Keyonte George was the kind of teenager who had never been benched, so when the Jazz benched him in his second season it hit hard. Less than a year after an exit interview he called "brutal," he was scoring 43 on Minnesota and hitting game-winners. That September he signed for $157.5 million. Along the way he kept spending his summers in Utah, flew to Finland to get to know Lauri Markkanen, and tried (unsuccessfully) to join the Summer League coaching staff. Here's how a No. 16 pick from the Rudy Gobert trade turned into the guy the Jazz built around.
A Lewisville kid with a pro for a dad
George was born on Nov. 8, 2003, in Lewisville, Texas, north of Dallas. He's the son of Jason Siggers, a professional guard, and his mother Kristen, whom the AP called a "hoopster mom." Siggers played college ball at Albany and then spent his career overseas, mostly in France and Israel, per his Wikipedia page.
He was a star early. As a sophomore at Lewisville High School he was District 6-6A MVP, averaged 23.9 points, and scored 32 in a playoff loss to Duncanville, the No. 1 team in the state, per The Dallas Morning News. In May 2020 the top-ranked player in Texas's 2022 class transferred to iSchool of Lewisville, a small school that plays a national schedule. The News pointed out that Lewisville had lost a five-star recruit to a transfer once before: Kyler Murray.
At iSchool he averaged 24.8 points, scoring 27 against Oak Hill Academy and 34 against AZ Compass Prep, per ESPN.
A gold medal with Filipowski, IMG, and Baylor
In August 2021 George won gold for the U.S. at the FIBA 3x3 U18 World Cup in Hungary and was named tournament MVP, per USA Basketball. One of his three teammates was Kyle Filipowski. Five years later they share a locker room in Salt Lake City.
That same month he committed to Baylor over Texas, Oklahoma State, Kansas, and Kentucky. "Coach Drew is one of the most caring guys I've ever met," he told ESPN. He spent his senior year at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and was named a McDonald's All-American.
Baylor gave him the ball. He averaged 15.3 points as a freshman, was Big 12 Freshman of the Year and second-team All-Big 12, and scored 20 or more a dozen times, a program record, per ESPN. He sprained his ankle six minutes into a Feb. 25 game at Texas and was never quite right after that. "I've never played with that much tape on my foot," he said. "It took some time to get used to." ESPN's scouting report praised his scoring and passing off ball screens, and it said his decision-making and perimeter defense still needed work. That second part comes back later.
The Gobert pick
When the Jazz traded Rudy Gobert to Minnesota in 2022, the return included Walker Kessler and a pile of Timberwolves draft picks. Minnesota struggled in 2022-23, and the first of those picks ended up at No. 16 in 2023, per Inside the Jazz. Utah took Taylor Hendricks at No. 9, passed on Cam Whitmore, and took George at 16, per The Salt Lake Tribune. Brice Sensabaugh went 28th.
"This is the best moment of my life, I can't even explain how I feel," George said. "But I understand this is just the beginning."
Rookie point guard, benched sophomore
The Jazz didn't plan on starting him. Talen Horton-Tucker started the first eight games, and then, on George's 20th birthday, the job went to George, per the Deseret News. He'd never played point guard. After a minor foot injury in December he came back off the bench, took the starting job back on Feb. 12, and averaged 15.8 points over the last 28 games. He tied a rookie record with nine 3-pointers against Golden State and made the All-Rookie Second Team.
Danny Ainge wasn't ready to commit. "I'm still not sure he's a franchise point guard," he said that April. "I think he can play point guard."
Year two was rough. His scoring went up to 16.8 points, but he shot 39.1% again. Hardy benched him a couple of times for what Andscape described as mental and defensive lapses, and he lost his starting spot to Isaiah Collier and Collin Sexton. He told The Athletic it was the first time in his life he'd been benched. His mother texted him during games, and he read the texts at halftime: "Fix your face." "Fix your energy."
"My mom will always be my mom. So, when words are coming from her, it's different than coming from coach."
The exit interview, and a summer in the gym
In April 2025, Hardy sat him down. Per the AP:
"If your approach doesn't change, I wouldn't bet on you. What you're showing on the court isn't good enough. You're one of the most talented players I've ever been around, but you need to want more for yourself."
"My exit interview was brutal," George told Andscape. "Will shot it to me straight." Hardy said it wasn't yelling and screaming: "I remember the conversation being very difficult, because I love that kid," he told The Athletic.
