IF YOU CAN REMEMBER, Taylor Hendricks was the first lottery pick in this reset era of Utah Jazz basketball. The first flower to sprout after the nuclear fallout of the Gobert and Mitchell trades. Selected ninth overall out of Central Florida in 2023, Hendricks parachuted onto the scene as the metaphorical first step toward the new age of hoops under the shadow of the Wasatch Mountain Range.
Alongside fellow classmen in Baylor’s Keyonte George and Ohio State’s Brice Sensabaugh, Hendricks glimmered
defensive upside and a 3-point barrage at his fingertips. Untapped potential was foundational in his pre-draft evaluations. A versatile personification of a padlock fused to a sniper rifle, he’d halt any offensive traction on one end, and finish the job with deadly precision on the other. Hendricks embodied the prototypical and highly effective 3-and-D archetype on the wing.
Now approaches 2025-26. Hendricks, entering his third season in the NBA, sparks some considerable contemplation in my brain’s ever-swirling vortex. An endless wave of questions pester me like torrential rain.
What’s a reasonable expectation for this season? Will he recover alright? Is he injury-prone? Has his ceiling been lowered by his break? What is his spot with the Jazz moving forward? Have we even seen enough of him to adequately estimate his progress? Do we really know who he is on an NBA floor?
The basketball fates have not been kind to Hendricks. Thanks to a horrible injury, we’ve seen very little of him in NBA competition. In that empty void, many can’t help but speculate.
During the offseason, this is all NBA fans have to keep their minds entertained: hypotheticals. Questions. What if this, what if that? We as basketball-brains crave something — anything — to address the intensifying itch of severe basketball withdrawal. Some become so desperate as to seek comfort in — shudders — football. The very idea brings a chill to my spine.
So, here’s where the offseason Wheel-O-Wonder has landed: Taylor Hendricks. Who is he, what does he bring to the Jazz, and with the small sample size at our disposal, can we even accurately guess what’s going on with Utah’s former top-10 hope?
Who is Taylor Hendricks?
Hendricks now has two years of professional experience on the hardwood, but in only 43 total games, it’s difficult to project what to expect from the wing upon his return at the beginning of the season.
In 40 games as a rookie, Hendricks’ body had yet to catch up to his athleticism. A great motor and all the tangible elements of a stellar defender, this UCF product flashed glimpses of quality contribution in a highly sought-after role for modern NBA franchises. Someone who can guard the other teams’ best wings and forwards while offering a pressure-release valve in the form of reliable outside shooting.
That’s the idealized Taylor Hendricks. But that’s not something we’ve seen since his leg absolutely betrayed him on a wet spot in Dallas. A sickening list of dislocations and fractures. A scarring event to witness, and ever more scarring to suffer. Only three games into his sophomore season, Hendricks was resigned to recover from the sidelines. On the path to recovery, there are no guarantees one will meet their desired destination.
He’s in the in-between now.
At what point do we know when he’s “fully recovered”? When can you look at his impact and confidently nod that this is the unobstructed Taylor Hendricks? In a prime, refined state, what does reality have in store for Utah’s perimeter ace (Ace Bailey notwithstanding)? Honesty hour: I have no Earthly idea.
In a prime, refined state, what does reality have in store for Utah’s perimeter ace? Honesty hour: I have no Earthly idea.
Fortunately, he’s still only 22 years old. Assuming the team handles his recovery properly (they have no reason to rush him back), his NBA career has still only begun. Crazy, I know. Supporting a tanking basketball team tends to abduct the user into some sort of paradoxical time-warp, slowing down the passage of the minute hand to a grotesque crawl. But yeah, we’ve only seen three full seasons of Utah Jazz-flavored horror on the basketball court. It feels longer.
At his young age, he has plenty of time to recover. It’s good to know that Taylor himself seems in high spirits over his situation.
“The way this season went, I’m going to keep that in mind,” Hendricks explained in an interview with Slam Magazine. “Anytime it gets hard, just think about where you were a year ago. You weren’t able to play, you weren’t even able to walk. So I feel like things like that will definitely help me push through. Be grateful and have gratitude for where I am — or where I will be.”
Where he will be. An admirable outlook, considering the situation. His injury has often been compared to that of Gordon Hayward, who suffered a comparable freak leg injury during his first game in a Celtics uniform.
Hayward suffered that injury at 27 years of age in 2017. That was supposed to be the prime of his career, but he would be riddled with aches and pains for the rest of his NBA experience, retiring at 33. He was never the same player we saw in Utah again, never averaged 20 points, and only played more than 52 games in a year once post-incident.
Those injuries were sporadic, unpredictable, and seemingly unrelated for the most part, and in no way am I planting a flag in the ground to announce that Hendricks will see a similar trajectory from this point. But the worry is there.
In a very small sample, Hendricks averaged five rebounds, 1.7 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game last season. His scoring took a bit of a dip, but again, he never even finished his third game. I don’t know how to fairly project Hendricks’ trajectory upon his return because we haven’t seen him play basketball in a very long time.
Who is Taylor Hendricks, the basketball player? Patience will deliver answers better than I could. But he’ll have the support of his team and the entire Jazz community behind him.
Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the Utah Jazz and BYU athletics since 2024.
