2 Jazz Players Whose Minutes Have Dried Up in Recent Rotation Change
We’re now approaching the halfway point of the NBA season, meaning the majority of the league’s lineups and key players have shaken out. For the Utah Jazz, it’s taken a bit of trial and testing, but their recent combination has looked stellar as of late.
With their starting lineup of Kris Dunn, Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Kelly Olynyk, and John Collins, it’s led to a 5-1 record across their past six, jumping right behind the Los Angeles Lakers for the 11th spot in the Western Conference, only a half-game back from what would be a Play-In Tournament appearance.
Still, their recent rotational switch-up has left a couple of guys to be a bit shorthanded when it comes to opportunity. Considering the Jazz have an extremely deep set of players, it’s bound to see a few names sacrificing a bit of playing time they may otherwise deserve. Now that this roster is fully healthy which has been rare to come by this season, we’re finally seeing it start to unfold.
Here are two Jazz players who have seen a dip in minutes across their recent stint of games:
Dec 8, 2023; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz guard Talen Horton-Tucker (5) posts up against Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden (1) during the fourth quarter at Delta Center.
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Talen Horton-Tucker
It has been a rough few months for Talen Horton-Tucker this season, going from this team’s day-one starter to now logging a few DNP-CDs across Utah’s latest stretch of games. He’s been left with zero minutes in eight of the Jazz’s past ten games. During the two he played, he logged 18 combined minutes on the floor.
However, the Jazz have also found substantial success without Horton-Tucker in the rotation. In those eight games not in the lineup, Utah has come out with a win in all of them. It’s hard to see him leaping back into the same prominent role he had earlier in the season with this stretch of success; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Horton-Tucker’s first half of this season has been clouded by some poor shooting splits at a high volume when he gets the chance. He’s shot a limited 41.1% from the field and 33.3% from deep while also being top five on the team in shooting attempts.
His status for the long-term future on this roster is one to keep an eye on ahead of the trade deadline next month. He’s set to be a free agent this summer, so it would not be a total shock to see an opposing team take a flyer on THT mid-season to see if there is any potential left as a future lead guard.
Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports
Taylor Hendricks
The rookie season of Taylor Hendricks has been a bit of a roller coaster to start. After being selected 9th overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, fans may have expected that the lottery pick would receive a significant role in his first-year pro for a team that was continuing the steps in building their youth movement.
Now 38 games in, that has yet to be the case. Hendricks has played a total of 11 games for a combined 175 minutes. Instead, the majority of his time has been spent in the G-League with the Salt Lake City Stars. It’s rare to see a player drafted as high as Taylor relegated to those types of lower ranks of the league, but it’s been the direction head coach Will Hardy and the rest of the front office have decided to go.
During his time in the big leagues, Hendricks showed some great flashes of being a high-level NBA player. However, finding that increased experience is crucial for his development and should be at the forefront of this team’s focus. The G-League opportunity is nice, but there’s a massive variance in talent when playing up to the top talent in the league.
With the trade deadline approaching, there’s a good chance we see the Jazz dump a few older guys on the roster to elevate the playing time of their young talent, also including rookie wing Brice Sensabaugh. When looking at where this Utah team is on the grand scheme of their timeline, it’s probably the right decision to make.
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