One-on-One With Utah Jazz Head Coach Will Hardy

All right, Will Hardy is the head coach of the Utah Jazz, who are a trendy pick to compete for the franchise's first playoff appearance since 2022, this after several years of what I would imagine was a long and painful rebuild for the organization. Will, let's start there. Can I get like a vibe check on what this training camp has been like? Is the air a little cleaner? The food taste a little better going into this season? Yeah, I don't know about that. I mean, I think every camp has a ton of excitement. You know, it's been a long summer. The guys have been working really hard. We've seen a ton of improvement from our young players over the last couple of seasons, and this summer was no different. Like, the guys really just put their head down and did the work. I think the team is gelling together pretty well in camp right now, and there's definitely a ton of excitement. I don't know if the food always tastes good out here in Utah. You said a couple times it's been a long summer. What was this summer like for you? Yeah, there's a lot of, you know, every offseason is spent sort of in two pathways. You're looking back and trying to self-assess, you know, everything. It's the individual players. It's the team. It's programmatic things. it's myself my staff things we can do better based on what has already happened and then there's obviously the the sort of the pivot point in the summer which is the draft where somebody new is joining your program and now things start to shake out from a roster standpoint through free agency and you have a little bit of a clearer picture of what may lie ahead and so then all of your thinking goes into okay how can we help this team and how can we help these individual players what are the priorities for everybody I think prioritizing is probably my biggest responsibility there's always a laundry list of things that need to be done both as a team and individually you know most people who love to give me their opinions on what should happen usually my response is like yeah you're right but we can't do everything in one day and so I feel like a lot of my responsibility throughout the summer is trying to prioritize those things so that we come into camp we've got a pretty clear vision and the communication is organized um you know our players for them to learn best we all need to be saying the same thing you know rebuilds are always difficult and painful and a lot of teams go through similar stuff for you these last couple of years like how hard what did it get for you like was there ever a point where you're like, are we ever going to dig our way out of this and get to the other side? Sure. I think there's, you know, the intrusive thoughts of people's brains can be pretty wild. And there are certainly moments where doubt creeps in. You know, I'm inherently hard on myself already. And there are certainly moments where you feel the thoughts rushing in of like, oh my gosh, I'm failing and we're not getting there as quick as we want. And it doesn't feel how maybe I imagined it would feel in that moment. But my belief has never wavered in terms of our group here in Utah and our willingness from the top down to go through a lot of hard work to ultimately try to get to where we want to go. But certainly there are moments where every individual can have a a down day you know that the thought can be oh man is this going to happen but I believe that my biggest responsibility to our organization and to our fan base is to instill that belief and to live it out every day that I'm willing to do the hard things just like our players are and our fans have been there with us through the this entire process I don't want that to go unsaid and the process is ongoing like this is not over we are still very much becoming and that's been my message to our team all training camp that we are becoming and every day we have to be willing to do the hard work to get the result that ultimately we want not every day is going to be pretty not every game is going to go our way in no way is this this process of building a you know championship culture it's it's far from over you know you use the word becoming and you've also I think used the phrase next phase uh for this team what do you mean by that what is kind of the next phase for this group well I think we have a little bit of continuity in the sense of you know Lowry's the only player who has been here from my first day and throughout the process, there have been a bunch of people who have come in and out. And I think right now we have a group of young players who have been through a lot together, a ton of shared experience, a ton of shared work. And this phase is about going out every night and seeing where we stack up. You know, I wish I had a crystal ball and I could say with certainty, hey, we'll be this level of team this year but 82 games can take on like three different lives and so we just need to try to attack you know when I say next phase I really mean like the first 20 games of this season and I want our team to approach it with flexible mindset of we're not exactly sure how it's going to work in the end you know this team is still forming we're trying to figure out best lineup combinations and there's going to be offensive tweaks and defensive tweaks and everything in between as we move through the first part of this season. And that's really our focus is just come in every day, do the work necessary and try to learn about our team. You've talked in the past and Keontae has talked about it as well, kind of the work that both sides have put in to get him to this kind of fringy all-star level that he was on last season um when you're drafting a Darren Peterson another kind of lead guard type was there any concern in your mind about how that if that could adversarially affect someone like Keontae and how have you kind of tried to to focus on making that work that pairing I think it was the opposite for me I think there's a ton of belief and excitement in it I think watching the playoffs there's so much to learn and I think one of the biggest takeaways was you need multiple ball handlers to get to the finish line um even the best quote-unquote lead guards in our in our league they need secondary ball handlers it's a long road to the finish line and so my approach with them has been messaging just that that you guys need each other and there's going to be a lot made of who's the point guard and the answer is neither of you it doesn't matter both of you neither of you um