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Jazz Just Made Isaiah Collier's Next Breakthrough a Lot More Complicated
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- Jazz Just Made Isaiah Collier's Next Breakthrough a Lot More Complicated
(Peter Creveling-Imagn Images)
The Utah Jazz don't owe Isaiah Collier a starting job. They don't owe him unlimited minutes, either.
But for $4.99 million, they could've bought themselves another year to see whether his remarkable passing ability eventually comes with a reliable jumper.
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On Monday, they decided against it.
Utah exercised Ace Bailey's third-year rookie-scale option while declining Collier's fourth-year option for 2027-28, according to KSL Sports.
And just six games into Collier's third NBA season ... I'm not convinced the Jazz needed to make that call.
Bailey's option was a no-brainer. The 20-year-old has already become one of Utah's most promising young players, and keeping him under contract for another season was hardly controversial.
But Collier's situation deserves a closer look.
The former USC standout averaged 11.7 points and 7.2 assists last season while shooting 49.5% from the field.
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He also delivered 22 assists against the Indiana Pacers in February, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to record at least 20 assists in a game.
Not bad for someone who turned 22 just a month ago.
Of course, those accomplishments don't make Collier a finished product.
His shooting remains a problem.
He's made just 25% of his career 3-point attempts and has opened this season shooting 36.8% from the field, including an 0-for-8 start from beyond the arc.
That's difficult to overlook when Keyonte George and Darryn Peterson are demanding significant roles in Utah's backcourt.
Collier's playing time has already dropped from 25.7 minutes per game last season to 18.7 through Utah's first six contests.
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The Jazz have legitimate reasons to wonder whether his skill set fits their long-term plans.
But declining his option doesn't make those questions any easier to answer.
If anything, it makes the consequences of getting them wrong considerably more expensive.
Under the NBA's salary-cap rules , whichever team holds Collier's contract at the end of this season cannot offer him a starting salary exceeding the $4.99 million option that Utah declined.
Other teams won't face that restriction.
Collier is also now on track to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, meaning the Jazz won't have the right to match competing offers.
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So imagine Collier develops a respectable jumper, becomes more efficient and starts attracting attention around the league ...
Utah could find itself unable to offer him the same starting salary as an interested competitor.
All because it passed on another season at less than $5 million.
According to reporting from The Salt Lake Tribune's Shreyas Laddha, Collier has handled the news well, and Utah intends to continue evaluating him throughout the season.
Which makes the timing even harder to understand.
If the Jazz still intend to evaluate Collier, why surrender another year of contractual control before that evaluation is complete?
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Maybe there's a roster-building consideration we're not seeing. Perhaps the front office has already determined that Collier's limitations outweigh his strengths.
Both are possibilities.
But another season wouldn't have required Utah to build its offense around him, promise him a starting role or commit to anything beyond a manageable salary.
It would've given the organization more time to find out whether Collier can become something more than a gifted passer with an inconsistent jumper.
Maybe that improvement never comes. Maybe George and Peterson ultimately make Collier expendable.
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If so, Utah's decision will be easier to defend.
But if Collier starts knocking down shots and rounds out his offensive game ... another team could offer him more money than the Jazz are even allowed to put on the table.
And that's what makes Monday's decision so difficult to understand.
Collier doesn't have to become a superstar for this gamble to backfire.
He just has to become worth more than $4.99 million to somebody else.
