Jazz have found a rotation that works, which is one reason for recent success

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SALT LAKE CITY — Will Hardy can admit when he's made a mistake.

At the beginning of the season, he put up his rotations on a whiteboard. The first lineup was filled with players he thought would work well together within an off-ball offense. The second unit was made up of dribble-drive players that would give the team a different look.

To him, it made sense.

"But when you get out there and you see it and you watch the film, we have to be willing to adjust," Hardy said.

The Jazz coach has done just that; and over the last month, Hardy has found gold.

Utah's all-bench lineup of Walker Kessler, Jordan Clarkson, Kelly Olynyk, Ochai Agbaji, and Keyonte Geoge have a net rating of +26.3 on the season.

The starting group — Kris Dunn, Collin Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, Simone Fonteccio and John Collins — hasn't been as good (+0.7 over the seven games they have started), but that group is improving. They outscored the Nuggets by 10 points when they were on the floor Wednesday in Utah's blowout win.

And, more importantly, the Jazz are winning.

Since the Jazz went to their current starting lineup and rotation, the team has gone 6-1, with wins over five teams in playoff positions.

"We talk all the time about being flexible in our thinking, and it starts with me," Hardy said. "I have a plan. I have things that I think will work, but I also have to be the first person to scrap my own plan and say, 'No, it didn't work the way I thought it would or I thought it was going to.'"

The Jazz are fully healthy now, but the only starters remaining from Hardy's initial group are Markkanen and Collins — and even Collins' role is different. Collins is serving as the team's center in the starting lineup, but started the season as a forward next to Kessler.

His spacing has opened up the lane for Dunn and Sexton to attack the paint. And moving Kessler into the second group has given a pick-and-roll player for Clarkson and George to play off — as well as made that group a menace defensively.

"I think right now we just have a good balance in the offensive end in terms of skill sets and how guys like to play," Hardy said. "And I think that's feeding into their defensive effort. When guys feel like they're a part of the game, demanding little things is not hard. Demanding defense, rebounding and communication is not hard when guys feel like they're not really a part of the flow of the game."

But it did take some time to find the right groups.

Talen Horton-Tucker started the first eight games and has since fallen out of the rotation entirely, George started until he was injured, and Sexton was initially playing like a microwave scorer off the bench but has morphed into a more controlled guard with the starters.

"You can't just throw guys in the pot and say make soup," Olynyk said. "You've gotta add different stuff and change the recipe a little bit until it tastes right."

And things are, to use Olynyk's verbiage, tasting pretty good right now.