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The Burden of Expectation: Isaiah Collier
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- The Burden of Expectation: Isaiah Collier
Thank you for stopping by to check out this little mini-series once again. If you missed out on the Kyle Filipowski or Ace Bailey article please go check that out, but I left Isaiah Collier last for a very specific reason: he's my favorite.
I'm incredibly thankful to James Hansen and the very talented staff here at SLC Dunk for allowing me the opportunity to share my written work with a ravenous fanbase like the Utah Jazz has. This was the first time that I've been able to have my work be published outside of my personal blog, so naturally this was a very big deal for me. To commemorate the occasion, I decided to buy a purple mountain jersey of a current Jazz player and I didn't have to think about it at all. The answer was Isaiah Collier and it's all because he embodies my favorite archetype in all of basketball — players who were born to sling the rock.
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My whole life I've been a fan of those kinds of players: Rajon Rondo, Andre Miller, Ricky Rubio, Lonzo Ball, and John Stockton (of course). The ability to be so selfless and try to make your teammates better is a charming quality that I appreciate in my favorite athletes, and from the very moment he suited up for the Jazz it was very clear that facilitating was going to be Collier's bread and butter. He was more of a scorer during his college days at USC, but you don't average 6 assists a game as a rookie by accident. He was born to make his teammates better, and his ability to do that is a backup capacity this year is going to be invaluable to this team.
The Bad
Let's address the elephant in the room: there is much to be desired about his game. He is a below league average defender and there are moments where he could be described as a "traffic cone", he isn't nearly as efficient as I would like him to be, and during the games that we do see him thrive he has the ball in his hands basically all game long. As a matter of fact, during the 2025-2026 season, Collier had an on-ball percentage of 46.7%, meaning that nearly half of the time that he was on the floor he was the one calling the shots, which of course is in the 99th percentile in the league. There is a reason that he's been given the keys when he's on the floor, and that's because his Per 36 minutes numbers would have him averaging 16 points and 10 assists a game.
When he's the floor general, good things happen. It's the other 53.3% of the time that leaves fans wanting more. Suffice it to say, in 2026, a player shooting 27% from deep (especially when that player is a guard) is not very good. Sure, it was only on 1.7 attempts a game, and you could argue that because he doesn't take very many it isn't that big of a deal. To give credit where credit is due, he is a great at the rim finisher, shooting 73.5% near the rim which is in the 96th percentile in the league. The downside to that fact is that he only averaged 2.7 shots at the rim a game last year which is only in the 74th percentile. There are certainly things in his game to admire, but the rest of his game needs to be refined.
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The Good
The good news is that Will Hardy can, and I'm sure will, put Collier into the positions that will amplify his strengths and hide his weaknesses. As the world's biggest Ben Simmons fan (get well soon), it has been incredibly vindicating to be proven right time and time again with the notion that you don't haveto shoot the 3 well to be impactful. Does it help? Absolutely, but we can see with more recent guys like Amen and Ausar Thompson that it isn't a required skill.
I can hear you yelling at me now, but it isn't lost on me that what the Thompson twins are being asked to do is much different than what Collier is being asked to do, but I think that is actually an advantage for us. Houston and Detroit are asking them to be secondary or tertiary facilitators while simultaneously being the best defender on the team. The Jazz just need Collier to keep the machine moving as the backup PG, simplify his offensive game, and be closer to a league average defender.
With this being the first year in far too long that the Jazz have actual expectations, it's more vital than ever that everyone be on the same page and move toward the same goal. Our conservative goal is to make the playoffs, and while the Western Conference is going to be as difficult as always, I think that there is a real avenue where we could accomplish that. Everyone will have a role to play this year, and for Collier I think it's rather simple: continue to be the great facilitator that you are, when you aren't facilitating attack the rim at a higher rate (which will also lead to more FT attempts where he was already in the 83rd percentile), and lock in on the defensive end. He doesn't have to be Jrue Holiday out there (although I won't complain if he is), but making the jump from a bad defender to a league average one is much less difficult to accomplish than being a league average defender trying to be the same level of defender as Kawhi Leonard or Scottie Barnes. The formula is simple and I trust Will Hardy to get the best out of Collier.
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The Elite
Whether the national media wants to acknowledge it or not, Isaiah Collier is one of the best passers in the entire league. Collier averaged 7.2 assists per game last season which placed him in the 93rd percentile in the league. Who are some of the names that were placed above him, you ask? James Harden, Trae Young, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, and LeBron James. Just some of the greatest passers OF ALL-TIME, and then there's our baby boy Isaiah Collier. What's even more important to note is that NO ONEabove him on that list is a bench player. Every other name that averaged more assists than he did last year is a full-time starter, or at least they were this past season in the case of Andrew Nembhard. It is not an exaggeration to say that NO ONE IN THE LEAGUE is doing it quite like #8. When you have someone that's this capable of facilitating, you don't mess with the magic; you lean into it.
Despite already having to deal with injury issues in the case of Jusuf Nurkic, there are clearly defined roles for this team this year. Our backcourt paring of Keyonte George and Darryn Peterson is seamless and they've already displayed that they can play off of each other well.
That means that Isaiah is firmly the backup PG for this team and will be tasked with keeping the machine moving when one or both of Key and DP are off the floor. Depending on how much time Nurkic misses with his injury, Collier will have some nice pieces to work with on the bench unit. I've already talked about the leap that I expect Kyle Filipowski to take, Ace Bailey (if he's pushed to the bench) will obviously be a dangerous offensive weapon, Brice Sensabaugh showed flashes of greatness last year, and veteran Josh Okogie will be a great release valve when times get tough. The Utah Jazz Bench Mob have all the pieces to help aid this team all season long, and I think that as long as we allow Collier to run that show, we'll be in great hands.
With the season tipping off tomorrow, how pumped are you on a scale from 1-10? Who else do you think has a burden of expectation? Sound off in the comments!
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