The Good, Bad, and Ugly for Utah Jazz in Summer League

The Utah Jazz's disappointing 1-4 record in the Las Vegas Summer League suggests that punters may want to reconsider betting on the team's young prospects, particularly Isaiah Collier, as his struggles could impact their performance in the upcoming season.

The Utah Jazz wrapped up a 1-4 record in the Las Vegas Summer League with a wire-to-wire loss to the Chicago Bulls. It was a disappointing trip to Sin City for the group, which was supposed to make some noise given the NBA talent on the roster.

Regardless, let's dive into several things that we saw over the past couple of weeks.

The Good

Kyle Filipowski and Cody Williams, two sophomores who played a good amount of NBA minutes, came to Vegas to stand out, and they did. Filipowski, in particular, had a marvelous few weeks before the Jazz opted to shut him down. Flip was leading the entire league in points per game at just under 30, and, for the most part, it was coming on excellent efficiency.

He shot the ball well from the perimeter. He looked stronger physically, which helped him finish around the cup with both power and finesse, and he continues to be an excellent passer for his position. Because of the title of this segment, we're not going to talk about his defense, but offensively, Filipowski proved to be too good for summer league, which is exactly what he needed to show.

Williams showed Jazz fans that he's been working hard on improving his game since his less-than-encouraging rookie season ended. Williams capped off the Vegas annual with back-to-back games of 20-plus points while knocking down 8 three-pointers.

Now, I don't encourage you to look at who the opponents he did that against were, but progress is progress with Williams. Williams still has a long way to go before he proves that he can stick on an NBA roster, but he certainly had flashes where he looked the part this summer.

That's encouraging, because those were few and far between during his rookie year. He also looked pretty good in his first summer league a year ago, so I wouldn't get too carried away with sophomore expectations, but this was a summer that C-dub can build on.

The Bad

Utah's third sophomore, Isaiah Collier, who was the darling of the 2024-25 season for many Jazz fans, did not have the standout summer league that you'd hope for. It got off to a bumpy start, especially in Salt Lake, where it seemed like he was more focused on trying to find his offense than setting up his teammates.

The problem with this is that the latter is what brought him success in his rookie year. Meanwhile, Collier struggled mightily to put the ball in the basket. After a near league-worst true shooting percentage as a rookie, Collier shot the ball even worse this summer, especially at the free throw line, where he shot under 50%.

Collier still showed his incredible speed and strength. He made some jaw-dropping dimes over the tournament as well. Between him forcing his offense, the lack of shooting improvement, and the continued turnover problems which we didn't even touch on, it was less than I'd hoped for from Collier this summer.

The Ugly

Injuries are part of the game, but the theme of basketball players not playing basketball has fully integrated into the summer season. Sure, teams want to be cautious and protect their expensive young talents, but the level of caution is disappointing for fans.

Ace Bailey, Utah's highest drafted player in over a decade, didn't play in Las Vegas. He missed the final 6 games of this summer due to hip flexor soreness. I don't know the extent of the injury, but having to wait until October to see him play is going to feel like an eternity.

Hopefully, he's healthy and didn't miss out on any development this summer. Walter Clayton, John Tonje, and RJ Luis Jr. all missed most of the summer league as well with various ailments. For fans tuning in to see the young players that summer league is built around, it's disappointing that they rarely play.

The Utah Jazz wrapped up a 1-4 record in the Las Vegas Summer League with a wire-to-wire loss to the Chicago Bulls. It was a disappointing trip to Sin City for

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