Will Hardy reminds Jazz players that minutes are earned, not given in loss to Clippers

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — After the first half against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night, the Utah Jazz were trailing by 21 points, had given up 36 points in the paint and had coughed up 12 turnovers.

When the Jazz came out onto the court for the second half, Keyonte George was sitting on the bench, and Isaiah Collier had taken his place in the lineup. Collin Sexton, after having played 15 first-half minutes, played less than five minutes in the third quarter and was benched for the entirety of the fourth quarter.

"The thing we're trying to emphasize every night is you have to compete if you want to play, that's a non negotiable," Jazz head coach Will Hardy said after the 116-105 loss. "We don't want to have to coach effort. We don't want to have to coach competitiveness. I think that our team, for the most part this year, has found a way collectively to play hard every night, and I thought the second half really represented that."

Hardy went on to say that he wasn't happy with the way that George played defense in the first half and that George wasn't the only one he wasn't happy with. To Hardy's point, Sexton had an extremely rough first half from a defensive standpoint.

But when given another opportunity in the second half George started to pick up the pace and showed a little bit more fire as the Jazz made a bit of a run, cutting a 23-point Clippers lead down to just seven.

"Keyonte knows how much I believe in him, but sometimes you have to make changes in the moment to reinforce your point," Hardy said. "It doesn't have to be a big thing, a big yelling, screaming thing. I felt like, for the team tonight, Isaiah starting in the second half would give us a little bit of a boost, and I thought I did it. And I thought Keyonte had a great second half himself."

We've heard this kind of thing from Hardy before — that free minutes will not be given to players who aren't playing hard. If Hardy's standard of effort isn't met, he's not afraid to let players know. Sending that message through lineup changes is something that has the potential to ruffle a lot of feathers, but on this Jazz team, Hardy has garnered a ton of good will and credibility by standing by what he says.

George completely understood the message that Hardy was sending, and rather than be upset or feel slighted in any way, he said that it makes sense to him that Hardy made that choice, given how he was playing and how Collier was playing. And George said that it forced him to change his own pace and approach when he was later put back into the game.

"It's a testament to what type of coach he is," George said of Hardy. "It's easy to play for a coach like that when you know everything's got to be earned instead of given. The things that are earned, it makes you feel way better in between lines, because you know I'm out here for a reason. You're not just out there because you were a top-five pick or you get paid this and that."

There's a trickle down effect to those kinds of decisions and that way of operating. George, in his second year, is obviously getting more of an opportunity than some of the rookies, but he knows that in a film session or during practice, Hardy has no problem making the first clip of the day, one where Lauri Markkanen makes a mistake. He has no problem making an example of Jordan Clarkson in the same way he would one of the younger players.

And when all of the players see that everyone is being held accountable in the same way, with the same amount of passion and emotional investment, it makes the players want to work hard to earn Hardy's trust.

"That Will can keep the guys that are on top of the team, keep them accountable, it's way easier for the guys that maybe have less of a role to understand," George said. "They understand that Lauri's getting barked at, J.C. is getting barked at, John (Collins) is getting barked at, Key is getting barked at, I've got to be responsible for my actions. Then the urgency level goes up a little bit. We're just all blessed to have Will in our ears. So I'm very appreciative of the lessons he teaches all the time. This is just another lesson."