PHOENIX – Cody Williams was in an unenviable state of affairs.
The rookie ahead was on an island towards Kevin Durant, among the finest scorers the sport has ever seen. Durant hit him with two crossovers whereas driving, then made contact for a 3-point play close to the rim.
Moments later, nevertheless, Williams returned to the long run Corridor of Fame. Williams made a rapid transfer on Durant on the 3-point line, then beat him to the ring for a layup.
Ultimately, Durant’s staff got here out on high — the Phoenix Suns beat the Jazz 114-106 on Saturday on the Footprint Heart — however Williams’ progress was onerous to disregard.
The No. 10 choose in final summer season’s draft scored a career-high 13 factors on 5-of-10 taking pictures, together with two rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes. Discuss to his teammates and coaches, and most can be fast to level out his understanding of the sport.
“Cody’s greatest power proper now’s his understanding,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy mentioned. “I believe Cody could be very hardly ever out of place. I believe what he must proceed to enhance on is how onerous he performs.”
A part of that power has to do together with his measurement (he is a thin younger man), and a part of it has to do with the truth that he depends just a little an excessive amount of on veteran gamers. A stint within the G League opened up one other side of Williams’ sport.
When he performs with the Salt Lake Metropolis Stars, he is likely one of the principal focal factors. He has the ball in his palms, makes reads and has one of many highest utilization charges on the staff. That is beginning to have an effect on the Jazz (he was 5 out of 10 on the sector on Saturday). Utah places the ball in his palms extra and lets him create.
“Coach trusts me to make performs or put myself in place to make reads,” Williams mentioned. “So it is lots simpler when the coach has confidence in you, you simply play your sport. I believe for me, simply because the season goes on with much more reps, I am a lot extra snug. “
The Jazz view him as a flexible offensive participant — and that by no means modified even when Williams struggled taking pictures the ball early in his freshman yr.
The truth is, Hardy mentioned his solely concern about his pictures can be if he stopped taking pictures and was only a driver. He was 2-for-4 from behind the arc Saturday, near the place he grew up.
“It is good to see him have just a little little bit of success as a result of it is simply going to proceed to drive residence the message of, it doesn’t matter what, you have to keep the course,” Hardy mentioned.
Sadly for the Jazz, few others had a lot success on Saturday, notably from 3-point vary.
Lauri Markkanen was 3 of 12 from deep, Collin Sexton was 1 of 6, Kyle Filipowski was 0 of 5 and Svi Mykhailiuk was 1 of 8. As a staff, the Jazz shot 21% from deep, making it tough the shock regardless of superiority over the Suns in lots of different classes.
The Jazz had extra possessions, extra factors within the paint, extra second likelihood factors, however unhealthy taking pictures is commonly an excessive amount of to beat.
“You’re feeling like, man, if we performed that means 5 extra instances towards them, we might in all probability win greater than we might lose,” Hardy mentioned. “So we’ll bounce again tomorrow. The beauty of the NBA is the video games maintain coming.”
This implies one other likelihood for the staff and one other likelihood for Williams to indicate his progress.
“It’s about enjoying as a part of the staff, utilizing your expertise and attempting to assist us generate good pictures – I assumed Cody did an excellent job,” Hardy mentioned. “I’m actually glad together with his progress.”
