Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
PHOENIX — Cody Williams was in an unenviable spot.
The rookie forward was on an island against Kevin Durant, one of the best scorers the game has ever seen. Durant hit him with two crossovers as he drove, and then drew contact for a 3-point play near the rim.
Moments later, though, Williams went right back at the future Hall-of-Famer. Williams made a quick move on Durant at the 3-point line and then beat him to the hoop for a layup.
In the end, Durant's team came out on top — the Phoenix Suns beat the Jazz 114-106 on Saturday at the Footprint Center — but Williams' progress was difficult to ignore.
The No. 10 pick in last summer's draft scored a career-high 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting to go with two rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes. Talk to his teammates and coaches, and most will quickly point out his understanding of the game.
"Cody's biggest strength right now is his understanding," Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. "I think Cody is very rarely out of position. I think the thing that he needs to continue to improve is the force he plays with."
Part of that force has to do with his size (he's a skinny young man), part of that has been him deferring to veteran players a bit too much. A stint in the G League has opened up another aspect of Williams' game.
When he's with the Salt Lake City Stars, he's one of the main focal points. He has the ball in his hands, makes reads, and has one of the highest usage rates on the team. That's starting to carry over a bit with the Jazz (he was 5 of 10 from the field on Saturday). Utah has been putting the ball in his hands more and letting him create.
"Coach is trusting me to make plays or put me in positions to make reads," Williams said. "So it's a lot easier when coach has confidence in you just play your game. I think for me, just as the season has been going on just getting many more reps, I'm just so much more comfortable."
The Jazz see him as a versatile offensive player — and that never changed even when Williams struggled to shoot the ball early on in his rookie year.
In fact, Hardy said that his one concern for his shooting would be if he stopped taking shots and turned into purely a driver. He was 2-for-4 from behind the arc on Saturday back near where he grew up.
"It's nice to see him have a little bit of success because that's going to only continue to drive home the message of like, no matter what happens, you got to stay the course," Hardy said.
Unfortunately for the Jazz, not many others had much success on Saturday, especially from 3-point range.
Lauri Markkanen was 3-for-12 from deep, Collin Sexton was 1-for-6, Kyle Filipowski went 0-for-5 and Svi Mykhailiuk went 1-for-8. As a team, the Jazz shot 21% from deep which made it hard to pull off the upset despite outplaying the Suns in many other categories.
The Jazz had more possessions, more points in the paint, more second-chance points, but poor shooting is oftentimes too hard to overcome.
"You feel like, man, if we played that way five more times against them, we'd probably win more than we'd lose," Hardy said. "So we'll bounce back tomorrow. It's the great part about the NBA is the games keep on coming."
That means another chance for the team and another chance for Williams to show his progression.
"It's about playing within the scope of the team, using your skill set and trying to help us generate good shots — I think Cody's done a good job of that," Hardy said. "I'm really happy with his progress."
