LOCKDOWN: Utah Jazz DOMINATE Rim Protection, KeYonte George and Walter Clayton STAND OUT Early!

LOCKDOWN: Utah Jazz DOMINATE Rim Protection, KeYonte George and Walter Clayton STAND OUT Early!

A whole lot of great stuff and a few stark reminders of the growth that has to happen next on Locked on Jazz. You are Locked on Jazz, your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello, how are you? I’m David Lockach and thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. Welcome to Locked On Jazz, your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz. giving you insight, expertise, geeky numbers, and hopefully making it way better to be a Jazz fan each and every day. We are free and available on all podcasting apps as well as on YouTube. And thank you for making Locked On your first listen of the day. To the Everydayers, you’re the best. Thank you for making the network and the show and everything what it is. I cannot thank you enough for that. Today’s show is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code locked in NBA for $20 off your first purchase. All right, here’s what we got. I do have a little late game watch from two games last night or yesterday. Uh we’ll jump on that quickly to end. We’ll preview Phoenix for you at the end of this as well. We’ll look at a few plays of video today on the YouTube, but hopefully audio will make that fine for you as well. with the big picture, lots of really, really good stuff and some stark reminders of the growth that we have to have, but the strengths of a bunch of our players are flourishing right now, which is pretty great to see. So, let’s dig into that big picture. In the late eightame loss to Sacramento, we’re just seeing some massive progress. The biggest and most obvious massive progress we’re seeing right now is on the defensive end. The Jazz had a commitment defensively in that game that I’m not entirely sure we saw last year at all. And the big talking point this year has been to deny shots at the rim. And it’s only two games into the year, but the Jazz are allowing by far the fewest amount of shots at the rim of any team in the NBA. Now, they played the Clippers who don’t go to the rim much, and they played Sacramento that don’t go to the rim much, so that’s beneficial. But the Jazz are by far allowing the fewest shots in the NBA at the rim right now. Only 17, according to Cleaning the Glass, only 17% of oppon opponent shots are at the rim. Again, let me just put this in context context. Last year, the Clippers were 21st in the league at rim shots and Sacramento was 29th. and the opponent tonight, Phoenix, was 30th. So, we also have had a nice schedule to line up to do this, but it’s still the level that this is taking place is incredibly high. Um, and this is where this was the number one defensive emphasis by the Utah Jazz in the offseason was for guys to play defense, sacrifice their body, be willing to have contact at the rim, deny people from getting to the rim, and they’re doing it. they’re at at a a very very high level. So, it is a completely different mindset. And there’s like I have a few quibbles about things that happen, but frankly, if you’re going to commit at this level to cutting off the rim, you’re probably going to give some above the break threes. And late in the game the other night, the Jazz gave Malik Monk two or three looks that I thought were too good. And I thought they gave uh Zack Lavine a look that was too good. But if you’re committing and your first start of your foundational defense is to take away the rim, then that’s what happens. The second one that’s taken place in the LA in the first two games of the year is no runs. The Jazz have not given up any runs. I mean almost at all in the Sacramento game. I would I don’t think there was a run bigger than five or 6 in the entire game by Sacramento. They went on a 124 run in the first quarter. Okay, that became 16-6. It’s not really like we’re not talking that 80 run. The Kings went on an 80 run in the second quarter and other than that they’re really the Jazz have given up maybe a 102 run in the third. They’re just they’ve given up very very few runs so far. And honestly, what was kind of a signature of the team the last two years is that when things went wrong, they fell apart. So, the Jazz gave up one 8 to2 run, I think 80 run and one 102 run in that Sacramento game. That’s it. And that’s how on a night where you’re just not shooting the ball very well, you stay in the game. Jazz shot 32% from three, 44% overall. Not a particularly good shooting night. Not a particularly good offensive night, frankly. Um, but the Jazz stayed in the game. I mean, the Jazz have had the kind of the best offensive game of anyone in the NBA in their first game and then they came back to life a little bit, but that’s massively different. That’s an energy level, commitment, defense, all these other things. Um, and they stayed in a game when not shooting well. That’s really different. I don’t want to say we never did that last year, but it we didn’t do it with any regularity certainly. Um, but like we had 103 offensive rating that night. That’s in about the 11th or 12th percentile. We