Jazz SLC Summer League: Two Huge Takeaways
Salt Lake City Summer League is in the books, and despite not getting a look at Taylor Hendricks or Brice Sensabaugh, there’s still plenty to talk about. Ochai Agbaji and Keyonte George are critical pieces to the Utah Jazz young core, and while there we saw some expected growing pains during Summer League action, I was impressed with both.
What have we learned? Let’s get into it.
Agbaji is a Prototype
As the saying goes, failure is the best teacher. This summer, the Jazz have asked Agbaji to step outside of his comfort zone and fulfill a role beyond his strengths as a basketball player. During his rookie season, he excelled as a spot-up shooter, cutter, and defender.
Even dating back to his college career at Kansas, the NCAA Final 4 Most Outstanding Player wasn’t asked to be a primary creator. The Jazz allowed him to experiment with pieces of his game this week that he’s not used to, and it showed.
Agbaji does not have a super advanced handle or the skill set to break his defender down off the dribble, yet. His willingness to struggle will only benefit his development as a basketball player, though. As he’s already started to show, I expect him to get more and more comfortable making decisions with the ball in his hands this summer.
Even with the expanded role, you could still see Agbaji's strengths shining this week. 3 and D wings are the most valuable commodity in the NBA, and the Jazz have a prototypical one.
Agbaji shot 12-of-28 (42.9%) from deep over the three games. Defensively, he was all over the floor; his length and athleticism are things the Jazz backcourt has lacked for years. He has already proven that he has a valuable NBA skill set; everything else he gives you is just icing on top.
George: The Future Point Guard
My oh my, is George a gifted offensive player. I was beyond impressed with how poised he was with the ball in his hands.
You could see the Jazz rookie's natural desire and ability to score the ball. More importantly, his passing was really good. George handed out 13 assists in the three games, an extremely encouraging number.
The rookie made several high-level passes threading the needle both in transition and into traffic. Similar to how we watched Donovan Mitchell develop his skills as a passer for the Jazz, George will be able to become an efficient lead guard in the future.
The one big improvement area for George is going to be defensive. He competed well and made some good plays. The overall consistency wasn’t great, and he still needs time to learn where to be and how to stay engaged throughout the possession. Overall, though, it was a wonderful debut week for the Jazz's future point guard.
Bottom Line
I’m excited to watch as both of these young players continue to round out their skill sets this summer. Hopefully, they will be joined soon by Hendricks and Sensabaugh as the Jazz take on the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
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