Will Hardy Confident Utah Jazz's Youth Can Translate Next Year

The Utah Jazz are closing out the remainder of the 2025-26 regular season with a vastly different rotation from what they'll be rolling out at the start of their next campaign.

Between injuries and multiple young players navigating their way into expanded roles because of it, guys like Cody Williams, Brice Sensabaugh, and Kyle Filipowski in particular are seeing consistent starting-level minutes, and a bigger share of opportunities on both sides of the ball.

Next season, though, those three are bound to see their roles shift back to a lesser capacity; likely as frequent pieces of the second unit without many plays drawn up specifically for them, and thus a much-different look from what they've been accustomed to through in recent weeks.

With that in the back of mind, it begs the question of whether what the Jazz and their young talent are showing now is able to be truly sustainable moving forward once everyone is healthy.

For head coach Will Hardy, though, he feels as if the way the Jazz have designed the recent structure around their young talent lets him imagine their fit into next year's group just fine. However, it relies on him and Utah's staff to remain diligent in doing their part as well.

"I think they fit very well," Hardy said of the Jazz's young talent. "I think it will be our responsibility to help all of our players, but especially the younger ones, understand what their roles are and try to help them understand where their opportunities are [next season]. I think it calms players down where they can at least see the moments where they have opportunity."

"I have felt the greatest part about this stretch of the season is that, yes, [the young players] are getting more opportunity, for sure. But it's not opportunity that is based around, like, 'Hey man, do your thing.' Like, we still have 32 assists in tonight's game [vs. the Denver Nuggets], so it's still within a team construct. And so, the thought process there is that it can translate."

"I think it gives it the best chance to translate, but I obviously don't know for certain."

Can Utah Jazz's Development Translate Into Next Season?

Mar 25, 2026; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy and assistant coach Chad Forcier and forward Cody Williams (5) talk before the game against the Washington Wizards at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images | Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images

This time next year, the bulk of the shot opportunities won't be handed to guys like Sensabaugh, Williams, or Filipowski. Instead, Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George will handle those reins once again, and hopefully be on track for a postseason berth to pair with it.

But in the recent stretch the Jazz have endured, that same young talent is also getting valuable reps outside of just being a focal point of the lineup.

That includes getting more comfort and reps on the defensive end, analyzing reads better on the other side of the ball, and still playing as a collective offense under Hardy's system that has had pockets of proving to be really successful, even without 100% of his talent on the floor.

Just within the aforementioned trio, Williams has shown huge strides as a playmaker and cutter off the ball, Filipowski has been wholeheartedly praised by Hardy for his on-ball defense, and Sensabaugh has become a potent spot-up shooting threat on the wing who can get even more dangerous with further defensive strides.

As Hardy noted, seeing whether his strategy truly pays off will only become clear with time. Especially without knowing what each player's respective role is shaping up to be for the next campaign, it's hard to accurately judge how everyone adjusts to a brand-new roster come time for training camp.

Yet, with the reps that have been showcased thus far by the young talent that has seen their opportunity take a leap forward, they've definitely added another ounce of excitement for what their future could look like in Salt Lake City.