you're both really good basketball players and you both have the ability to play on the ball and off the ball so the flexibility there is going to help both of them every opponent is going to be different each matchup that they draw could lead us to do different things offensively and i think it's going to serve both of them well you My communication with them is to try to continue to have them not focus on what it all means I think there's always this question of like, well, what does it mean? We draft Darren Peterson and we already have Keontae What does that mean? It means that Darren's a good player and we want him on our team. And Keontae, you're a good player and we need you both It's not one or the other. I don't want to pit them against each other because I think they have an opportunity moving forward to be a really dynamic backcourt you know that that term backcourt i feel like it went out of style like 15 years ago and now it's point guard shooting guard where you know i have danny remind me all the time that they were just called a backcourt when he was playing um and that's how i'm trying to visualize those two yeah you're right like the spurs who come out of the west three good ball handlers great ball handlers fox harper castle same thing with oklahoma city from a year before it's there's definitely a need for depth and when you watch them them play together do you see their skills as complementary kind of what do you see when you see them playing minutes together yeah i've seen both guys can dribble pass and shoot um they both have the ability to play some pick and roll sort of some on ball actions and they're both very skilled in off ball actions wide pins flares um coming off of handoffs you know i think for both of them the areas that i'm going to continue to challenge them on are their individual defense and rebounding i think they're both capable um but they're going to have to really hold their water in those areas because the the offensive skill elements i think they sort of speak for themselves i think people that watch them. Darren's young and he is a rookie and there's going to be some ups and downs throughout his rookie year, but I think if we're taking a longer view, I really don't worry about the offensive skill part with those two. I want to make sure that their focus is on the smaller, uglier parts of the game that ultimately will impact winning. I'm very interested to see Darren play this season. I'm watching him a little bit at the high school level and then all that happened last year uh at kansas did you have any questions about him coming into this experience after a lot of uncertainties publicly about what happened at kansas and how quickly were those questions answered for you yeah i mean i think any player that is in the draft we're asking a ton of questions about you're trying to figure out what's real what's not what's true what's not where is this coming from um you know i would i would say to everybody don't believe everything you read or hear there are two sides to every story there's a lot of context that goes into every situation you know every team is doing research not just on the the players previous season but we're we're going back to high school middle school and trying to understand the the person like ultimately these are human decisions this is a human being that we're taking a chance on and I think going through that process my questions our questions about Darren his character his competitiveness his desire those things were answered relatively quickly I think there can be situations that are unfortunate there can be injuries there can be things that happen that are outside of everybody's control but if you look at how Darren has handled all of those moments if you look at how he has handled the scrutiny I think it speaks to who he is um he's a uh he's got an old soul and he's a really tough kid he's polite and we're just excited to have him in our program so i used to be one of those people who had a whole routine of different supplements you have a bottle for this another bottle for that and before you know it you've got an entire cabinet dedicated to supplements and honestly it just became a lot to keep track of. 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Do you believe in today's NBA, the way the game is played, that you can have success playing basically triple big in that lineup? or I mean just kind of talk me through kind of what your mindset is there my job as a coach is to come home open the fridge see what's in there and make dinner and this is who's on our team we've got some good players and I think sometimes the the combinations can lead people to say oh well that will hurt them in this area but there's also areas that it can help us 48 minutes is how I look at our lineups. People make a lot of who starts. I'm more interested in 48 minutes functioning well. And I think that Lowry is really the X factor in the ability to play that way. Because when you say three seven-footers, yes, that is true if we're just measuring them against the wall. But I don't think Lowry plays like a lot of seven-footers. He is a great mover without the ball. He's an elite shooter. Um, he's not like a back to the basket big. So he sort of provides some things that people would say like, Oh, this is what some small forwards do, but he's just doing it in a little bit bigger frame. Um, he gives us great flexibility to try some of these things. Um, I don't think that we would be doing it if it weren't for him, but we're trying to play our best guys. And there are moments where you'd like the other team to try to adjust to you in certain moments. Um, but like I said, in the beginning, I just, I try to look at our team and I really try to take them for what, what do they do? I think we can, we can all pick players apart and say, this guy can't do that. And that guy can't do that. But that doesn't help me very much. Um, I'm trying to focus on what each guy brings to the table and then trying to put those things together in some different combinations to hopefully produce winning basketball so Ace is another guy that you have high talent guy you got high in the lottery um how do you see him kind of fitting into this sort of new group i think ace is a massive massive part of our program right now um i have so much belief in him his summer has been outstanding i'm excited for the league to really get to watch him this year because I think you're going to see a young man who's really improved on both sides of the ball. The most exciting part