For the 2023-24 Utah Jazz, every player will take on a new role with more responsibility

LAIE, Hawaii — Ochai Agbaji is fresh off a rookie season in which he played in just 59 games, spent time in the G League, and only started to establish himself as a central part of the Utah Jazz’s rotation in the latter half of the season. Even so, the second-year wing is looking to take on a leadership role in the 2023-24 season, and he’s not the only one on this Jazz team who is going to see their role change.

“Stepping into a little bit of a leadership role, as far as making sure everyone is aligned on our team,” Agbaji said of what he envisions for the upcoming year. “Just being that guy that people look to for confidence.”

Agbaji is a natural extrovert, which makes him the perfect fit to become a vocal leader as his NBA career progresses. That being said, there’s no expectation for him to become the leader of this Jazz team. Those shoes belong to Lauri Markkanen.

“Lauri, he’s a leader now, and you don’t always ask to be the leader,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “Lauri is an introvert — you guys know him — but I think he’s ready for that role. It’s something that he and I have spoken a lot about this summer — understanding that people are looking at you even when you don’t want them to be looking at you. And so how you react to different situations, in a game, after a game, at practice, in a film session, it matters to the team. He’s getting used to carrying that weight.”

The Jazz were hoping that they’d be able to polish Markkanen and that he’d flourish with them, but they couldn’t predict the breakout season he had. His emergence as the best player on this Jazz team placed new responsibility on his shoulders, on and off the court, and he was transparent last season about the learning curve on his journey to being a leader. This season, there are no question marks when it comes to Markkanen. He is the No. 1 option. He is the best player on this team.

It’s a position that Hardy is familiar with. While he still feels a bit like a rookie head coach, he isn’t and his role comes with pressure, expectations and a lot of responsibility. A large part of the responsibility for Hardy is getting his team to adapt and change.

There will be more asked of Markkanen, there will be more asked of Agbaji and there will be a lot of change for the other players on the team as well.

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“Start with the guards,” Hardy said. “They’re all in a new role in terms of the expectation of their understanding of what’s going on on the floor … we need to all take our level up a little bit in terms of understanding the situations of the game — time, score, who’s got the hot hand, all those types of things — and it’s not putting it on just one person.”

That means better decision-making and more responsibility for Kris Dunn, Keyonte George, Talen Horton-Tucker, Collin Sexton and Jordan Clarkson.

For Agbaji and Walker Kessler, not only are they expected to take on more leadership responsibilities, but they are also going to have to carry more weight on the court and prove that they can be reliable NBA players through an 82-game schedule.

“It’s great that you had a good rookie year … but it wasn’t like you had a great whole year. We all remember the last sort of 30 games, and that’s amazing. But, we want to them to continue on that trend,” Hardy said. “Being an every-night contributor in the NBA, it’s hard. For those guys, it’s about reliability.”

For newcomer John Collins, his role has yet to be defined on the Jazz, making training camp here in Hawaii extremely important for the six-year veteran.

After an ever-changing role in Atlanta, which was diminished in the last couple of seasons as trade rumors swirled around him, Collins is looking to bring new life to his career with the Jazz and that could mean some real adjustments to the way he’s played the game.

“John, he doesn’t know what his role is and I don’t know what his role is yet,” Hardy said. “We’re gonna free him up and adjust him into our style and playing with these players. So yeah, there’s different roles for a lot of people, and as you can tell by what I’ve said, a lot of those roles aren’t necessarily the shots you’re taking or the plays you’re making — it’s how you fit in the ecosystem of the team.”

As training camp progresses and the 2023-24 preseason approaches, roles will become more defined in a sense. But this Jazz team has to be agile and fluid and the players are going to have to be willing to change. That’s what this step in the rebuild of the team requires.