did not We shot the ball at 52% effective field goal percentage. That’s below league average and we turn the ball over 20% of the times. That’s a rough night. That’s a night where you get run and we didn’t get run. So, that’s pretty great. Um, and that those are the signs where things are just massively different. feel very very different and I think it’s why you’re enjoying watching so much in this. Um the overall energy and commitment it all plays into this. Um and and we’re very impressive. The last one that deserves a shout out is closing lineup for the Jazz in their first close game of the year included Walter Clayton. That I think was a little uh surprising. Not that the guy’s got kids got gumption. Kid’s got guts. Kid does a lot of really impressive things. He’s also not a kid. He’s older than every single one of these guys. Um, so maybe not entirely surprising, but telling when the Jazz closed with Filipowski, Kesler, Markin, Keonte, and I and Clayton. Bryce came in in and out for a few offensive possessions, but Clayton uh sensed out at the 319 mark. Philippowski came in and Clayton closed the game. He’s got a real knack. And I keep talking about the crooked box score he did again the other night. Five rebounds, three assists. He’s just making plays. You know, he’s going to have to the shots got to go down. He’s he was one for three from three the other night, which is just fine. Eventually, you got to throw in a two for five and then you put that all together and you’re fine. uh you’re three for eight and you’re really good. Uh so we’ll see on that. Obviously Ace the game is super fast for him and he is struggling. Um so that that was obvious if you watch that game 0 for five. Um you know just lots of times on the floor where he’s getting corrected. All right, let’s talk about some of the good down the stretch. We’ll do both. we’re going to do the good and then there were a few kind of stark reminders of what we needed where we need to get better. Um and we’ll show some video in the second segment today. Keonte was has just been terrific. Um there were four plays in the final seven minutes of this game that were elite. There were some play there was a forced possession here or there. Some people wanted to highlight that. Like I don’t think we can ask this kid to be perfect. Like most NBA players aren’t perfect. Um but he had four plays that were just great. Early in the fourth quarter, drive right, pick and roll, open side, over the head, skip pass to Flip in the left corner, and Flip burries the three big time. gets Dario Sarich on a mismatch. Daario Sarich can’t move. He takes him one-on-one, beats him to rack and scores. Maybe the most impressive two-play sequence of his career. And we’ll show this video coming up here. 106 left in the ball game. High pick and roll with Kesler is going to be the play. Sabonis has pre-popped out to the right side. It’s actually going to be kind of a what used to be called the Spain pick and roll. They’re going to run a pick and roll and Lowry’s going to set a back pick on K on Sabonis and pop out. The spacing’s messed up on it because Sabonis already pre-popped out. We’ll show you this to you or I will show this to you. He reads it perfectly, bursts with a left-hand drive to the rack and finishes a confidence and a belief and the athleticism and the strength and all the things he’s worked on coming to fruition right there. And then he takes a charge on the next play. Just terrific. Keonte has been fabulous, fabulous, fabulous in the last in the first two games of the season. All right, we’ll look at a little video. There were two or three stark reminders of like growth areas and truly like just how young we are. It’s next on Locked on Jazz. Monday edition of Locked on Jazz is brought to you by my friends over at Murdoch Chevy. It is that winter kind of time. You can feel it. Right now is the time. Go grab that Chevy truck. Maybe it’s the Silverado or the Colorado. Whichever one you’re looking for. The Silverado is the king. I saw one today yesterday parked in the parking lot where I was and I was just like, “Oh, that is just an awesome truck.” Right now, it is truck month. So, the 2026 Chevy Silverado is coming your direction at $2.9 APR and SE for 72 months plus $1,250 Costco executive membership incentive if you’re in on that. That’s all at truck month right now at Murdoch Hyundai. Also, great deals going on on the Chevy Equinox, the great lineups of SUVs, whether it’s the Blazer, the Equinox, and then the Silverado EV. They’ve got the Equinox and the Blazer and the Silverado, all in EV. So, it’s all taking place at Murdoch Chevy. Feel free to text me. Let’s get you the VIP treatment that you deserve over at Murdoch located in Woodscross, also located in Logan. Email me at dlock09gmail.com to get your VIP treatment. Today’s show is also brought to you by Monarch. Monarch is like having your own personal CFO. When you start using Monarch’s all-in-one personal finance tool, it brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or on your phone. 