“It’s all intentional”: Will Hardy explains his louder, tougher coaching style.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy as the Utah Jazz host the Phoenix Suns, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Monday, Oct. 27 2025.
If you’ve watched a Utah Jazz game this season — or especially if you’ve attended one — you’ve been aware of something happening on the sidelines.
Jazz head coach Will Hardy is loud this year. Passionate. He’s yelling throughout the game, and especially in the direction of his players.
Maybe the most publicly shared moment in this respect came in the Jazz’s loss to the Phoenix Suns. Down just 8-4 to the Suns early in the first quarter, Hardy unleashed a tirade before his team ultimately suffered a bad road loss.
Here it is, as captured by Suns beat writer Duane Rankin:
Will Hardy had seen enough.
He jumped off the bench to call a timeout and was yelling at the players as they walked to the bench as Ryan Dunn scored off a Utah turnover.
Suns up 8-4. Jazz have three turnovers already. #Suns pic.twitter.com/vsnKz0tB6m
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) November 1, 2025
But this moment was just one of several, maybe dozens of occasions in the season’s first few weeks when Hardy’s been very vocal with his players. It’s also clearly different than the Hardy we saw most of last season.
Which led me to ask him about what was happening. Is this legitimate, first-degree frustration and anger he’s taking on the players that they’re not performing to his standard? Or is he intentionally yelling, in hopes of seeing a reaction that leads to better play?
“It’s all intentional,” Hardy said. “There is a real process right now of trying to have all of our players, especially our young players, understand that every time you take the court, you’re trying to win.”
Hardy said he is not a believer in the development philosophy of “trying to get 1% better every day.” Instead, he feels development is best served by a focus on the collective — and the result.
“If it’s a game day, we’re turning in the group project, and we’re seeing where we’re at,” Hardy said. “ … I feel like I need to give the team the urgency every single night to not let moments pass them by, to not take their minutes for granted, to not take this moment in their career for granted — because nothing’s guaranteed.”
Hardy also wasn’t shy of explaining why the incentives might be skewed. He noted that many of his young players might be thinking about their next contracts over what’s best for the Jazz and winning games right now.
“All of our young players are still on rookie scale contracts, and so they haven’t gotten quote-unquote ‘paid yet,’” Hardy explained. “And whatever their deals are … it’s still more money than you’ve ever seen. When you get rewarded for not winning, it’s hard to tell yourself that winning is the most important thing.”
So Hardy is taking a lesson from his former boss in San Antonio, Gregg Popovich, who famously was quick with the timeouts and vocal criticism while leading the Spurs to five championships during his tenure. Hardy is also taking one from Bob Knight, the former Indiana and NCAA champion coach, who Hardy said had one of the “greatest rants ever” about benching players.
For those unfamiliar with the story, Knight once said that “The greatest motivator in the world is your a– on the bench.”
“A– meets bench, bench retains a–, a– transmits signals to the brain, brain transmits signals to the body, body gets a– off bench and plays better. It’s a hell of a sequence,” Knight famously said.
It sounds harsh, and truth be told, it is. But Hardy is also giving his players credit for responding well.
“I’m lucky that I have a group of young men that understand and that have humility and take responsibility,” Hardy said. “We’re a young group growing together. I’m a young coach, and we’re trying to make sure that our collective mindset every night is right.”
The natural concern when a coach starts to yell at players too often is that they may start to tune out that criticism — but the Jazz’s players say that isn’t happening.
“That’s what I love about Will, he’s going to hold you accountable,” star forward Lauri Markkanen said. “Obviously, it’s not the ideal situation to have coach yell at you. But we shouldn’t be in that situation. I think we have guys that react well to it, and like to be coached hard and want to get better.”
Veteran center Jusuf Nurkic even went so far as to credit Hardy for the team’s response to the early road-trip struggles against Phoenix and Charlotte for the win against Boston.
“The reason we responded today is because the coach challenged us the day before and after the game, and, you know, was saying the right stuff,” Nurkic said. “And also, we believe in him, like, he’s a great leader. We have a great coaching staff, and they prepare us well.”
No one is realistically expecting the Jazz to win most of their games for the rest of the year — the roster is too young, too inexperienced for that. But Hardy is expecting them to compete on a night-to-night basis. Not later, but now.
“I want to make sure that our team knows that we’re here to compete to win. I just think that’s my biggest responsibility,” Hardy said.