Utah
Jazz’s Taylor Hendricks Reveals Huge Goal for Next Season
While it wasn’t a year in which Utah Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks got many extensive reps on the floor due to his brutal ankle injury suffered earlier in the season, it seems his recovery and shift back to basketball form is ramping up rather nicely, with the 21-year-old apparently on an upward trend physically, prepared to get back to 100% later this July.
And with Hendricks’ return to the lineup soon to come, it looks like his sights are set high to make an immediate impact when he’s back on the floor next season for Utah.
Hendricks recently sounded off on a bit of his personal expectations for his third year in the league next season during his end-of-season presser, where he noted his ultimate goal of becoming an impactful two-way force in the Jazz’s lineup.
“Just to be that go-to defender; be our best all-around defender,” Hendricks said. “Blocking shots, guarding on the perimeter. And then, just being very solid offensively, someone that Coach Hardy can trust.”
For the Jazz, finding that number-one, versatile defender on the roster will be insanely critical for their success on the floor moving forward. Utah has had their immense struggles on the defensive side of the ball for the past two seasons, falling in as one of the worst-ranked defensive teams in the NBA, making the need for high-level, tenacious defenders that much more important.
This year’s draft does present an opportunity to land those aspired defenders, but when looking at what the Jazz have on their current roster with a guy like Hendricks, there’s a golden opportunity for him to emerge as that defensive piece, and especially so when he’s back to full health.
Before getting injured this season, Hendricks was averaging 1.7 steals and 1.3 blocks per game, and while it does come off an extremely small sample size of three games, the Jazz forward has clearly exhibited since being drafted that he has the length, versatility, and defensive skillset to hone into one of the best overall on or off-ball matchups in the NBA.
Offensively, Hendricks has the chance to elevate into an increased, more impactful role as well. Especially with his size and appealing floor spacing, he can develop into a dangerous mismatch for opposing defenses with the right tools.
Utah may not have big plans for him to develop into a top two or three scorer on the roster at his best, but as a connecting piece with productive traits on both sides of the floor, Hendricks’s archetype can be a huge asset to have within any NBA rotation.
And when asking Hendricks himself, he clearly has the confidence he can put those pieces together to do so ahead of next season. If he can, it’ll be an immense boost to what this Jazz unit can put out on both ends of the floor for, not just the coming year, but for the foreseeable future too.
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SALT LAKE CITY — A California man in Utah, as part of his duties with the National Guard, is accused of trying to solicit sex from a young teenager.
Joshua Ruben Rodriguez, 29, of Fresno, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with attempted rape of a child, a first-degree felony, and enticement of a minor, a second-degree felony.
The investigation began when an agent with the Utah State Bureau of Investigation posed as a 13-year-old girl on a “popular social media site … in an attempt to locate and apprehend adults attempting to have sexual contact with children,” according to charging documents.
On April 16, Rodriguez sent the agent a message — believing he was talking to a teen girl — that stated, “I’ll be direct with you, I would like to get to know you and (have sex with) your mind into a daze to where you feel like a woman,” according to charging documents.
When the “girl” asked if he had a problem with her age, Rodriguez replied, “I don’t have a problem with your age,” the charges state.
The agent told Rodriguez to meet at an apartment complex in Salt Lake County where the girl lived, claiming her mother would be gone. When Rodriguez arrived, he was taken into custody, the charges state.
“(Rodriguez) does not have ties to Utah. He is a resident of Fresno, California. (He) was in town as part of his military service with the California National Guard,” prosecutors stated in charging documents while requesting he be held without bail pending trial.
ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — One person was hospitalized at the St. George Regional Hospital after a car rolled and caught fire just south of the Utah-Arizona border.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department in Arizona said its crews responded to the crash near the Black Rock Road exit – roughly two miles south of the state border – on Sunday night.
Upon arrival, crews put out the car fire and found the driver had left the scene. A single occupant, who was able to get out of the car on their own, was transported to the hospital by a Beaver Dam ambulance.
MORE | Crashes
Their condition has not been publicly released.
Details on what led to the crash and the condition of the driver were not immediately available.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department said law enforcement investigated the scene.
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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz missed out on the NBA Playoffs, but still scored a big win thanks to a coin flip.
In Monday’s tiebreaker coin flip to determine who had the fourth-worst record in the league last season, the Jazz came out winners over the Sacramento Kings, who had the same 22-60 record.
Had the Jazz lost the coin flip, they would have been fifth in NBA Draft Lottery odds. Only the worst four teams are guaranteed to remain within the top eight of the lottery.
If Utah had fallen to fifth, there would have been the chance they could have dropped out of the top 8 teams in the lottery, and owed the draft pick to Oklahoma City, which was top-8 protected in a previous trade.
The Jazz now have an 11.5 percent chance to win the first overall pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, which is scheduled for Sunday, May 10.
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