Jazz lose to Bucks, but say moving Collier to a starter is ‘best for team’ right now

SALT LAKE CITY — Isaiah Collier was only a youngster when he realized he had a knack for passing.

“I threw crazy passes since I was young,” he said with a smile. “I don’t even know where it came from, to be honest — just started having that.”

The Utah Jazz are seeing what that style of play can bring to the team. Collier has been moved into the starting lineup, replacing second-year guard Keyonte George at the point guard spot.

After his 12-point, eight-assist performance on Monday in Utah’s 125-110 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Collier is averaging 7.9 assists per game as a starter. He leads all rookies in assists this season.

“I think we’re just looking at different things that work for us,” forward Lauri Markkanen said. “(Isaiah) has been doing a good job the whole year and staying ready, and he deserves the opportunity. He’s been playing well, so it’s a little different look.”

And a chance for Collier to continue to prove himself. The Jazz are throwing the young point guard into the fire in a new way — giving him the keys to the offense to start the game and then letting him cover some of the most dynamic players in the league on the other end.

On Monday, he lined up across from Damian Lillard, and the former Weber State product went off for 35 points on 14-of-22 shooting and handed out eight assists.

So you can say there’s still some room for improvement.

“I get a lot of foul calls,” Collier said when asked what he’s learned about playing NBA defense. “Just showing hands; I think that’s the biggest thing for me right now. Not fouling jump shooters, and then just be able to just sit down and guard, just having the pride, to be honest, I mean, because I don’t like being scored on.”

He was far from alone in struggling on defense on Monday. The Jazz were regularly beaten at the point of attack, allowing Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo to feast on Utah’s defense.

Antetokounmpo had 35 points and 18 rebounds, continuing his MVP-caliber season.

“With a player like Giannis, with a guy like Dame, if you get blown by in a straight line, you’re in a really, really tough spot,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “Everybody has to do a better job guarding individually.”

Defense can sometimes be chalked up to effort — evidenced by the classic sports cliche “want to” — but Hardy thought it was more of technique issues that hurt the Jazz on Monday.

“I don’t mean it to be like, ‘Oh, the guys don’t care — that’s why they’re getting beat.’ I do think that they are competing, but there’s the physical part of competing, and then there’s the mental part,” he said. “And I think that right now, in that area in particular, I think our mental focus has not been good enough.”

Hardy said he thought his players got beat away from the help 75% of the time — he admitted that it very well could have been more — and that was due to them not being correctly positioned or taking the right angles.

And while Collier’s passing does unlock some things in Utah’s offense, one of the reasons for his promotion is to try and get some better defensive presence up top. The rookie has a long way to go before he’s considered a great — or even good — defender, but he’s been better than George this season.

And for now, that was enough to make the change.

George will still be a mainstay in Utah’s rotations off the bench — he played 31 minutes on Monday (three more than Collier, in fact) and finished with 15 points and five assists — but Hardy is hopeful that coming off the bench will help him lean into some of the little things that will turn into a true winning player.

“It’s really about him recognizing which things are most important for him to be focused on,” Hardy said. “Individual defense is one, team defense is No. 2; and both of those things are sort of encapsulated by just the overall competitiveness on every play. His talent is obvious; we can all see that when we watch him play. And I think right now this is what’s best for him and the team.”