Media day is usually the most optimistic day on the NBA calendar. Everybody is in the best shape of his life, everybody loves each other, and nobody has lost a game yet. So take all of it with the usual grain of salt.
But Monday at Zions Bank Basketball Campus felt different from the last four of these. For the first time since the Mitchell and Gobert trades, the Jazz walked in with a roster that is supposed to win games, and the people running it talked like it. Here's what stood out, and what we actually think about it.
Ainge opened with the fans, and he should have
Before a single basketball question, Austin Ainge thanked the people who sat through the tank:
"374 straight sellouts as we went through a rebuild is — it's unbelievable, and we're very honored."
It's a nice moment, and it's also a receipt. Jazz fans kept buying tickets to watch a team try to lose. That patience is now a debt, and the way to pay it back is a meaningful April. His pitch to anyone who drifted away: "Come on back. The water's warm." We'll hold him to that.
The Darryn Peterson hype is officially out of control
The loudest theme of the day was Peterson, and it didn't just come from the front office. Ainge called him "as advertised," with "an intensity, work ethic and a maturity that is unique." Then the veterans piled on.
Mo Bamba, who has played for seven teams and seen a lot of players come through, went straight to the deep end, per SLC Dunk:
"This is going to sound crazy, but I see a lot of Kawhi in him. Quiet, bucket-getter, mid-range."
He added that Jusuf Nurkić sees more Damian Lillard. Bamba also said he hates that Peterson is going to read that, and honestly, same.
Here's our take: the comps are fun, but the quote that matters came from Peterson himself. Asked what a successful rookie year looks like, he didn't give a number. He said it's about knowing "I did everything I could to help the team win." Will Hardy gave the grown-up version: "I would expect a season from a rookie in the NBA," with good moments and hard ones. Both of those are the right answers. Summer League told us Peterson can score. What we're watching for in October is whether he makes the team better when he's not scoring.
One more thing from the day that deserves more attention than it got: Jaren Jackson Jr. on the young guys. "Darryn, Key, Ace, they're always shooting right here after we're done playing." When a former Defensive Player of the Year in his ninth season is volunteering that, it's worth more than any comp.
Lauri and JJJ are the "dangerous duo," on paper
Ainge called Lauri Markkanen and Jackson the team's "two best players" and described them as "a really dangerous duo," pointing to how they can cover the 3 and 4, the 4 and 5, or the 3 and 5 together. He also admitted it's the thing he's most curious about: "I want to see how they play off each other."
That curiosity is the honest part. Jackson has played 42 minutes in a Jazz uniform before the benign tumor in his knee ended his season. Everything else about this pairing (the Finland trip, the mutual praise, JJJ calling Lauri "a 7-foot-1 wing who can shoot") is chemistry built off the court. We like the fit. Markkanen's shooting pulls a big away from the rim, and Jackson's range means the Jazz don't have to play a non-shooter at the 5 to protect it. But "on paper" is doing a lot of work in that sentence until we see 20 games of it.
Keyonte George had the best line on it: "We've got a 7-foot sniper, and then we got Jaren who can basically pick on anybody on the floor."
Hardy won't name a starting five, and that's fine
If you came in wanting a lineup, Hardy didn't give you one. He said whoever starts opening night is "not a declaration to the world that this is our starting five for the foreseeable future," and that training camp, preseason, and the first part of the season are for figuring it out. Ainge made the same point from the other side: it's "sometimes easier" when a coach has an obvious top eight, and this roster doesn't.
We'll take it. For four years, Hardy's rotation questions were about who needed reps. Now they're about who helps win, and he has real options: big with Nurkić, JJJ, and Lauri together, or small and fast with George and Peterson running. What we'd push back on is the timeline. "The first part of the regular season" can't stretch into January. In a Play-In race, experimenting has a cost.
The coaching line we liked best: "That would be great if our best day was better. We want our worst day to keep getting better." That's the gap between last season and a Play-In team. Last year's floor was a 22-60 record and the worst three-point defense in league history.
Defense finally got named out loud
Speaking of which: Hardy said the team needs "to take a jump" defensively and that "our individual defense has to go up for our team defense to go up." George, fresh off a five-year, $157.5 million extension, told SLC Dunk he spent the summer on it: learning personnel, help-side defense, and "being one of the guys that you don't really want to hunt towards the end of the game."
That's the right thing to hear from him. As we said in our season preview, the defense is the whole season. George being hunted in late-game switches was a real problem, and a guard on a $157.5 million deal who knows it is a better sign than any offensive leap.
What we're taking into camp
Media day doesn't win games. But it does tell you how an organization sees itself, and the Jazz were refreshingly honest: "We know we're not a finished product," Ainge said, with an open roster spot and the trade market still in play.
Here's where we land:
- Peterson is going to be fun, and he's going to struggle. Both are fine. Judge him by February, not October.
- Lauri and JJJ are the season. If they work together, this is a Play-In team. If they don't, no amount of rookie hype fixes it.
- Watch the rotation, not the opening-night starters. Hardy told us so himself.
- Defense first. Every player and coach said it. Now they have to do it.
First look is the open practice on Monday, Oct. 5. The water's warm. Take note.
Quotes from the Deseret News, Deseret News, and SLC Dunk via Yahoo Sports. For more media day coverage, see the Salt Lake Tribune and KSL Sports.