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Um, now let’s see if we can look at Let me see if I can get some video up here for a second because there was a two few defensive few plays I want to show. Um, the defensive play at the seven minute mark of this game. This is outstanding. Uh, absolutely outstanding in every way. Shruder comes up the right side of the floor. They run their patented pick and roll with Sabonis. Kesler pops out exactly supposed to. They’re playing two bigs. They’re playing Sarich and Sabonis, which is so common now. So, Sensab on the bottom baseline is the roll guy and has to make sure he catches the Sabonis roll so that Kesler can stay engaged and impact the ball. They hit Sabonis on the roll. Sense come over beautifully. Sabonis doesn’t have a lot of lift so he immediately turns his back into sens try to get it out of the corner. Kesler gets back but before Kesler can get back cuts off any pass to Sarge. Sabonis bobles the ball. Sabonis comes back out to the free throw line finds Sarge underneath the basket where the Jazz have lost him. But Sabonis and Sensab both hustle back create engulf him. He passes the corner where Mahiluk is still on him. And then Si plays his outside right shoulder perfectly pinning Lavine to the corner. There’s now seven on the shot clock. Lavine tries to go oneon-one. Mahalo guards him fabulously. Mahaluk’s been very good. If you want winning basketball, Mahil’s done that so far this year. Lavine’s now caught at the basket, bounces it back into Sabonis, who forces up a left-hand shot with a shot clock about to go off and it forces off rebound Kesler. The amount of different defensive actions that took place right there that the Jazz defended perfectly was just terrific. Just absolutely terrific in so so many ways. Um, I wanted to show one or two other plays if I could. Um, both I think there’s, you know, one or let’s look at two let’s look at key missing one and key getting one, right? And this is kind of where, like I said, it’s a stark reminder. Our guys are still growing up. They’ve got Keys here. Key H Keyy’s going to get it. Kesler has it up top. Key comes to get it. And this is kind of it’s a high pick and roll and we’ve got to get better pick and roll stuff. We are there are some signs of there’s a key play tonight where we or last night two nights ago where we weren’t good. So Kei runs this pick and roll. Pulls it back out and now Lowry pops left off to sensop pin down and Key misses it. Lowry is your best player and he’s wide open right now. Keyy’s got to find that and Key instead forces up a not very good shot. Key was awesome. That’s a that’s a growth moment. That’s that’s where I’m saying there’s a bunch of growth. There’s also these kind of stark moments where you’ve got to make a play. Philipowski makes this incredible pass at the two-minute mark of the game and at the same time and we can catch it here. He gets blown by by Dennis Shruder in a open floor situation. Not this one, but later. Here’s a Jazz playing defense. Lavine buries a three or shoots a three. Here’s the rebound. And this is the Philippowski pass. Philippowski has it and Keith sprints from the outside. The defense, it’s not a fast break. If you’re looking at the screen, the Jazz are generally not running up with a lot of energy. It’s a Philipowski’s got there’s three guys back and five guys were back in front of the Jazz. Only Clayton was out in front and he just literally outruns all of them and Philipowski finds him on a pass for beautiful play. Like that’s the kind of energy and effort we’re seeing. That’s absolutely fabulous. And then here’s a great read by Key. This is the play I was talking about earlier where Kei does just pretty much everything exactly right. We’ll watch the end of the defensive possession then be able to get into this as the Jazz really again deeing up. Lavine makes a tough jumper on the left baseline. One of the key shots of the game. But here come the Jazz down by three. Key comes to the front court. It’s going to be a Kesler’s going to set a pick. Lowry is going to come off that pick to pop out on the wing, but Sabonis has pre-jumped this play. He’s already hedging out on the Kesler pick. Shruder’s going to get over and Keith reverses direction, goes to the basket, lays it up and in. That is a big- time gutsy read by Keonte George here because if you’re just setting doing the read, you’re done. He crosses Shruder over and now Lowry is there. Lowry actually pops out. Lowry could have rolled too. He engages D Rozan and then with a left hand and power and explosion off one foot, Keonte makes that play. And that is also why I keep believing in Keonte. is there just aren’t that many guys who can make that play and then key takes a charge on the next end of things. There’s also some plays in here which like you know honestly like if you look at it the one some of the mistakes that got made Walker’s got to grab the rebound, right? He’s got the ball in his hands to win the game. He’s got to grab the rebound. The same time at the 9:45 mark of the first of the fourth quarter, Nerk’s got to grab a rebound that Sabonis takes away from him that kicks out to Monk for a three-point play. There’s a turnover on the Walker Kesler Keonte George pick and roll with about 330 left. And