This article examines the Utah Jazz's recent summer league loss to the Golden State Warriors, focusing on the performance of rookie guard Isaiah Collier. It discusses the concerns around Collier's development, comparing his play to other young point guards who have struggled to maintain a starting role in the NBA. Additionally, it touches upon the broader issue of player absences in summer league due to questionable injury reports.
Utah Jazz guard Isaiah Collier and Jazz forward Ace Bailey as the Utah Jazz take on the Memphis Grizzlies during an NBA Salt Lake City Summer League game at the Jon M. Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus, Monday, July 7, 2025.
Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 103-93 summer league loss to the Golden State Warriors from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.Once again, Ace Bailey sat out of this game, along with Jazz rookies Walter Clayton, Jr. and John Tonje . Two-way contract signee RJ Luis also is out. Elsewhere in summer league, the Mavericks pulled out Cooper Flagg after playing just two summer league games, despite being healthy. No. 2 pick Dylan Harper missed the first week with a minor groin injury, and No. 3 pick VJ Edgecombe has sat out of all but the first summer league game with a bruised thumb. In other words, a whole lot of these games that ESPN or ESPN2 has chosen to feature, expecting to see up and coming stars have turned out to be busts from an interest point of view. Now, if all of those players truly could not play basketball, or were at risk of serious injury given their maladies, I would be in support of them sitting out these summer league games. Yes, it hurts the entertainment of the product — and entertainment is the whole reason we do any of this — but it would be worth it for future entertainment down the road. I do not want a Tyrese Haliburton situation. But we now live in an NBA world where the injury report isn’t trustworthy. Clayton Jr., for example, said he was likely to play tonight, he was ruled out by Jazz doctors. Flagg could clearly still play, and I suspect both Harper and Edgecombe could be playing, too. The frequency of injury report shenanigans has thrown into doubt all of these absences, and put it simply, has made the product harder to follow for fans. So I’ve been thinking about how to solve this — how to get basketball players playing basketball more often in summer league play and in regular season play alike. Here’s one possibility: rather than allowing team doctors to control the injury report, put that responsibility on league doctors. League doctors wouldn’t have incentive to tank to lose their team games, nor to tank a player’s value so they can be signed to a cheaper contract later on. Instead, they’d have an incentive to support the value of the product overall — to help players get healthy and back on the court with considered urgency. There are certainly problems here, including employment ones. But I’m not sure they’re unsolvable, and I do consider the proliferation of absences on the injury report a negative for fans who attend the games and fans who watch on TV alike. What are the odds you’ll see your favorite player in any given NBA game that they’re scheduled to play in? Unfortunately, they’re low.I don’t want to call it a “wake up call,” because that’s probably harsh. But I thought today’s game was at least a gentle reminder to Isaiah Collier that he needs to continue to step up his game to ensure his place at the NBA level.“I just liked the group that we had in. I thought they were really competing,” Jazz summer league coach Chris Jones said. “They went on a run, and I wanted to reward those guys.” Hey, fair enough. That group contained Max Abmas, not Collier, and so Abmas got the chance to continue playing in the game as the Jazz cut a 13-point lead to four. But Jones did insert Filipowski back in later in the fourth quarter, and not Collier. In general, Collier just hasn’t been able to pop in the summer league so far, and hasn’t put up the performances of the players around him on the Jazz’s summer league roster. To be sure, the passing looks incredible, just as it always does for Collier. But the shooting, driving, and defensive efforts just don’t look significantly better than they did last season. Collier went a long, long way to making the Jazz watchable last season, and worked his way up to the starting point guard role. But he needs to bring intensity and development to keep that spot. Jazz fans have seen point guards get the starting role early in their careers and then be rotated out of it as performances aren’t up to par — Trey Burke, Raul Neto, Dante Exum, Talen Horton-Tucker, and even perhaps Keyonte George have fallen in this category. Collier can avoid this fate, but he’ll have to work hard at it.The University of Utah’s leading scorer last year has an outside NBA shot. Gabe Madsen, a prolific shooter, played four seasons of his collegiate career with the Utes, ending up with a 15 points per game average last season. His 3-point percentage dropping to 32%, though, hurt his efficiency and his overall resume as a shooter, and he didn’t really get serious NBA Draft looks.Madsen said he did work out with “six or seven” teams, though, one of those being the Warriors. And on draft night, he got a call from Golden State to see if he’d join them for summer league. “My whole mindset coming into this was just trying to look at like a camp of sorts, just going for three weeks to see how much I could soak up in terms of knowledge and the game,” Madsen said. “Playing with so much pace ... that’s how I want to play.” What’s next for Madsen? He says he wants to stay in the states and figure things out, see where this performance in summer league takes him. I don’t think a camp invite is totally out of the question, but I’d say the most likely path is through the G-League and impressing there.This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.Opinion: The grip that race and identity have on my studentsLetter: Flash floods are the leading cause of storm-related deaths in the U.S. You don’t save money by putting American lives at risk.
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