Here’s the scenario:
You’re an entry-level employee at your dream job. You don’t have a ton of responsibility just yet, but there’s definitely some potential for upward mobility. All you have to do is perform
well and hope that a little luck rolls your way.
Your boss comes to you and says, “Hey buddy,” — you’re still so low-level that your superiors call you buddy —“Cathy is gonna be out on vacation and both James and Lauren came down with the flu. You’re gonna need to fill in and do some extra work while they’re gone.”
If you excel, you not only have the potential to rise in the office hierarchy, you have the chance to make a lot more money. Life-changing money even.
Can you picture it? Good.
That was the situation that third-year player Taylor Hendricks found himself in last week against the Celtics and Clippers. Injuries and load management for a tanking Jazz team led to a wide open spot in the starting lineup for Hendricks.
Unfortunately for Hendricks, he performed so poorly that not only did he not rise in the office hierarchy, he might’ve been demoted to just one level above the interns.
Hendricks’ performance in his two starts
Against the Celtics on Tuesday, Hendricks replaced an injured Ski Mykhailiuk in the starting lineup to make a lengthy starting unit. Unfortunately for the Jazz, Hendricks didn’t shoot nearly as well as Mykhailiuk and his defense wasn’t good enough to justify his playing time.
He finished with three points on 1-of-4 shooting and only logged 17 minutes and 26 seconds of playtime.
Against the Clippers on New Year’s Day, it only got worse for Hendricks. With an injured Jusuf Nurkic, Hendricks got his chance to start at center, a position that many fans have been clamoring for him to play. In two minutes, Hendricks picked up two quick fouls, prompting Hardy to sub him out.
In only 16 minutes of play, Hendricks had five fouls, scored five points and only snagged two rebounds as the starting center.
In back-to-back starts, Hendricks only averaged four points a game.
Needless to say, he did not earn a promotion. He came off the bench the following game against the Warriors and only managed to score one point. One point.
So what do the Jazz do with Hendricks?
For a long time, Hendricks was being held on a long leash because of his gruesome leg injury only three games into last season. It’s hard to come back after not playing basketball for a year.
But it’s come to a point now where people are starting to lose patience. We’re almost half way through the season and there have been no signs that Hendricks can be a serviceable NBA player on a good team.
The assumption when drafting Hendricks at No. 9 overall in 2023 was that even though he was a project, he had the potential to be the picture-perfect 3-&-D type player. Think Jae Crowder but with freakish athleticism and length. But he has yet to hit the 3-point shot with serious volume, and his defense isn’t good enough to give him serious minutes on one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA.
Sarah Todd, Jazz beat reporter for the Deseret News, said it best when talking about Hendricks on The Athletic NBA Daily:
“Taylor Hendricks has two NBA things that can keep him in the league: He can shoot the three and he is strong and big… the problem is we have no idea if Taylor Hendricks can reliably play basketball.”
Sarah Todd
Todd is right. The two things that Hendricks is supposed to be great at, his 3-point shooting and and defensive size, he’s just not great at. It’s hard to justify giving minutes to a player whose only skills aren’t on display.
It’s time to face the facts.
Taylor Hendricks will not be an important player on the next Jazz playoff team, whenever that may be.
