After Jazz loss to Suns, some thoughts on Walker Kessler’s early-season struggles and John Collins’ in-game savvy

PHOENIX — Not a great day for Utah sports.

After both Utah and BYU football teams lost earlier in the day on Saturday, the Utah Jazz were absolutely clobbered by the Phoenix Suns, and much like the Utah collegiate losses, the Jazz weren’t even close, losing 126-104 and trailing by as many as 33 points.

The Jazz were tired and on the tail end of a back-to-back on the first road trip of the regular season and they ended up a little shorthanded with Talen Horton-Tucker getting into foul trouble (including a Flagrant 1) and Ochai Agbaji being held out of the second half as a precaution after some knee-to-knee contact that caused a little bit of soreness.

This was a game full of turnovers and fouls that hurt the Jazz, and even some solid shooting wasn’t going to make up for the missteps.

Beyond the result, there are a couple of things I think are worth talking about.

Early struggles for Walker Kessler

Walker Kessler has not had a great start to the season, having yet to eclipse double digits anywhere in a box score. On Saturday, he finished with more turnovers (three) than points (two).

“I know Walker’s really frustrated right now,” Jazz coach Will Hardy said. “He’s had some unfortunate moments — the ball slips through his hand, he fumbles a catch he normally makes, is a split second late on a blocked shot that maybe he’s gotten before — but I think it’s a time for Walker to understand that this league is really hard and tough moments, tough stretches can happen to any player.”

I don’t think that anyone is concerned about Kessler at this point because it’s only three games into the season and he’s playing with some new guys. His timing is a little off and he’s had a few bad nights. I’m confident that he’ll get back to being himself.

Kessler’s biggest hurdle is going to be dealing with stretches like this. He is incredibly tough on himself and the frustration is obvious. Hearing him talk about his struggles, you’d think he was the worst player on the team and the sole reason the Jazz have ever lost a game. He’s just really down.

He even admitted that he needs to do a better job of turning the page and moving on to the next game and not dwelling on some of the negative things and pointed to Kris Dunn, who is going through a similarly rough stretch, but has a much more positive outlook.

“It’s an undervalued skill, but Kris is really good at it,” Kessler said. “Obviously I haven’t been playing as well as I wanted to, but it’s early so I’m just trying to stay positive.”

The savvy of John Collins

John Collins finished the game with a respectable 10 points, 11 rebounds and three assists. Through three games, I don’t think we’ve really scratched the surface of what Collins is going to be able to do (or should be able to do) with this Jazz team. He’s very much still learning how to play with this new team and adapting to a very different role than he’s used to.

That being said, there are a few things that have stood out where Collins is concerned: his patience, his ability to seemingly never panic and his sneaky/smart gamesmanship.

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Let’s start with the sneaky stuff because it’s fun. Collins is very good at a thing Mike Conley (and a lot of other very savvy NBA players) often do — getting away with fouls when they know they aren’t in the direct sightline of an official (holding jerseys, pushing, elbowing, etc).

Also, on Saturday early in the game, Drew Eubanks was particularly physical with Collins, in a way that the official noticed.

After an extremely brief moment of pushing between the two players, which the official waved off, the official was running down the court and told Collins to bring any thoughts his way rather than continuing anything that could be considered extracurricular.

Collins took that opportunity to warm up to the official and respectfully (and quickly) explain what he perceived Eubanks to have done and asked that the official keep an eye on it.

Not long after that, the two players were tangled up again and the official issued a technical foul to Eubanks.

Now, you aren’t going to find an official who will admit to awarding respect in the way of issuing fouls, but it’s pretty clear what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to getting on an official’s good side, and Collins is really smart when it comes to stuff like this.

As far as patience and not being easily shaken, Collins shows this a few times every game. In any of the most chaotic moments — broken plays, loose balls, traffic rebounds, missed passes — Collins is often the most composed player on the floor.

I mean, look at this play:

He is literally on the floor and rather than scramble or call for a timeout, he searches out a cutter, which he finds in Collin Sexton.

I think when we get a few weeks into the season we’ll be able to better assess how Collins is coming along from an acclimation standpoint. These are just some of my early observations from being able to watch Collins with a more trained eye than ever before.