There\u2019s some good news and some bad news on the Utah Jazz front.<\/p>\n
The good news is that Keyonte George returned to the lineup on Saturday against the New Orleans Pelicans for the first time since Feb. 7! <\/p>\n
The bad news is that we are at the point in the season where the two-way guys are starting games.<\/p>\n
So, it\u2019s a bit of a mixed bag that Jazz fans are going to have to deal with as the doldrums of the season stretch on for another 22 games.<\/p>\n
Keyonte George<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a rough few weeks for the Jazz\u2019s starting point guard, who started out the month of February with a sprained left ankle only to return to play on Feb. 7 and sprain his right ankle after just 13 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be completely honest, there was a little frustration,\u201d George said. \u201cI just love the game, these guys, the locker room and everybody on staff. They feel like family to me, so when I can\u2019t give everything that I feel like I can give, I don\u2019t know. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just didn\u2019t know how to feel on game days…I didn\u2019t know what to do with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
George usually spends the majority of his free time watching basketball \u2014 reviewing tape of the Jazz or watching the rest of the teams across the NBA \u2014 but he didn\u2019t want to drive himself crazy watching basketball and not being able to participate, so instead he\u2019s been binging \u201cScandal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShout out Olivia Pope,\u201d George said, referring to Kerry Washington\u2019s character in the ABC drama.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, George was limited to playing just 23 minutes and scored 17 points to go with four assists in the Jazz\u2019s 115-105 loss to the Pelicans.<\/p>\n
The minutes restriction (somewhere between 20 and 24, according to Jazz head coach Will Hardy), will probably last a little longer, but George said he\u2019s feeling great and there was no soreness or issues in his return.<\/p>\n
The end of the roster<\/p>\n
Though George was back on the court, he was joined in the starting lineup by Ace Bailey, Kyle Filipowski, Cody Williams and two-way player Blake Hinson. Two way guard Elijah Harkless also played 28 minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sign of where we are in the season, but there are silver linings, I promise. Teams don\u2019t usually get to have such extended run from their two-way players in NBA games, so this opportunity is really great for these guys.<\/p>\n
If not for the Oklahoma City Thunder giving Lu Dort the same opportunity when he was on a two-way deal, they may not have found an All-Defensive First Team starter for the championship squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re understanding and continuing to form their NBA identity,\u201d Hardy said of the two two-way players. \u201cEJ is probably a little bit further along than Blake, just based on some opportunity, and his identity seems to be relatively clear in this moment. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that Blake gives us some great spacing offensively, and I think when Blake plays off the catch, he\u2019s been dangerous for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
With an eye on the future, these games will matter when determining who is deserving of more time under the same kind of deal, who maybe deserves to be converted to a standard deal and who is not worth the team\u2019s time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s some good news and some bad news on the Utah Jazz front. The good news is that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,423,6,1111,422,427,3972],"class_list":{"0":"post-631904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jazz","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-news-feed-local","12":"tag-utah","13":"tag-utah-jazz","14":"tag-utahjazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116152819055867592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}