There doesn’t seem to be as much hype surrounding Isaiah Collier as there is around some other young Utah Jazz players. Although he broke a Jazz franchise rookie record previously held by John Stockton, there doesn’t seem to be as much excitement about Collier. That can be attributed to one reason: his inability to shoot.
Collier’s progression over the course of his rookie season was nothing to dismiss. While it’s not like Utah miraculously started winning more games after replacing Keyonte George with him in the starting lineup, the offense ran smoother with Collier as his playmaking proved to be excellent.
However, this season is a whole new season. Now Collier not only faces competition from a new version of Keyonte George, but he also has Walter Clayton Jr. to compete with. Sure, there’s no more Collin Sexton or Jordan Clarkson, but now Collier will come under even more scrutiny.
Which only puts more pressure on him to improve as a floor spacer. Teams will challenge Collier to beat them with his jumper now that there is more footage of what he can do as a player. Shooting anything less than 25% from three will only stick out more like a sore thumb, especially when the Jazz decide it’s time to win some games.
If Collier turns a corner in that area, it could be all it takes to convince Utah that he plays a key role in the Jazz’s future. For some players who had similar problems early on, they managed to get around the corner, but for others, no matter how hard they tried, nothing changed.
Collier’s show jumper showed some progress last season
Some is the key word here. Collier’s shooting streak came when he first started his NBA career terrible. Therefore, it is no coincidence that as Utah showed improvement, he began to depend more and more on him.
By the end of the 2024 calendar year, Collier’s splits were 32.3% from field and 16.7% from three. Epic yikes. However, they got better when 2025 rolled around. Those splits went up to 44.2% from the field and 27.1% from three.
Not only was the sample size larger, but his shooting went from downright abysmal to…just a little disappointing. Improvement of rotten is a good sign of improvement. Now it’s a matter of hoping it doesn’t stop there.
It’s not like the Jazz will rely on Collier in the same way they did with Lauri Markkanen or Ace Bailey. However, once they have the cornerstones of their franchise, it’s easy to see how much harder they’ll be to beat once Collier adds a jumper to his arsenal.
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