Keyonte George has slowly been making his case as one of the NBA’s most improved players during the 2025-26 season, and on Friday night in Memphis he put on a pretty convincing performance in the Utah Jazz’s 130-126 win over the Grizzlies.

With a career-high 39 points, George led the Jazz, but the points came in rhythm and almost quietly. It’s how he is scoring and all of the other things he’s doing on the court that have made this season so different when compared to his previous two years in the league.

In shooting 12 of 20 overall Friday, George hit 5-of-9 from 3-point range and went 10 of 10 from the free throw line. His shots this season have overwhelmingly been either 3-pointers or shots at the rim, with the majority of the inefficient mid-range shots being cut out of his shot profile. Even more importantly, he’s not forcing up shots.

Additionally, through the first 24 games of this season, George has proven to be patient and regularly passes up his own good looks for a shot that is even better for a teammate, with proof of that being in his eight assists in the win over Memphis and continuing to make decisions to feed the hot hand.

While George had 39, Lauri Markkanen had 26 points and Kevin Love scored 13 of his 20 points in the third quarter alone, so it was a night of unselfishness that led to George’s outing.

“Keyonte played a terrific game start to finish,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “Obviously the foul trouble put him in a few tough spots there late in the game.”

That’s right. In addition to scoring a career-best 27 first-half points en route to an overall career high, George was also strapped with a high foul count and played the final 7:10 of the game with five.

The Jazz tried to take him away from plays defensively despite the fact that the Grizzlies were hunting him in an attempt take him out of the game via a sixth foul, but that didn’t stop George from making smart decisions, especially on the offensive end, where the foul risk was still ever present.

“He did a good job of picking his spots and playing with good patience, because when you have five, people who are going to step in and try to take charges, they’re going to try to bait you — hooking and grabbing,” Hardy said.

“I think he showed a lot of maturity in terms of keeping himself out of some tough spots where the whistle can go against you…Keyonte has grown so much.”

With just under a third of the season in the books, George will have plenty of time to continue making his case as one of the league’s most improved players and showing his teammates and the Jazz coaching staff that his growth can be trusted.

“He keeps getting better and better every game that we play,” Markkanen said. “It was just a matter of time for this to happen and it’s just the beginning for him.”