The Jazz claim that they would like to assess their young players, but they cannot do so unless they participate.

More opportunities should be given to players like Micah Potter, Johnny Juzang, and the newcomers.

The Utah Jazz are not focused on winning in 2023–24. The rest of the season, so the powers that be say, should be devoted to the growth and opportunity for the young players on the team who haven’t had a lot of chances to log meaningful minutes in the NBA.

The Jazz have expressed their want to learn more about the players on two-way contracts, those who are near the end of the bench, and those who were just drafted.

All right, time is running out. The season has less than 20 games remaining, and there are still a lot of unknowns.

Rookies Taylor Hendricks and Brice Sensabaugh were promoted from their G League assignments after the trade deadline, and they have been a part of the Jazz rotation ever since, averaging 16.6 and 22 minutes a night, respectively. However, even though the Jazz front office made it clear that they wanted to see more, other players have only been given the fewest opportunity to play.

Two days after the trade deadline, on February 10, Jazz general manager Justin Zanik stated, “This is an opportunity for those young players that haven’t had a chance to get as many minutes.” “We definitely want to give them a chance to participate in important games right away.”

In addition to Hendricks and Sensabaugh, Zanik specifically listed guys like Luka Samanic, Johnny Juzang, Micah Potter, and two-way players. Furthermore, meaningful games entail meaningful plays and prolonged court time that would permit a valid assessment of some kind.

The Jazz have made it plain during the trade deadline for the second year running that they have no intention of increasing their chances of winning, at least not right now. In order to earn future draft money and retain flexibility going forward, the Jazz traded away their rotational players. The Jazz are committed to long-term planning, and a key component of their strategy is assessing every player they sign.

“We need to know more about the assets that we’ve already acquired and players that we have in order to calculate who will have a chance to be with us going forward in three, four, or five years,” Zanik stated. “At the end of the year, I’d like to know about some of the guys who haven’t had as many opportunities.”

Micah Potter, a two-way player, played 13 minutes for the Jazz on Tuesday night. In the two seasons that he has had a two-way contract with the Jazz, it was his tenth game with the franchise. With the Jazz, it was just his second time recording double-digit minutes.
It wasn’t until lately that Luka Samanic had minutes other than garbage time because Hendricks and Lauri Markkanen were out with injuries. When Keyonte George was sick and missed a few games last week, Johnny Juzang also saw his first meaningful run of the season. The Jazz have only played one minute with Jason Preston, who is also on a two-way contract. Additionally, the Jazz have signed Kenneth Lofton Jr. and Darius Bazley to nonguaranteed contracts, adding two more young players to the mix.

Let’s go over some of the issues and objections that I anticipate many people would have regarding providing so many young players with such a large amount of opportunities.

How would it look to give these players minutes? Would some of the team’s more seasoned players see a reduction in playing time?

Indeed. Indeed. However, to be honest, not much can be learned from players like Markkanen, Collin Sexton, John Collins, or Jordan Clarkson during the season’s last games. We are aware of those players’ abilities, as well as their advantages and disadvantages, and we also know where they still need to grow.

On Tuesday night, Collins and Clarkson each played for thirty minutes and almost thirty minutes. Even the guy with the expiring contract, Talen Horton-Tucker, who was not even in the rotation earlier in the season, managed to play 17 minutes in the Jazz’s defeat by the Celtics. Players like Juzang, Potter, and even Kira Lewis Jr., who the Jazz acquired in the trade that sent Kelly Olynyk and Ochai Agbaji to the Toronto Raptors, could receive more of those minutes.