We’re in the thick of the playoffs now and without our Jazzmen to root for it has me thinking about our very bright future. Assuming that everyone comes back, we have:
- An elite rim protector and walking double double threat in Walker Kessler
- Another elite rim protector, versatile defender, and former Defensive Player of the Year in Jaren Jackson Jr.
- An under-talked about Ace Bailey who really found his footing in the last 20 games (nearly 19 PPG, 1.2 blocks per game, and shot 36% from deep)
- A former All-Star that’s been basically put on ice for the last 3 years in Lauri Markkanen
- Really solid role players in Blake Hinson, Isaiah Collier, Brice Sensabaugh, Elijah Harkless, and Cody Williams
- Hopefully (fingers crossed) a top 3 pick in this year’s NBA Draft
- And of course our pride and joy Keyonte George
There are a lot of reasons to be excited for next season, and while I would love to sit here and pretend like we have everything we need to go on a championship run, I am able to recognize that we must take our baby steps. Our first step? Win more than 35 games. Second step? Allow Keyonte to be the guy he’s destined to be.
You could
compare his playstyle and usage to a lot of NBA players throughout the course of history but the one that I always get drawn back to is Tyler Herro, specifically the 2021-2022 season that Herro had. Now the teams were in VERY different situations at the time but Herro and George are a lot more similar than you might imagine.
If you can remember that season for the Miami Heat is was a very similar season to every season Jimmy Butler was in town: Jimmy moseys through the regular season (still managing to get an All-Star selection), Bam Adebayo had an incredible effort defensively and finished 4th in DPOY voting and earning 2nd Team All-Defensive honors, and then Tyler Herro had his breakout year averaging 20.7 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists a game, with 44.7/39.9/86.8 shooting splits and also won the 6th Man of the Year Award.
Overall it was a very solid performance by the Heat trio and it was good enough to get them all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals after securing the #1 Seed in the East. While I’d certainly be okay with having that kind of team success this year, it has been so incredibly difficult for me to not see that version of Tyler Herro in Keyonte George. Not the 6th Man of the Year mind you (although I think if we did ask him to play that role he’d win it by a country mile), but the microwave scoring, volume (but efficient) shooting, very solid facilitator who could give this team the edge that it desperately needs. When you compare Herro’s 2021-2022 season to Keyonte George last year, the stats don’t lie.
When comparing George directly to Herro’s 2021-2022 season you’ll see that he’s a better scorer, he’s more efficient at all three levels, he’s more impactful while he’s on the court, and even though it still isn’t as great as I would like it to be he’s a better defender as well. The only metric that Herro outperformed George in was the rebounding department, and while that is obviously very important in the game of basketball, having Lauri and Walker will more than make up for it.
It’s very difficult to compare eras of basketball even when they’re that close in range. Herro was an on-ball creator 29% of the time which was in the 92nd percentile in the league, while Keyonte was an on-ball creator 36% of the time but it was only in the 78th percentile. Even in four years the game has changed so much but the fact remains the same: Keyonte George has All-Star written all over him.
You can’t sit there and tell me that had we won a couple more games this year that 23.6/3.7/6.1 a night wouldn’t have been enough to sway some votes our way. Unfortunately, the way the All-Star voting is set up currently, we were kind of behind the 8-Ball. As far as the voting is concerned 50% of the vote comes from the fans and 25% of the vote comes from the media. Being a small market doesn’t exactly help us in that case. Most of the NBA fans would be considered causals; someone who doesn’t tune in until the Christmas Day games, only watches the weekly ESPN games, and is really only familiar with the biggest stars of the game. The media, on the other hand, have proven time and time again to be casuals because Stephen A. Smith has a vote and I don’t think he could name more than 4 Jazz players.
There isn’t really anything we can do about being a smaller market, but we can be at the forefront of people’s minds when it comes to the NBA and that’s by taking the leap that we all expect, and that starts with Keyonte and Co. I will maintain until the day I die that Keyonte was good enough to be an All-Star this year, but with a healthy team next year I think that he could be even more impactful and more efficient. Assuming that everyone is at full strength it’s going to be very difficult for the defense to chose between George, Markkanen, and JJJ. George will have more offensive weapons at his disposal so his playmaking numbers will only go up. With that extra offensive firepower on the court he won’t be asked to create everything for the team and he won’t suffer the FG% drop. With the added defensive presence of Jaren Jackson Jr. and the (again hopefully) returning Walker Kessler he won’t be viewed as a traffic cone, for the most part. As long as we win more games and George can capitalize on last season I think that he’ll become undeniable to the NBA fandom at large and we’ll finally have an All-Star again.
Is it lofty? Yes. Is it attainable? Also yes. I’m not a guy who just wishes for things without any real parameters, so he are my official hopes and predictions for Keyonte George and the team next year:
- Keyonte averages 26 points and 7 assists a night with a 62%+ TS%
- The Jazz win 37-39 games
- Jazz compete for a Play-In spot
- Steal the 8th seed
- Sweep the Thunder in the First Round
- Dominate the Timberwolves in the Second Round
- Beat the Spurs so bad in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals that they forfeit Games 2-4
- Dismantle the Knicks in the 2027 NBA Finals
- Hoist the Larry O’Brien for the first time ever
I think I might have gotten carried away at the end there, but what do you think Keyonte can accomplish next year? Do you think that he AND Lauri could be All-Stars? Sound off in the comments!
Be kind. Tell somebody that you love them.