for me is his defense. He's turning himself into a good perimeter defender and what that can do for us going forward is very impactful. Ace is incredibly young and he's got a lot of runway ahead of him to improve. But what I've seen in 365 days gives me a ton of belief in him. He's a huge part of what we're doing. So what was your message to him after last season? Because he did have a pretty productive rookie year, like 13-ish points, mid-40s from the floor, mid-30s from three-point range. You talked about the defense, but what else was kind of your message him in the offseason about what more you needed? We needed him to focus on his body. Bridging the gap physically is usually one of the biggest things that a young player needs to do. You know, before we talk about skills, and skills are very important, but when you're 19 years old playing against 28-year-olds, a lot of times the biggest gap is physical strength. And so it was about his body and really it was about his conditioning. Um Hey, while you're still trying to bridge the gap from a strength standpoint, we should be trying to make conditioning a superpower. But my biggest message to Ace was, hey, you've now seen an NBA season. You've seen how long it is. You've seen the toll it takes on your body, on your mind, your emotions, all those things. You know, I want you to really be honest with yourself and think about, as you go into this summer, what type of work is needed to prepare for that. and to Ace's credit he put his head down and worked all summer. Um, he doesn't take a lot of attention from the staff to push him along. He loves it, he comes in every day big smile on his face ton of energy. Um, we're really fortunate to have Ace in our program. You didn't get a chance to coach uh Jaron last season uh after the deal because of the injury but with with him are you trying to kind of just unlock kind of the the best of what he was in Memphis do you I mean there's a lot of talk about whether or not he's better suited for power forward or center maybe that doesn't matter all that much to you but like what are you trying to bring out of Jaron with this group yeah my message to Jaron is you're a good basketball player and we're not going to overly focus on which position he is because I believe that he can be both and we're going to need both but you know we're we're putting him in some spots and maybe a few actions that he hasn't done in the past and that's not that's not to say that we're doing it better than anybody else it's just our team is built differently and so I think there's an adjustment period for Jaren with that I think he's far more comfortable now than he was two weeks ago and I expect that to continue to to have its ups and downs but but to progress through the first part of the season um you know it's about him learning how he can help our group and hey here's things you and Lowry can do together here's things you and Keontae can do together and Darren and Ace and um he's been great like Jaron is really curious he's a worrier in a good way like he really deeply cares about himself his performance his approach making sure that he has all the details right and so he asks a ton of questions but you know what are we trying to unlock I don't know if it's it's not necessarily like the best of what he was in Memphis you know I think Jaron and I have spoken about nobody can take away from you what what your time in Memphis was the accolades you got the success that you had like no one's taking that away from you it will be in the trophy case forever that chapter is closed this is a new thing and i want him to approach this as a totally different chapter of his career we're not looking back and trying to repeat something that he's already done i want him to just come in every day be a vocal leader on our team play really hard on both sides of the ball and um you know give his coach a little bit of grace as we try to to put him in some different things. When you say he's a worrier, what does that mean? He wants to make sure that he's doing it perfect. And he is concerned constantly about, does he know all the plays? Does he know all the communication and terminology? Is he saying it right? Is that what I was supposed to say on that? You know, worrier maybe comes across the wrong way, but he is concerned about whether he is doing it right and whether it's meeting the standard that we have for him. Some people in our world will just kind of blow through the day and they just assume that if they do it wrong, somebody will tell them. Jaron operates on the other side where he wants to make sure that the things that he's doing are being done the right way. We're pleased with it um and so it's been fun it's not what i expected i didn't know what to expect with jaron but usually guys that are a little further along in their career sometimes they can have an arrogance about them like they already know oh yeah i know that oh yeah i know that and jaron has really come in eyes wide open from the first day very very receptive and coachable um he sets a great example for our young guys you know we had talked um early last season about lowry and And one of the things we discussed, if I remember correctly, was kind of how the losing had sort of gotten to him, you know, over the last couple of seasons. It's kind of sort of wore him down a little bit. What have you seen from him now? Like this, he's been through trade rumors over the years. He's dealt with losing, but now he's entering a situation where he clearly is. I mean, you guys might have considered him a big part of what you're doing all along, but like publicly, there's not a lot of trade talk around him anymore. this team is in a position where there are much higher expectations that have been in years past has that brought anything maybe new out of him in this training camp first of all trade talk can be started by anybody and a lot of the trade rumors around Lowry were because a lot of people want him and I understand why he's he's an elite player and one of his best traits is that he can play with anybody he can truly play with with anyone the style doesn't necessarily matter because of his skill set but Lowry's a warrior he's tough he's he's tough mentally and I know the last couple of years haven't been maybe what he has envisioned from a team standpoint but he's never wavered in his work ethic he's never wavered in his commitment to the organization he's never wavered in his presence with his teammates like he never checked out and just sort of stopped caring and