this is where I say it’s a stark reminder. If you remember last year, Walker on pick and rolls ranked 69th out of 71 bigs in efficiency on a pick and roll. And they missed they their Walker’s last year on Walker and pick and rolls was 87. So far this year he’s 0.94. So way better from 087 to 0.94. He’s in the middle of the pack right now. He’s like 57th percentile. So it’s super. We’re seeing growth. But on that big play, boy did they were they clunky. And we’re running the second fewest pick and rolls of anyone in the NBA. Miami has completely abandoned running the pick and roll. We’re only running 44 pick and rolls a game. Miami is running 22 pick and rolls a game. They’ve completely abandoned the pick and roll as part of their offense. And which is interesting because Spolster is a trends setter. So let’s keep an eye on this. But we’re running the second fewest pick and rolls of anyone in the league. That’s fine. We run two times more offball screens than anyone. We we run a different system. I admire that. It’s still the easy play. And frankly, if you just watch a bunch of the plays I showed you late in the game, you end up in pick and roll. You can run all this other stuff, but they play it and they switch it and they bang it, blow it up in the you end up in a pick and roll. You’ve got to have a good pick and roll game. So there it was late in the game. We’re playing pick and roll and Keith and Walker turn it over. They’ve just got to find that. That was, as I said, some stark reminders. Kyle Filipowski last year isolation defense out of 190. I think he ranked 168th, 1.08 possess points per possession. It’s not good. Shruder went and found and blew right by him. That pass is amazing. His off at three in the corner was great. He’s doing a bunch of great stuff. He’s got to find a way to play defensively in space. Walker’s got to find a way to be a good enough pick setter in a pick and roll big. These are things that over the course of the year we have seen. I thought Clayton gave Clayton was really good. I thought Clayton gave Monk too much space on two threes. That’s I think Clayton’s got to learn. He’s 6’2. He’s small. He’s not impacting shooting windows. These guys can really shoot it. He’s got to get out to the ball. Got to get out to the ball. I thought Bryce gave Lavine too much space. Got to realize this guy shot 45% from three last year. Is the best three-point shooter in the NBA last year, both off the bounce and catch and shoot. Got to get to him. I thought Bryce has played better defensively. And then on the last play of the game, we had utter panic. On the last inbound play of the game, it’s a long developing play, but Lowry is supposed to pop to the top. He’s actually pretty open. Key looked at the clock, saw that it was getting low, sprinted to the ball to be a bailout, kind of blew up the play. Okay, that’s fine. Again, you’re learning. That’s the part of it. And that’s exact. This is exactly what we want. We’re seeing some really great signs and some really big growth. And then we’re seeing some of the warts and issues of youth. And we’re seeing some of the warts of our game, the players games that have to develop. So that’s pretty great. Th those are the things that to me are exciting that we’re watching and make this season awesome. And if they play as hard and defense as they are, this is going to be a super fun six months, seven months. All right, we’ll preview the Phoenix Suns and some late game watch as we continue. Is there something wrong with Devin Booker? Maybe. Next on Locked on Jess. Today’s show is brought to you in part by Game Time. Game time is the official ticketing app of Locked On. And Game Time is giving you the opportunity to get $20 off your first purchase with a promo code locked on NBA. So, basketball season’s obviously here. Nothing beats being in the arena. So getting tickets can be a headache, but waiting in queues, surprise fees, all gone with Game Time, the app that gives the fans the advantage. It’s your ultimate life hack for scoring amazing NBA tickets fast and easy and stressfree game. Their zone deals are game changers. You pick the section, game time picks you, your seats, you save big. Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets for game time. Take the guesswork out of concerts. Take the guesswork out of NFL. Download the Game Time app. Create an account. Use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. That’s $20 off your first purchase with a promo code locked on NBA. L O C KNBA for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Today’s show is also brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel’s official sports book of Locked On. Go to fanduel.com to get the latest on everything going on. With the NBA being back, no better place to get in the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of a game and want to ride a hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into same game parlays for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps everything exciting, keeps every game riveting, especially when your team’s making the late push. So, right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of