George's response was to stay in the gym. He'd already flown to Helsinki in July 2024, with Jazz skill coach Chris Jones, to spend time with Markkanen. "I wanted to show Lauri that, hey, I'm going to come to you," he told The Athletic. In 2025 he was at the practice facility daily, became one of the first Jazz players in years to play in Utah's Powder League pro-am, brought young teammates home to Dallas for workouts, and did group sessions with the team's sports psychologist. Hardy said he started noticing "a different work ethic" about 10 days in. George's description: "I'm in the gym in the morning, I eat my lunch, take a nap and then I'm back in the gym at night."
This summer was more of the same. He spent most of it working out in Salt Lake with the young players, per the Deseret News, and drew up an end-of-game play in practice that worked well enough for the Jazz to try to add him to the Summer League staff for one game. The NBA said no, because he's an active player. In July he ran his first youth camp in Farmington ("I want to be a role model to a lot of people," per Fox 13), and in August he went back to Finland with Hardy, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Ryan Smith, per KSL.
The leap
The 2025-26 numbers: 23.6 points, 6.1 assists, and 1.1 steals, shooting 45.6% from the field, 37.1% from three, and 89.2% from the line, with 54 starts in 54 games. In January he joined Michael Jordan and Luka Dončić as the only players under 23 to average 29 points and seven assists on 65% true shooting over a 10-game stretch, per the AP. He hit an overtime game-winner against Detroit, which had the league's best record at the time, and a fadeaway over Cooper Flagg to beat Dallas. On Jan. 20 he scored a career-high 43 against Minnesota, per KSL, with Gobert on the floor for the Wolves.
CBS Sports traced it to shot selection: more midrange, much better finishing at the rim, nearly double the free throws. George's version, per the AP: "I've concentrated on my shot diet, as I know the best scorers in the league know the spots they're getting to."
The season ended March 11, when he felt a pop in his hamstring against the Knicks. He had played 54 games, and he never came back. The award rules require 65 games, so the injury also took him out of the running for Most Improved, per The Salt Lake Tribune.
$157.5 million, and the defense question
On Sept. 18 he agreed to a five-year, $157.5 million rookie-scale extension, first reported by ESPN's Shams Charania. It's about $31.5 million a year and starts in 2027-28, per the Deseret News. He's making $6.6 million this season, and Jake Fischer reported the base value, without incentives, at $155 million, per NBC Sports. At an event the next day, per the Deseret News:
"I feel like Utah's my second family, so signing here, staying here, in my mind, was a no-brainer."
Hardy said he was "nowhere near his potential as a person or a player."
The case against him is defense, and it's backed by the numbers. In early January, CBS had Utah's defense about nine points per 100 possessions better with George on the bench. At media day he went straight at it, per SLC Dunk:
"Whether it's learning personnel, being a good help-side defender, being a good one-on-one defender, being one of the guys that you don't really want to hunt towards the end of the game, that's what I've been focused on."
The preseason has looked like more of the same, mostly. In the opener in Boulder he took a shot to the mouth, came back, and finished with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting (our recap), and Hardy said he and Collier "both used their burst to get into the paint," per the Jazz. Two nights later, with Denver hunting switches all night, he picked up five fouls in under 13 minutes (recap). Against the Spurs he scored 13 on 5-of-7 in the first half and sat the rest of the way (recap).
Our take: we've said since the season preview that the extension was the right call, and nothing since has changed our minds. It's priced like a very good starter, not a superstar. The offense is real. The defense is the part that decides whether he turns out to be a bargain.
Role
George is the starting point guard and the Jazz's most reliable shot creator late in games. He's the one who runs the offense, and Darryn Peterson learns the league next to him, not in his place. On the floor with Markkanen, Jackson, and Peterson, he'll get fewer shots than last season and more chances to set people up. On defense, the job is the one he described at media day: know the personnel, be in the right help spots, and stop being the matchup other teams hunt in the fourth quarter. The Denver game showed what happens otherwise.
2026-27 prediction
The scoring dips slightly with Peterson, Markkanen, and Jackson all needing touches, and the assists hold steady or climb. That's the right trade. If he plays around 70 games, puts up something like 21 and 6.5 on efficient shooting, and gets hunted less at the end of games, the extension starts looking like good business before it even kicks in. The hamstring is worth watching. His first two seasons were 75 and 67 games, and last season ended at 54.
Sources: The Dallas Morning News, Wikipedia (Jason Siggers), ESPN (commitment), USA Basketball, Baylor Athletics, ESPN (draft declaration), Inside the Jazz, The Salt Lake Tribune (draft), Deseret News (rookie year), Deseret News (All-Rookie), AP via KUTV, Andscape, The Athletic via NBA.com, Deseret News (Summer League), Fox 13, KSL (Finland), KSL (43 points), CBS Sports, The Salt Lake Tribune (injury), Deseret News (extension), NBC Sports, Deseret News (extension event), SLC Dunk, and Utah Jazz.