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PORTLAND — Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy had plenty of reasons for why he inserted Kelly Olynyk into the starting lineup Wednesday in Utah's blowout loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
It gave Utah more size, Olynyk's a better stylistic fit next to Lauri Markkanen, and it freed up some minutes for Omer Yurtseven, who was coming off an 18-point performance the night before.
But outside of scheme reasons, there was this: "It's, No. 1, setting a precedent that we will change if we need to."
That was one of many hints from Hardy Wednesday that rotation changes could be coming for the Jazz. Before the game, he said things had reached a point that if players aren't willing to both pass and play hard, they won't be playing for the Jazz.
After watching his team cough up 16 first-half turnovers as they dropped to 4-11 on the season, his tone hadn't changed.
"We are either going to dig in and have the ability to learn or we're going to have to make some real changes with who's playing in the games, because 16 turnovers in a half is unacceptable," Hardy said. "That's not who we want to be as a team, that's not what I want our team to be known as, that's not what I want our program to represent.
"It's going to take some real collective work, and it's going to take everybody taking responsibility for their own part in where we are right now as a team — that's me included," he continued. "But if we're going to get where we ultimately want to go, every person — I've said this a bunch this year, and I'm not going to stop saying it — every person has to take responsibility, and every person has to do their job better. And that's truly what it comes down to."
Olynyk's move into the starting lineup wasn't the only change the Jazz made against Portland. Yurtseven and Kris Dunn both got rotation minutes in the first half, and the Jazz went to an all-bench lineup for large portions of the game as Hardy tried to find anything that would work.
When the team left the Delta Center Sunday night, the Jazz felt like they had turned a corner. Three days later, things look dire. That's what two "ugly" games, to use Hardy's term, will do to a team.
What's the pathway forward? That type of question keeps Hardy up at night — and he hopes it's on his players' minds, too.
"This is a collective. I'm not a critic of our team," Hardy said. "I'm with them, and they know that. I go home after every game, win or loss, and I am constantly beating myself up about things that I did or didn't do. And I just want them to take the same responsibility and ownership over this program. If you're gonna wear a Utah Jazz jersey, you have to give a (expletive) about the Utah Jazz."
Hardy said the team has moments of stubbornness — evidenced by aimless drives from guards (Jordan Clarkson had seven turnovers Wednesday, Talen Horton-Tucker had three and Collin Sexton had two) and too much shot-hunting — that can be maddening.
There aren't obvious fixes, either. After a marvelous preseason, Dunn has struggled to start the year, and Hardy is reluctant to give Keyonte George more minutes as he adjusts to an NBA workload.
But Wednesday showed Hardy will change things if needed. And if that stubbornness isn't fixed soon, the Jazz may just be playing for lottery odds when the end of the season comes.
"It's going to continue to bite us if we don't correct those things, and we don't show a willingness to just take the simple plays that are right in front of us," Hardy said. "I do think our team is capable of playing good basketball. I think that we've seen that throughout the early part of the year, even in a couple of games that we didn't end up winning."
It just hasn't been seen over the last two games.
"We have to have the ability to be honest with each other, and face the moments that are ugly," Hardy said. "Because if we're going to ultimately change these things, we have to first face them and say, 'Yeah, this is not what we're about.'"
At least, it's not what he wants his team to be about.
