Keyonte George, a season of redemption

Whether it was his baseline dunk against Sacramento in the NBA Cup, his career high 39 points to beat the Grizzlies in Memphis, his incredible 4-point drive in a brutal finish against Orlando or his game-winning shot against Chicago, feats Keionte George they are starting to multiply in recent weeks… and are actually becoming the norm!

A big feat for the 22-year-old guard who is among the top 20 scorers and top 10 passers this season, although he struggled and even experienced a small existential crisis during his second season, in the collective decline of the Jazz, dead last in the League last year with a dismal record of 17 wins and 65 losses.

Big question

“My end-of-season interview was pretty brutal”he recognized Đorđe u Deseret News. He had to show more maturity in his approach, attitude and game. Among the worst defenders in the League, he questioned himself.

And the result is convincing: the young guard scored 24 points from 17, from 5 to 7 assists and from 39 to 44 percent on shots. To make matters worse, he made a huge jump in shooting, nearly doubling his total from last season (from 4.3 to 7.5), shooting a blistering 91% in practice.

Moreover, George understood the role of a leader. And incidentally as a leader, in his third year under Will Hardy.

“My role is to put the ball in the hands of our creators, whether it’s Lauri, Walker, or Brees or whatever. I have to get the ball in the right spaces. When we give it to Lauri and he has space in front of him in transition, he’s a monster. I have to find our shooters, too, because they’re the ones who are going to defend when they can loosen the grip and I can loosen the grip. open shot.”

Cohesion Week this summer

This summer, George took the message to heart, and also took the initiative to organize a small trip between the players for a week, near Dallas (where the guard is from – Louisville, to be exact, 37 km from the Texas city). An initiative that his coach Will Hardy welcomed with both hands.

“My answer was: of course! Generally speaking, all the best teams I’ve been on have had very strong human bonds within the group. And I think our guys really try to build a team by spending a lot of time together.”

In the end, seven of the eighteen players from the jazz team (Taylor Hendricks, Brice Sensabo, Ace Bailey, Elijah Harkless, Walter Clayton Jr. John Tonje) met for a week of various activities.

“One of the hardest things in the NBA is building camaraderie.” adds Đorđe u Deseret News. “It’s easy in college, just because we’re always around each other and close on campus. But in the NBA, we each have our own lives. … I never did things like that in my first two years in the league, but it was definitely something important to me.”

Real success for a young group that needs to develop its chemistry. “It was an important moment for us and we must continue to have initiatives like this in the future”abonde Sensabaugh. “It was very impressive for all the guys that were there, and it was only four or five days. It creates a different type of relationship with the teammates, it was very important.”

More mature, (therefore) more efficient

More of a scorer than a leader in the organization, the Baylor alum took time to find himself. But this year he found his cruising speed. After two years of childhood, he now has a better command of his subject. And Jazz is not doing any worse, with 10 wins and 18 losses on the verge of “play in”.

More efficient than ever in shooting, he can still experience some lags between his unstoppable desire to score and the leader’s duty to keep the ball alive, but George has clearly improved in passing, appearing in the League’s Top 10 (10th), with 7 offers per match.

“I see someone who is very comfortable in their environment”explains coach Hardy in Sports Illustrated. “He’s comfortable with everybody in the franchise. We see the interaction between players and between players and staff during games, but we don’t see it happening behind the scenes, with the medical staff, with the assistants. Keyonte’s demeanor shows how much he trusts all these people around him.”

The only problem is his 3 turnovers per game and his 3-point skill is not increasing, at only 35.3%. This is the best of his career, and there has been some improvement lately, but it still isn’t enough to punish opposing defenses. A new step in your Salt Lake cocoon.

“He stayed in Utah to work on his game over the summer. He really calmed down and focused on the group. It’s not easy to commit like that, sometimes I have trouble doing it alone.” Hardy admits – and concludes: “but he did it because he has full confidence in the group. He has earned tremendous respect from his teammates because of his work ethic.”

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How to read statistics? MJ = matches played; Min = Minute; Shots = Shots Successful / Shots Attempted; 3 points = 3 points / attempt 3 points; LF = free throws made / free throws attempted; Off = offensive rebound; Def=defensive jump; Tot = Total number of jumps; Pd = assists; Fte: Personal mistakes; Int = intercepts; Bp = lost balls; Ct: Against; Points = Points.