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SALT LAKE CITY — Golden State coach Steve Kerr believes there will be better days ahead for the Utah Jazz.
The reason? Will Hardy.
"I just think Will is a star," Kerr said of the Jazz head coach. "I think he's one of the brightest coaches in the league. He's obviously coaching a young team that he hasn't been able to really show what he could do yet as a coach."
That youthful team, though, showed up on Friday in the Warriors' 127-86 win over Utah at the Delta Center.
Lauri Markkanen struggled to a 4-of-17 night for 13 points, and the Jazz (0-2) shot 32% as a team and 21% from the 3-point range. Things were so bad that John Collins was named the team's efficiency report player of the game by going just 4-of-10 and having three turnovers.
Yup, it was a rough night.
"That wasn't pretty," Hardy said. "There's a bunch of things to maybe point at, but I do recognize for the guys that it did feel like one of those nights where, for whatever the reasons are, we couldn't make a shot."
Late in the fourth quarter, when the game was well out of hand, Keyonte George stole the ball and got out into the open court. He went for an uncontested dunk … and clanked it off the back of the rim.
"It was just a testament of how the game was going," said George, who did hit three 3-pointers in the loss. "I mean, we couldn't throw the ball in the ocean. Go up and dunk and you miss, so it is what it is. I mean, you can't hang your head down."
Rookie center Kyle Filipowski, who got his first NBA minutes in the blowout, grabbed the rebound and was in position for a putback, but George was still hanging on the rim, so the shot didn't count. It was just one of those nights.
"He came up to me, and told me he was a little mad," George said with a smile.
Filipowski actually thought he was going to get called for a travel before the shot, and was glad his first NBA bucket didn't come in such an error-filled way. Though, that would have fit right into the youthful night the Jazz had.
The Warriors ended the first quarter on a 21-5 run, and the Jazz never recovered. Golden State's defense wore down Utah's attack as the Warriors threw two (and sometimes three) guys at Markkanen, and their physicality disrupted Utah at the point of attack.
"They pushed us off our spots. They swiped the ball every time we caught it and every time we tried to pivot," Hardy said. "That's been their MO for a long time. It's a great opportunity for our young players to learn to feel that type of physicality. It's a great opportunity for Lauri to continue to play against teams that are going to guard him ultra-physical throughout the season. And the great part is, we've got a long road ahead of us."
So this isn't a "burn the tape" game; if anything, it was the opposite. It was a chance for the Jazz to learn from a veteran team.
"I'm not one of those coaches that's like, 'Yeah, I'm hoping we get our ass kicked. That'll be good for us!' — I don't believe in that," Hardy said. "I'd rather us go 82-0, but there's always things you can pull out of a game."
He said it's now up to the coaches to implement those in time for Utah's next game in Dallas on Monday.
If anything, Kerr is confident that Hardy can do just that. And in time, something much greater.
"We're all dependent on talent and what we have at our disposal, and the Jazz had been in rebuilding mode since he got here," Kerr said, continuing his thought on Hardy. "So he's got a lot of great years ahead of him, and I'm sure things are going to get a lot better."
