Jazz End-of-Season Grades: Evaluating Talen Horton-Tucker

The high upside of Talen Horton-Tucker never came to fruition in Salt Lake City.

Apr 9, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz guard Talen Horton-Tucker (5) drives the ball / Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

We’re a couple of weeks removed from Utah Jazz basketball, and it feels like a good time to go back and grade each Jazzman’s season. While nobody looks at a 51-loss season as some grand success, several players had promising individual campaigns, gave us flashes of a promising future, or some combination of both. Next up on our list is Talen Horton-Tucker.

Standing at 6-foot-4 and 234 pounds, the combo guard out of Iowa State was a polarizing figure amongst Jazz fans this year. THT's powerful frame and acrobatic layups made for several eye-popping plays throughout the season, yet the decision-making and ill-advised jump shots almost certainly evoked some groans from the Jazz faithful.

Overall, Horton-Tucker could not take the step forward that Utah hoped he’d be able to after his explosive ending to last season.

Talen, you are cleared for takeoff 🛫#TakeNote | @thortontucker pic.twitter.com/gPC11xinnL

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 12, 2024

'THT' started the season as Jazz head coach Will Hardy’s starting point guard, but after a 2-6 start to the season, he was replaced. On the season, he boasted averages of 10.1 points, 3.5 assists, and 2.4 rebounds in just under 20 minutes per game.

Unfortunately for Horton-Tucker, this production came at an inefficient clip. His 50.3% True Shooting mark was the second worst in the entire NBA for a fifth-year player, and you’d hope to see improvement in his efficiency from year to year. The exact opposite has happened for Talen, and his offensive efficiency numbers trended in the wrong direction.

Toward the end of the season, Horton-Tucker was in and out of the rotation. To his credit, he was always ready when his number was called. He remained a good teammate throughout his tenure with the Jazz, often giving some of his young teammates pointers and encouragement. He was also a solid and versatile defender for the Jazz this season.

While his time with the Jazz is likely up, THT represents the type of swings the Jazz front office is willing to take. Still only 23 years old, Talen will be an unrestricted free agent this summer as he looks to find a team that can benefit from his downhill skill set.

Grade: C-

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