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Lauri Markkanen had some familiar faces in the stands as Finland hosted Iceland in a friendly ahead of the upcoming FIBA World Cup qualifying window. The Utah Jazz forward finished with 17 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals, helping Finland secure a 93-78 victory in Espoo. Markkanen had spent the previous days showing Helsinki to Jazz teammates Jaren Jackson Jr. and Keyonte George, head coach Will Hardy and team owner Ryan Smith, who then attended Friday’s game.
The Sixers are already at roster capacity after signing another one of James' former teammates, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, to their last spot. And they already have two backup centers behind Joel Embiid in 23-year-old Adem Bona and 24-year-old Ariel Hukporti. Philly would need to make a move to accommodate the 38-year-old Love, who averaged 6.7 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 37.3% from 3 off the bench for the Jazz last season. Though Love has interest in pairing with James to pursue a championship, he has maintained a strong relationship with Jazz coach Will Hardy, serving as a veteran voice with that young group, sources said. Utah, however, also has a full roster.
Shams Charania: Free agent center Jusuf Nurkic intends to sign a two-year, $22 million contract to return to the Utah Jazz, sources tell ESPN. Nurkic thrived in coach Will Hardy's system and was excited about the Jazz new look roster. Utah officials worked through the deal with Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul on Monday.
Quietly, the Trail Blazers also interviewed Hawks assistant coach Bryan Bailey for Portland’s head coaching position, league sources told HoopsHype. Bailey has been an assistant coach for Quin Snyder with the Hawks and the Utah Jazz. He was also an assistant coach for Jazz coach Will Hardy.
Tim Reynolds: Want to hear something wild? Will Hardy now has the seventh-longest active tenure among all NBA coaches, after Jason Kidd's ouster in Dallas. Erik Spoelstra, Steve Kerr, Tyronn Lue, Mark Daigneault, Chris Finch, Rick Carlisle ... and then Will Hardy.
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And then Jamal Murray had a 31-point, 14-assist double-double and Nikola Jokić notched a 33-point, 15-rebound, 12-assist triple-double. So, yeah...the talent gap is massive. “Games like tonight are great more than the prep piece,” Hardy said. “It’s great for our young players to play against the top players and top teams in the league and continue to feel the level that’s needed to compete against the best.”
The three worst teams in the league - Indiana, Washington, and Sacramento - call the most timeouts. The Bulls and Pelicans are fourth and fifth in timeouts, and not much better in the standings. Meanwhile, the same is true on the other end. The teams that call the fewest timeouts include the Pistons, Rockets, Knicks, Celtics, and Thunder, five of the top six teams in net rating. They don’t often have to worry about their opponent going on a threatening scoring run. And then there’s the Utah Jazz. Utah has the fifth worst record in the NBA, is outscored by eight points per 100 possessions, but Head Coach Will Hardy hasn’t stepped in to stop the bleeding. In the past, Hardy has talked about the value of letting players learn how to handle pressure and communicate under duress while taking responsibility for fixing mistakes rather than being bailed out by a stoppage. He may also be scared from that one time he lost his team a game with a timeout.
RC Buford: “I think we had many coaches over the last 10 years who could have stepped into that role. Ime Udoka was with us, along with James Borrego, Brett Brown, Mike Budenholzer, and Will Hardy. There were many people with us who could have stepped into that role, but the longer Coach Pop stayed, the more those coaches moved on to other opportunities. When we needed Mitch to step up, he did so in a big way. It was incredibly emotional for him to take on that role. ‘Interim’ is probably the wrong word, because at the time of Pop’s stroke, we didn’t know whether Pop could come back. Mitch had that year to show the players—and all of us—who he could be as a coach.”
“There have been some other teams in the league that have guarded Jokic with smalls, and it’s about trying to wear him down make catches tough,” Hardy told reporters in the postgame press conference. “If you know a good coverage for Jokic, please email me.”
Sarah Todd: Multiple sources believe that Vince Williams Jr. suffered a significant ACL injury. He’ll have an MRI in Salt Lake tomorrow. Left the arena on crutches. Will Hardy on Vince Williams Jr. “It doesn’t look good, we’ll get an MRI.” On the play: “that’s not basketball”
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“With all of our young players, we are encouraging them to be free thinkers about their own career, about their own development,” Hardy explained. “It's about who they want to be as people, where they want to end up as players, because I think in today's world, we have so many individual trainers. We have strength coaches, and staffs have gotten bigger.” The alternative, Hardy warned, is a dangerous passivity. “So it can be easy for players,” admitted Hardy, “if they'd like, to check their phone, see the schedule that's laid out for them. They come to the facility and get what they should have for breakfast. We say here's the vitamins you should take. They go into the weight room, and it's two sets of something with eight reps of each. We got on the court and tell them where to shoot. They can go all day without making a decision for themselves.”
Q. The league fined the Jazz right before the game. Do you have any thoughts on that fine? Will Hardy: No. Q. Moving forward, their approach to fining you, will that have any effect on who you choose to play? Will Hardy: What do you mean their approach to fining us? Q. So if they continue to fine you for say sitting Lauri Markkanen in the fourth quarter, would you avoid doing that moving forward? Will Hardy: I sat Lauri because he was on a minutes restriction. So if our medical team puts a minutes restriction on Lauri, I'll try to keep Lauri healthy.
The Utah Jazz have found a brilliant loophole around that policy while still finding a way to tank. In the last two games, the Jazz started Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen and Jusuf Nurkić . Granted, Nurk isn’t a star player, but he’s being lumped in with All-Stars Markkanen and JJJ for a reason here. All three players started in Orlando and in Miami this past week. All three combined to play zero fourth-quarter minutes. In both games. All three clocked in at 25 minutes in the first three quarters and then sat in the fourth quarters of both games. In Orlando, the tanking worked like a charm. The Jazz gave up a 33-23 quarter to the Magic and lost the game by three. It did not work Monday night against the Heat. Utah accidentally won that game 115-111. When Jazz coach Will Hardy was asked after the Heat win whether he considered putting Markkanen or Jackson back in the game in the fourth, he answered simply: “No.”