Jazz HC Sends Message to Talen Horton-Tucker Following 5-Turnover Game
Last August, the Utah Jazz acquired Talen Horton-Tucker via trade from the Los Angeles Lakers. The Iowa State product was a second-round draft pick in 2019, and he arrived in Utah last summer along with a revolving door of new faces.
After starting the 2022-23 season in a depth role, Jazz have had to rely more on the point forward since the NBA trade deadline that saw Mike Conley get dealt away, and even more so over the last six games that Collin Sexton has missed with a lingering hamstring injury.
In Utah's 120-116 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, 'THT' turned in one of his better performances of the season. It's unfortunate that it came in a losing effort, but he scored 21 points, six assists, six rebounds, two blocks, and a steal.
Horton-Tucker finished with a -8 game rating, but that can mainly be attributed to the five first-half turnovers he relinquished. He had zero in the second half.
Part of what makes THT so formidable is how he uses his size and length to penetrate and attack the rim. It doesn't always create a notable highlight, as sometimes he can get hung up and make a turnover-worthy play, but Jazz head coach Will Hardy sees clear improvement in that area of Horton-Tucker's game.
“Yeah, I think he has a hard job," Hardy said on Tuesday night. "I ask a lot of Talen. I thought, in the first half, he had five turnovers in the first half and none in the second half. I thought in the first half, he got caught in the air a little bit. He played in the crowd a little bit. When you’re a very good driver like Talen is, you have to push the limits sometimes. The NBA doesn’t give you super-clear lanes where it’s obvious you’re going to get all the way to the basket. If you’re going to try to turn the corner in an NBA game, you have to really push it. So there’s those split-second moments of decision of like, ‘Should I get off it early, or should I really turn the corner?’ If you never go for it, then your team never puts any pressure on the rim."
Indeed, it's important to remember that Horton-Tucker is still just 22 years old and is developing before Jazz Nation's very eyes. Repetition and being exposed to the NBA refiner's fire every night is what will eventually turn THT's propensity for putting pressure on opponents into a sharp tool that either results in points at the rim or an assist to a teammate.
"You just kind of drive to the nail, and you make that simple pass to the wing, which, there’s moments that you have to make that play, but there’s moments that you have to dip your shoulder and try to really cut the corner," Hardy said. "I think Talen is still trying to find that balance. I just try to recognize as a coach that it’s hard. Everything makes perfect sense when you pause the film but that’s not how the game’s played. He’s doing it at full speed, reading live bodies."
The elite athletes that make up the NBA can make it look so much easier than it really is. But part of the purview of an NBA ball-handler, similarly to a quarterback, is to walk that razor's edge of reading the floor and making the right split-second decision that benefits his team instead of hurting it.
At the end of the day, though, Hardy knows that Horton-Tucker's heart is in the right place. The young point forward is doing his best to answer the bell for the injury-racked Jazz and balance the demands of scoring, attacking the rim, and distributing the ball to his teammates.
"His intent is good. He’s trying to put pressure on the rim for our team," Hardy said of Horton-Tucker. "I thought in the second half, we did a better job of putting him in some better spots where the reads were a little cleaner. He did a really good job of using his physicality and playing through the bump. Even the play they challenged, that’s a physical drive. I think in the first half, when he did get bumped, he kind of went into his pivot or he jumped early and that’s why he had some turnovers, so it’s something that Talen’s continuing to work on. But he’s very prideful and he’s very hard on himself and so I don’t need to beat him up over mistakes or turnovers."
Hardy concluded his remarks on the subject by sending a clear message to THT.
"I’m very proud of where Talen is today, at this point in the season versus the first day of training camp," Hardy said. "I think we’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth from Talen and I expect a lot more.”
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