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SALT LAKE CITY — Kris Dunn was the odd man out.
Through the first 17 games of the season, Dunn was playing just 10 minutes per night — with many of those coming at the end of blowouts — and had recorded four DNP-coach's decisions.
The Jazz were looking for a rotation that worked. Early on that was a mixture of Talen Horton-Tucker, Jordan Clarkson, Keyonte George and Collin Sexton — with a little bit of a Dunn sprinkled in. When George took over the starting point guard minutes and the Jazz opted to give him a big leash, that meant even less time for Dunn.
"It's not necessarily Kris' fault that he hasn't played," Jazz coach Will Hardy said in November. "He's had some guys playing ahead of him."
After explaining the situation, Hardy ended with: "My job is to continue to evaluate what's best for the team. Kris is definitely someone I'm thinking more about."
Ten games ago, Dunn entered the starting lineup. The Utah Jazz have gone 8-2 since.
Coincidence?
"Kris is a stabilizing force for us," Hardy said.
Dunn is averaging 5.0 points and 6.8 assists as a starter, and is shooting just 37% from the field and 27% from the 3-point line. Those aren't exactly world-beater numbers. But his contributions rarely show themselves on a boxscore.
Monday night was the latest example. With Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard out, the Jazz had Dunn play as a rover-type defender. He spent the night running over to Giannis Antetokounmpo whenever he had the ball and doubling Khris Middleton; it worked. Milwaukee's offense was out of sorts for much of the game — the third quarter notwithstanding — as the Jazz pulled off the upset.
"He was a free safety tonight," Hardy said. "And we haven't done that much with Kris, but he has such good instincts, very aggressive. And I thought that he did a great job of showing help on Giannis and Middleton and was able to really impact our defense in that way."
On Monday, the veteran point guard became the first Jazz player since John Stockton to have 13 assists and a perfect night shooting. Now a small disclaimer here: Dunn shot just two times. But that almost made his performance more impressive.
He controlled the game — and even dominated portions — and needed just two shots to do it.
"He knows that his responsibility on the offensive end when he's playing is to organize us and is to communicate with me," Hardy said. "And then when he gets the ball back after setting us up, he has the green light to attack shoot, but we're trying to use him as a facilitator and organizer with the first group. He's done a spectacular job — 13 assists was great."
Dunn has been around the league long enough to know that success can be fleeting. He was a No. 5 pick and then had to work his way back into the NBA through the G League. After that experience, he wasn't going to take just being on a roster for granted.
It didn't matter where he was on the depth chart, he prepared like he was going to have a big role. And more, he was a vocal leader to a young team full of introverts.
"Kris understood it maybe wasn't necessarily fair, but that's the way it goes," Hardy said. "We have a lot of guys in our team but you can make a case should be playing and early in the year that didn't break Kris's way as we explored some other things on the roster. Kris never complained. He never got sour. He never made excuses. He didn't stop working."
And that's now paying off — for him and the Jazz.
"I just keep putting in the work," Dunn said. "We understand it's a long season, we got a lot of talented players on the team, so just about figuring it out."
They learned that he shouldn't be the odd man out.
