This One Stat Is a Concerning Red Flag for Jazz G Isaiah Collier

The Utah Jazz have a lot of intriguing young talents around their roster built up from the past several offseasons.

One of those budding young talents is their 21-year-old guard Isaiah Collier, who's entering his third season with the Jazz this coming season as their projected backup point guard, and has shown a ton of strong qualities within his development throughout his first two years pro.

He's one of the better young playmakers in the entire league. His sheer speed could be considered among some of the best in the NBA altogether, and he's developed further and further as a respectable scoring threat driving to the rim.

All of those aspects of Collier's game make up for the reasons as to why the Jazz's investment in him as their 29th-overall pick from the 2024 NBA Draft looks to be a strong one just two years after bringing him onto the roster.

However, that's also far from saying Collier is a perfect player. And in fact, there's one particular area of the Jazz guard's game that has arisen as a bit of a concerning weakness in his playstyle that has to be tuned up moving into the 2026-27 campaign.

The Concerning Stat That Sticks Out About Isaiah Collier

While Collier has a ton of appealing tools offensively, where he tends to suffer the most as a player is on the other side of the ball; particularly as it relates to defending the three.

According to Clutch Numbers on X, Collier actually ranks dead last in the NBA when it comes to three-point defensive field goal percentage on a minimum of 250 attempts.

Collier was also a significant distance above the player who ranked in second-to-last for that stat: former NBA All-Star DeMar DeRozan.

Worst 3PT Defensive FG% In The 2025-26 NBA Regular Season (Min. 250 3PT FGA Defended):

1. Isaiah Collier — 44.8%
2. DeMar DeRozan — 41.0%
3. Nickeil Alexander-Walker — 40.9%
4. Nikola Vucevic — 40.6%
5. Noah Clowney — 40.5%
6. Nikola Jokic — 40.2%
7. Karl-Anthony Towns — 39.9%… pic.twitter.com/DuCGyytGDj
— Clutch Numbers (@ClutchNumbers) July 31, 2026

Now, it's not too shocking to see a Jazz player find themselves in these set of numbers, considering how poor the team has been defensively throughout the last three seasons.

Just last year, the Jazz as a team ranked 27th in the NBA for defensive three-point percentage (37.2) and were dead last in three-point makes and three-point attempts across the entire league.

So the Jazz's perimeter defense was lackluster, to say the least. That's part of why the Jazz made it a priority this offseason to try and secure plus-level defenders in their backcourt to boost their floor on the defensive side of the ball, including Darryn Peterson and free agent signing Josh Okogie.

Isaiah Collier Has to Improve His Defensive Effort Next Season

Overall, the Jazz project to be just a bit better defensively next season. However, when it comes to someone like Collier, that defensive skillset is an area of his game that has to be improved moving forward if he wants to continue as a premier piece of Utah's future endeavors.

Collier already has faced struggles as a three-point shooter himself, and pairs that with some subpar effort on the defensive side of the ball. Those two factors in combination with one another––especially as a guard––can be that plays themselves out of a rotation.

Jan 30, 2026; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz guard Isaiah Collier (8) reacts after being called for a foul against the Brooklyn Nets during the second half at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

But it's not to say that Collier doesn't have any hope when it comes to stepping up on the defensive end. He's extremely fast, which can help him guard better on the perimeter, has solid size for the position at 6-foot-4, and is a smart, instinctual player on the offensive end anyways, which could eventually translate into him being more impactful on both sides of the ball.

So if there were anything that Collier should be striving to improve within his game this summer, the defensive end should be atop that list, right next to developing as a better shooter.

Because if he continues to struggle with both, that could be what holds him back from a big payday on his second contract, which he'll be officially eligible to receive come next summer.

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