Locked On and the FanDuel sports book lines for tonight in the NBA. There’s a little NFL stuff going on. There’s a little Major League Baseball. It’s a sports all of everybody’s playing today. Jazz tonight are a one and a half point underdog to the Phoenix Suns. thought this could be a night where we could be favored. Um, interesting games tonight. Denver’s got Minnesota, but maybe no Anthony Edwards in that one. He’s left with the hamstring. Warriors are eight and a half point favorite over Memphis. And Portland is a two and a half point favorite in LA who do not have Luca or LeBron, but they have the hottest pick and roll player in the NBA and Austin Reeves right now. That’s all at FanDuel.com. All right, the Phoenix Suns won their first game against Sacramento. They went down 20 and then they came back to win and they have made a bad habit of going down 20 because in their next game they got blown out. Um, and then in against the Clippers, and that might have been the Jazz fault because they got a Clipper team that was ready and focused and lost 129 to 102. And then they played Denver and lost 133 to 111. Um, so Phoenix is off to a little bit of a rocky start with that one good win on the year. I don’t know what people really expected from Phoenix in that sense. um because of the fact that you know they lost Durant, they lost Beal, whatever that means. Um but they went down 20 for the first time against Denver at the 752 mark of the third quarter and then they went down 20 against the Clippers as well fairly quickly. So they have really been playing on the wrong side of the score in most of their games. Um they be playing their third game in four nights as well. They’re obviously led by Devin Booker, but I gotta tell you, it looked to it looks to me in some of the Booker’s got some interesting numbers right now. It’s early in the year and and I don’t want to make too big a deal out of this, but I’m just going to share with you what the data says and then you can decide what you think. So, first thing, Booker on the pick and roll right now is averaging 081 points per possession. It’s one of the worst rates of anyone in the league. So whether it’s Mark Williams who was a Mark Williams was a terrible pick and roll big in uh Charlotte we’re noting he was 86th out of 90. He and Walker Kesler were two of the worst pick and roll bigs in the NBA last year. And so maybe having Mark Williams is not helping Devin Booker all because Devin Booker who last year was 1.0 for the ninth most pick and rolls in the 70th percentile is now 081. Devin Booker last year in isolation was 1.12, fourth best of the top 60 isolation players in the NBA. He’s gone from 1.12 to 08. In the first quarter of games, Devin Booker shooting 43% and 33% from three. A in the second half he’s shooting 67%. Here’s an interesting one. when trailing by 10 or more this year, which has been a lot for them. Devin Booker is 16 of 26, 62% shooting. When the game has been within five points, not only has Deon Booker not shot very much, he’s been quiet, he’s only shot 40%. So interesting. They’re a heavy pick and roll team. They’re running about the seventh most amount of pick and rolls of anyone in the NBA. They do not get to the rim. We have been denying the rim incredibly. They’re only taking 25% of their shots at the rim. So, this is a great opportunity for us to like continue to kind of deny the rim. They’re taking 45% of their shots as threes. They have done a really good job of taking away corner threes in their opening three games. I don’t know if that’s because of who they played or what, but it’s worth kind of keeping an eye on um of whether we get corner threes or not. And then the other one is whether we can jump on them. I mean, just I do think there’s something the fact that this team has by the 7 minute mark of the third quarter of each of their games at some point they had already trailed by 20. So I don’t think this is a confident bunch with a brand with a first year head coach and Jordan not who’s not feeling great about the who’s not feeling great about themselves and so I think to some level if we’re playing with a little confidence in front of the home crowd feeling good about ourselves in the last few games can we jump on them that would be interesting they trailed by 20 against Sacramento at the 225 mark of the second quarter they trailed at the 11 minute mark of the third quarter by 20 against the Clippers and they trailed by 20 at the 752 mark in the third quarter against Denver. So this team’s struggling. They Phoenix and Boston early indicators might be battlers for the tank in an incredible draft class. I would but I don’t know Phoenix I don’t actually know if Phoenix has their draft pick and I don’t know if Dallas if I don’t know if actually either of those have their draft pick right now. So, let me retract that comment quickly before I let me check those things. Probably don’t have time to do it right now. I’ll try. Um, but the fact is that those those two teams both look early on here as though this is going to be a much bigger struggle than I think they realized. Uh, Phoenix does not have Phoenix pick is going to Memphis in some