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SALT LAKE CITY — A week after Collin Sexton was drafted, his team's prospects looked quite different: LeBron James left Cleveland in free agency for the West Coast.
A few months later, Sexton was the starting point guard for a team that featured multiple players who played prominent roles for an Eastern Conference champion. Suddenly, he was directing where guys like Kyle Korver, Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, and Tristan Thompson should be on the court. That was a little odd for the then-19-year-old guard.
"They called me annoying and things like that, but they love me," Sexton said, while admitting it was "tough" to sometimes be vocal with the veterans. "They definitely love me and they knew I was going to fight for them each and every night."
So Sexton understands what Keyonte George is currently going through as a rookie.
The rookie guard from Baylor has been asked to lead the Jazz team down the stretch run of the season. There will be moments of brilliance (his rookie-record nine 3-pointers in a game comes to mind) and moments of young mistakes (a couple of bad turnovers against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, for example).
But head coach Will Hardy is looking for one thing specifically when it comes to George's play: He wants to see (or, maybe more accurately, hear) him use his voice.
"It's hard to be a rookie point guard. It's hard to take on that role and direct traffic and tell people where to go," Hardy said. "There are moments that are uncomfortable, especially when you're dealing with veteran players. But I think the communication between he and I and then the communication between him and his teammates is my biggest focus for Keyonte as we close the season."
That's not a new instruction — far from it. It's the same thing Hardy has harped on him since the beginning of the season, and especially since he inserted him into the starting lineup after just eight games into his rookie campaign.
Hardy recognized early that George was a basketball junkie. The rookie is constantly breaking down film or just simply watching games for fun. That's allowed him to learn fast, correct mistakes relatively quickly and avoid letting bad trends stick. He has knowledge and lots of it.
Hardy wants him to share that, even if that can be a bit awkward at times.
"Being a 20-year-old kid, like it's hard to talk to 29, 30, 26 (year olds), I mean, they've got way more experienced than me," George said. "So it's kind of like in the back of your head. You kind of think, maybe the things I'm saying they've already heard and they already know."
George understands, though, that being able to wipe away those doubts is key to his development. He wants to be able to comfortably call players together during dead balls to explain what he's seeing and then communicate instructions during the run of play; that's part of the job as an NBA lead guard.
"I've gotta get all four guys on the same page when we go out there so we understand what we're doing," George said.
At practice, he's been doing that more and more. Hardy said he has shown more confidence directing traffic during training sessions, and Walker Kessler highlighted his energy when talking to players. Now, it's about keeping that same energy when the lights are the brightest.
"Obviously, being a point guard, he has to be a leader at some point," Kessler said. "He's young right now, but I can already tell he's gotten a lot better just talking to guys."
Hardy has noticed that, too.
"I see it a lot during the games at the dead balls coming out of timeouts, free throws, in those situations he's communicating very well. The part we need to translate more from the practice core to the game is communicating while the game is in flow."
Hardy admits that George — as basketball savvy as he is — would like to focus on the more technical parts of his game, but Hardy believes that as soon as he opens up his voice the faster the team can make another step.
The good news for George is he's got a few teammates who can remind him they'll still love him even if he's the annoying vocal rookie.
