a very long way to go before he can become a reliable rotation forward.
It’s tough to say right now, but both Hendricks and Williams (Utah’s two highest draft picks before Ace) are trending towards being misses, rather than the emphatic hits many hoped they’d turn into.
Isaiah Collier | 7.5 ppg, 5.0 apg
Index rating: A shotputter’s chance
Isaiah Collier is just like a bulldog. Stout, powerful, and can’t really shoot the three. Coming off an early injury, Collier has been solid in his short time back. He’s quick and strong, a combination that can be hard to find in basketball, but he falls victim to the same ailment of other Scoot Henderson, Russell Westbrook achetyped players: he’s a very unreliable shooter, and that lowers his ceiling significantly. In Zay’s case, the ball comes out of his release like a shot put, with very little touch and rigid touch at the rim.
He’s not an ideal backcourt partner with Keyonte George, nor does his jump shot project favorably moving forward, but he’s a gifted passer and seems to be the ideal man to have operating the offense with the second unit.
Author’s Note: Stats are accurate up until Nov. 11. The article was submitted prior to the final against Indiana.
Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the NBA and College Sports since 2024.
