How Excited Should Utah Be About Keyonte George Making an All-Rookie Team?

Any Jazz fan can tell you the only thing that kept them tuning in night after night with this year’s Utah team, was the potential upside of the youth.

For rebuilding teams like the Jazz, its all about what young prospects show signs of developing on a game-to-game basis.

With Utah rostering three first round selections through the 2023-2024 season, fans had plenty of youth movement to keep an eye on.

Taylor Hendricks (9^th overall) and Brice Sensabaugh (28^th overall) were brought along slowly spending much of the year with Utah’s G-league affiliate in the Salt Lake City Stars.

Keyonte George however, the 16th overall pick and a summer league sensation, was logging minutes from game 1 VS Sacramento.

George would start the final 27 games of the season and 44 of his 75 appearances.

In that span, Keyonte would have a 33, 31 and 30 point outing, three separate games with 11 assists, and one of those games with 9 made three pointers.

The rookie guard finished 4^th on the team in PPG with 13, 3^rd in assists with 4.4 and 2^nd in three pointers attempted while shooting a 33.4 percentage from deep.

The signs of future promise were there for the former Baylor Bear, and what the future holds is anyone’s guess, but his accomplishments in the present were enough to land him on the NBA All-Rookie 2^nd team:

The selection as whole is great news for George and the Jazz franchise.

As an organization that has to historically rely on the draft to build competitors, striking gold with your selection is the difference between relevant and irrelevant for a team like Utah.

The issue with striking gold, is that it isn’t always legitimate.

It can look perfect from the outside, fill you with hope and appear perfect when first sighted only to end up as pyrite.

Utah has 12 names who have been called to an NBA All-Rookie team.

8 have been first teamers, including current big man, Walker Kessler, this last season.

Kessler is still a giant “to be determined” after a sophomore slump of a year, so no reason in jumping to conclusions on his unfurling career.

If we look at the 7 other first teamers, 6 of them all had lasting impact on the Utah Jazz franchise:

Donovan Mitchell (2017-18)

Deron Williams (2005-06)

Andrei Kirilenko (2001-02)

Karl Malone (1985-86)

Thurl Bailey (1983-84)

Darrell Griffith (1980-81)

Go to the Delta Center on any given Jazz game night and these players names will still be found on the back of some fan’s replica jersey (Mitchell, Williams, AK-47), hanging in the rafters (Malone, Griffith) or calling games themselves (Bailey).

The impact is measurable for each of those names.

The only fool’s gold here was Trey Burke, selected in 2013 as the point guard of the future.

Burke’s All-Rookie first team year saw the Michigan product post 12.8 PPG, 5.7 Assists and a 33 percent mark from distance.

Burke and George have similar enough stat lines to make fans a bit squeamish as Burke would never materialize and would be shipped out of Salt Lake City in three years’ time.

Breathe easy Jazz fans, as Burke would on average take about two more shots a night than George did this season, making Keyonte’s numbers quite a bit more efficient.

In terms of the 2^nd team selections, George became the 4^th player in Jazz history to earn the honors:

Derrick Favors (2010-11)

Paul Millsap (2006-07)

Blue Edwards (1989-90)

These names are where things become a bit murkier.

Derrick Favors was a fan favorite and in two stints played a total of 10 years for the Jazz.

Favors will be a name remembered by Jazz faithful for years to come as the 8^th most games played in a Jazz uniform, a top 5 franchise rebounder, and a top ten Jazzman in terms of blocks and field goals made.

Favors was great, Favors is loved, Favors wasn’t a franchise cornerstone however.

Paul Millsap didn’t hang out in Utah for as long as his power forward counterpart in Favors, but did put up very respectable stats in his 7-year tenure.

Millsap will be remembered for hustle plays, creating a lot of points in not a lot of time in Miami, and his fantastic defense.

Paul Millsap was really good for the Jazz.

Unfortunately for Jazz fans, he got even better when leaving the beehive state.

His first year out saw his three-point shot become a big part of his game and his scoring reach new heights.

Millsap would be names an All-Star his first season in Atlanta and would follow that up with three more years of All-Star appearances.

Blue Edwards started more than half of the teams’ games his rookie season and improved each and very year of his three-year Jazz stay.

By the time he went to Milwaukee, Edwards was a full-fledged starter, had begun to take more shots, make more shots and become and even more diverse and impactful player with even higher efficiency.

Never a star, Edwards still improved yearly during his time in Utah.

So, for the sake of things, out of 12 selections through first and second All-Rookie teams, Utah has struck gold much more often than not.

Two of those players in George and Kessler are to be determined in regards to if their impact in Utah will be felt years after their careers have ended.

But speaking from what we know now, if you play for the Jazz and make the All-NBA rookie first or second team, there’s likely an 85 percent chance you end up making a big impact on the Utah Jazz and their fans.