6 days Ago
Say a prayer for Will Hardy . On second thought, don’t. And don’t pity him, either.
The Jazz coach doesn’t want your pity or your prayers. Whether he needs them is another matter. But he doesn’t seem to look at it like that.
What he sees is that he’s got a job to do and he’ll do his best to do the freaking job, whatever it looks like, embracing the ugly and the attractive. Even if that first part is to straight lose, to bear the brunt of losing. And rebound from it later.
Say it any way you want, but that’s what he was told to do in the just-ended Jazz season. And the coach was, as general manager Justin Zanik said in his season wrap on Monday, great at his job. The Jazz had the worst record in the NBA this year, and the worst record in franchise history.
That’s evidence of a man committed to the cause, even if he could have — had he been left to his own devices and designs — piled up more wins. Let’s all acknowledge what is real here: Hardy is a coach of such acumen and ability that he has no business, no matter who he’s coaching, to lose 65 games and win just 17. That took some dogged effort.
Such an abysmal win total, though, guarantees the Jazz a top-five pick in the coming NBA draft, and gives them the best shot at getting to No. 1. The lottery order will be set on May 12.
If Cooper Flagg is the reward , it’s good to be bad. Either way, the Jazz feel rather confident that they will get a player who will make them less bad. “We’re going to be able to add a good player,” said Zanik.
Maybe one, maybe two. Zanik was asked: Is Will the coach you want once you have the players you want? “Absolutely,” he said. “.
.. He’s a huge asset to our organization.
” An attendant question subsequently put to Hardy was: Do you want to be here? Thus far, his head coaching record (85-161), has been pretty much destroyed by the organization to which he’s been such a huge asset. “I’m committed here,” he said. “.
.. I’m putting my roots here in Utah.
” (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy, center, keeps an eye on game action alongside his assistant coaches as the Utah Jazz host the Houston Rockets during an NBA basketball game at the Delta Center, Thursday, March 27, 2025. That doesn’t guarantee exactly where Hardy’s branches will sprout, but anyone with eyes to see knows he’s been given the shortest of shrifts by the Jazz, that the numbers speak more to management than to coaching. “Our first goal is to build a championship-competitive team to go deep in the playoffs,” said Zanik, who, like Popeye in the old cartoon, spoke loudly to the kids, but who added out the side of his mouth a whisper to the adults: “It takes time.
” In the Jazz’s case, it takes time and tanks, tanks or no tanks. Hardy is the elasticized coach who was handed the helm when he was 34, tasked with plowing what was left of the Jazz ship through 100-foot swells. Around NBA circles, he had theretofore been known as a smart, capable assistant who might be rocksteady enough to withstand what the Jazz would ask of him.
Namely, to achieve two things that seem diametrically opposed to each other — to lose and to create a winning environment, and to do so on a team mixed with many young players in need of patience, tutoring and growth and a few oldsters who not only had been around, but who wanted to hit the throttle hard. Zanik on Monday called Hardy an “unbelievable teacher.” A slice of that teaching ability includes being frank and forthright.
Hardy is both, as was witnessed by his Monday assessments, especially regarding some of the young players he’s trying to mentor. Of Cody Williams, Hardy said his body needs work, as does his shooting. Of Isaiah Collier, he said he needs to make conditioning his point guard super-power, and shoot the ball better.
Of Kyle Filipowski, he said he “has got to become more solid on the defensive end.” Of Keyonte George, he said, “Keyonte has got to improve his defense. .
.. His shooting discipline needs to improve.
” Of Taylor Hendricks, he said he’s “got to get healthy.” As for Brice Sensabaugh, the coach said he can shoot it, but he “has to make his body his No. 1 priority.
” (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Jazz forward John Collins (20) and Will Hardy as the Utah Jazz host the San Antonio Spurs, NBA basketball in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. A main attribute in bringing his younger players along, Hardy said, as he was told once by a wise sage, “Coaching isn’t about being right, it’s about being right at the right time.
” Beats me, exactly what he meant by that, but maybe what he might have meant is that timing is important in feeding youngsters information, to not drown them with too much of it all at once. Zanik said already Hardy has achieved with Jazz players early in their development something some players never learn — to listen and to hear their coach. “They know,” Zanik said, “he’s invested in their individual success.
” Said Hardy: “We will coach whoever’s on the roster,” and help them, he added in so many words, to be the best they can be. Looking ahead to whatever promising contributors the Jazz might add via the draft or other deals, Hardy said, with a shovelful of exaggeration: “We have a bunch of talent in the building.” No, they do not.
What they actually have is (italics)some(end italics) talent in the building. But Hardy wants to transform the few capable caterpillars he has — or will have — into butterflies and Blackhawks, into the second half of the diametrically opposed equation, the winning part. “The environment is the most important thing,” he said.
“We have to cultivate a group of people, players and staff, that gives everyone the best chance to grow into the best versions of themselves. ..
. We want good players, but the type of people is most important.” Which is to say, Will Hardy doesn’t want anyone’s pity or prayers, quite the contrary.
He wants at some time in the future — while we’re young? — a collection of bright, mean, competitive, aggressive players who’d rather come together to body you off the block and dust a jumper straight into your mug en route to victory than yield an easy path to the basket and hopelessly flail around on 50 miles of bad road toward another six months of defeat. “You’re betting on human behavior,” he said. “It’s about the human piece.
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The goal for me is to put a banner in the Delta Center.” Yeah, that goal is the only thing that’s made the losing worth the wait. Note to readers • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only.
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