End-of-Season Grades: Evaluating Jazz SG Brice Sensabaugh

The Utah Jazz got some value late in the first-round.

Apr 11, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz forward Brice Sensabaugh (8) warms up before a / Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

What better way to digest the Jazz recently finished up the season than to hand out player grades? After a developmental season where the Jazz went 31-51, we’re doing just that. Next up on the grading block is Brice Sensabaugh, the rookie shooting guard out of Ohio State.

The Jazz selected Sensabaugh with the 28th pick in last year’s draft, which they acquired for Royce O’neale. We only got to see 32 games from Sensabaugh this year, but thanks to the G-League, we got a bonus of 29 games from the rookie who showed us what he could do.

For the Jazz, Sensabaugh averaged 7.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. Fine numbers especially given his limited role and the context with which he was playing. When looking at his G-League numbers, we see all his tools in his bag. He scored 19.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.2 assists on a very efficient 46.7% shooting clip.

Coming into the year, we knew that Sensabaugh could score. He’s strong & handles the ball well, which he uses to get to his spots. Because he’s not a bursty athlete, I had questions about whether or not he’d be able to do this against NBA athletes. It's been so far, so good, though. Sensabaugh still seems comfortable on the offensive end, even against NBA-level defenders. Granted, it can be hard to gauge how much you can take from April basketball for a tanking team.

Like teammate Keyonte George, Sensabaugh was impressed with his passing ability this year. He attacked closeouts well and sprayed the ball out to shooters. This skill alone elevates his floor because you can feel confident putting the ball in his hands.

Brice tied his career-high of 22 from last game and set a new career-high of 𝐒𝐈𝐗 threes 🥶#PlayerHighlights | @zionsbank pic.twitter.com/ovvZ27dcBn

— Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) April 3, 2024

We consistently heard Sensabaugh wasn’t getting NBA minutes because of his defense. The Jazz wanted to see him buy in and compete on that end of the court. From what we’ve seen, I thought he did that over the last few weeks of the season. He’s no Lu Dort, but if Sensabaugh commits to the defensive end of the court, it’ll be hard for Jazz head coach Will Hardy to keep him out of the rotation next year.

One of the most important things we saw from Sensabaugh this year was his health. He’s struggled to stay healthy throughout his career, and a knee injury cut his lone college season short. Getting into the offseason healthy was one of his biggest goals before the season.

Sensabaugh showed us that his offensive game can translate to the NBA level. He has a massive summer ahead of him to work on his body and shot. We’ll see him in Summer League, where he’ll hopefully be able to separate himself from the competition.

Grade B

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