talking i mean he's deeply invested in our young players their development um so i think that you know like anybody he's probably had some moments the last couple of years where doubt has crept in but he doesn't show it um and he's been great during camp this season you know we went over to Finland to see him this summer and he's been in, he's in great shape. He's been in great spirits. His family's doing well. I mean, he's, he's really come into his own here in Utah. You said he can play with everyone. And that's, that's proven out over the years, different stops along the way, different versions of your team. When you're talking to him this summer or in training camp, how receptive is he to kind of playing more and more at that small forward spot? And do you think that's going to bring something out of him? You know, he, he understands that that spot doesn't necessarily change the types of actions that we will put him in. The biggest thing it might change is who's guarding him. And that's the part right now that he's going to have the biggest learning curve on is if I'm being guarded by a different group of people, then maybe I have been in the past because I have someone like Jaron next to me that makes my reads different. That makes, um, sort of my, my progression and checklist in all these things a little bit different and so i think that's where he'll have the learning curve is he may not see different coverages necessarily but they'll be executed differently because he's being guarded by different people so i said at the top like this team is a trendy pick to to compete for a playoff spot to compete through the play-in however you want to frame it like do you have those kind of expectations for this team i know you're not going to say like we're we're it's you know five seed or six seed or but do you believe this team should be competing for one of those playoff spots i mean i i'm never gonna put a cap on our group at all um and i believe we should be competing every day like what that turns into we're gonna find out but i believe in our team's work ethic i believe in their ability to learn and you know we've there's a group of us that have been through some hard moments together and so I think being able to navigate whatever comes our way in terms of you lose a game you lose a couple in a row you know the injuries whatever happens in an NBA season the adversity that shows itself this group has shown the ability to to navigate those things together but I'm excited because I think we've have we have a really hungry team um and i have really high expectations for them every day it's it's hard for me to to look off in the distance and say i expect this at the end of the year but i do expect and demand you know a really high standard of our players each and every day and you know the hope is that those standards every day and that work every day will ultimately lead some good results. But, you know, training camp is short in the NBA. Everybody feels really good right now. We start up in a couple of days and then we'll really be able to have a better understanding as we go. But we're going to have to learn about our own team. I think that's probably a huge part of my job this year is really to be paying such really close attention and try to understand what's true, not what I want to be true about our team. Um, so we can solve those problems. Do you wish training camps were longer? Um, I don't know if there's a correlation, but that's not what I said. What is it? That's not what I said. I'm asking, I'm asking, do you wish they were longer? Cause I mean, I think that's such a good question. I think if you ask a lot of the coaches, I'm not going to speak for my, my fellow coaches, excuse me. Um, I think from an organization standpoint there is a desire to maybe have a little more practice i think everybody feels oh man like it's coming up quick and we only have x amount of days to get all these things in um but a longer training camp meaning more pre-season games i'm not sure because i think those games are um they're nerve-wracking because you're learning about your team but there's also the the physical piece of you know how in shape are they for a game right now we have a week of practice they're a little banged up we don't obviously don't want to hurt anybody I mean I feel like I'm doing my taxes during the games like I'm trying to figure out how many minutes each guy is supposed to this is going to play with this guy but not him and he's done at 17 minutes and then we're going to play him another shift and the whole time you're worried that someone's going to sprain their ankle you know it's it's normal stuff but I do think the practices are really impactful the players would probably tell you like nah man we don't want any more training camp practices but from an organization standpoint I think I always feel rushed I feel like that first real game comes up fast and you have a very stripped down thing you're going into it with I mean it's like three weeks right like media day and that season opens that is a very condensed amount of time I get that, um, last question for you, uh, you did have a busy summer but you did have time to check out the Conor McGregor, uh, fight in Vegas, uh, did that sour you on combat sports forever and did you get a refund for that performance? It did not sour me on combat sports um, my introduction to combat sports was UFC here in Salt Lake when I first moved out here I'd never seen it in person. I went and became addicted. It's an incredible, incredible event. The athletes, the entire production of it all is pretty crazy. I also don't get to be a fan very often. I'm a fan of the University of Tennessee's football team, I'm a fan of the Washington Commanders and besides that it's you know my entire world is of sports is our team so to be able to go and watch something that you really don't know that much about also has become you know something that's fun to do I guess I have to say I'm also a fan of the Utah Mammoth, I go to a lot of their games, I love those guys but yeah it hadn't soured me forever you know I recognize that there's probably a lot of discussion about that fight but that's all way outside of my scope of knowledge. Got to at least ask for like free tickets to the next one or something, you know, for a 30 second fight. Come on, man. Well, I appreciate it, man. Excited to see what you guys do this season. Excited to see everything you've got going on out there in Utah. Always appreciate catching up with you. Thanks, bro. Appreciate it.