weird deal that involves the two middle picks of Memphis, Orlando, and Phoenix and Washington. But it’s I and there’s some protections. I’ll have to get an understanding of it tonight. I do not did not follow that quickly for you. And Boston, I think Boston has their draft capital. And I think Boston has their draft capital and Boston’s not going to win games this year. All right, lateg game watch quickly. Watch two-1 games last night at the end. Milwaukee vers Cleveland. Donovan was incredible. Um Donovan hit a shot over Giannis. It was crazy. Donovan, they’re playing against Milwaukee zone and Donovan goes in the middle of zone, hits a floater, and then Donovan goes one-on-one. I mean, he was great. Holy smokes was he great. Um and clutch in a way that he hasn’t always been. Milwaukee was playing a lot of zone. Giannis is basically playing point guard. Y Milwaukeee’s got a new kid, Ryan Rollins, who’s I think in his second or third year, who’s been play who’s playing a lot of point guard, getting a lot of time, was actually pretty impressive. Um, Milwaukee’s running Giannis free throw isolation. The way um, Philadelphia used to run Embiid free throw line isolation and the way that San Antonio is running WBY isolation and it’s at the free throw line. And I I don’t know what you do with it. I I don’t know how you guard that. I mean, it’s what we tried with Lowry and just can’t quite get him to do. Uh, Indiana played Minnesota, no ant. So, they had tried Bones High at point guard. He throws it over twice. Then they have to bring then they then they try Denzo at point guard and he can’t get it going. So, then they bring in Connley at the for a few minutes, but then they pull Connley and bring in Jaylen Clark. I mean, Mike Connley, it’s they are not doing much with him without Ant. They go to Randall and Randle plays pure isolation which is actually was pretty impressive. Um Indiana just super limited. They finished with Ben Shepard, Pascal Seakum, Tony Bradley, Aaron Nesmith, and then a kid named Ray J. Dennis out of Baylor who played a lot and actually looked pretty good. Um Shepard really struggled late, made a bunch of bad plays. He’s probably not ready for that kind of minutes. Um, by the way, Rudy Gobear’s completely clean shaving his head. And then maybe the key play of the night, what’s interesting, as much as Mike Connley’s kind of drifting out of this. This is what’s so interesting is here it was big- time play, big time moment, and Mike Connley hits a pick and roll with Rudy Goar and Rudy gets fouled and goes to the free throw line and Mike Connley totally made the play. So, no ant. So, it’s a little weird, but I will say Minnesota’s point guard issue is real. Two other teams I watched a little bit this year that I did not was not very high on to start the year that I don’t think look very good are both Houston and Orlando. They were kind of everyone’s in picks and I just can’t get it. Reed Shepard is really struggling. They really need him. And Orlando’s offense is just not good enough. Orlando’s offense is clunky. They came out badly on points gained. They have 240 minutes, but they are clunky. And we’ll see how that plays out. All right, that’s quick rundown. I got more for you coming up this week. Jazz Phoenix, remember you can watch us on SCG Plus this year. sync it um on the broadcast. You can do that audio league pass, SiriusXM, KSL sports radio and in the arena. Thanks very much. Have a great night. Thank or great day. Talk to you soon. Now we sing the first ever 247 national NBA channel, Locked on NBA, or check out Locked on NBA on audio with Matt Hayes and

Utah Jazz showcase a new defensive identity, stifling opponents’ rim attempts and staying resilient against runs. Can Keonte George and Walker Kessler’s growth fuel a turnaround season for Will Hardy’s young squad?

David Locke breaks down the Jazz’s latest matches, spotlighting Keonte George’s clutch plays, Walker Kessler’s evolving pick-and-roll presence, and surprising closing moments from Walter Clayton. The episode digs into Utah Jazz’s defensive strategy, adjustments in late-game situations, key misses, and moments that highlight both promise and inexperience. With an upcoming battle against the Phoenix Suns—who are nursing early struggles and inconsistent offense—Locke examines what it’ll take for the Jazz to capitalize and whether Phoenix’s stars can respond.

Tune in for all the data-driven insight, player assessments, and what these patterns say about the Jazz’s future trajectory.

Locked On Jazz Podcast 💻 https://www.lockedonjazz.net

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All investments involve risk, including loss of principal. Options, futures, and crypto trading carry significant risk and may not suit all investors. Securities offered through Robinhood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Futures trading is offered by Robinhood Derivatives, LLC and not SPIC or FDIC protected. Crypto offered through Robinhood Crypto, LLC (NMLS ID 1702840), not FDIC or SIPC protected. Portfolio management offered by Robinhood Strategies, an SEC-registered advisor.

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