Luka Samanic’s difficult task of growing as an NBA player

For some young Utah Jazz players, there is a somewhat clear path to improvement and increased opportunity.

Take Taylor Hendricks and Brice Sensabaugh for example. The two rookies came to the team extremely green and needed time in the G League to gain strength and a more well-rounded feel for the NBA game. Now they are getting minutes with the Jazz. Hendricks is even getting starting minutes and has been tasked with guarding some of the league’s best players. Even Sensabaugh, who is averaging just 15 minutes a night over the last six games is getting those minutes consistently. And consistency is the key.

“It’s absolutely necessary in order to grow, really at all,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “Because there’s things that you can watch on film, but there’s nothing like a game. And I think it also settles you down a little bit knowing that one mistake, two mistakes, are not the end of your opportunity. It allows you to to play with a little bit less anxiety. So I think it’s critical to get consistent minutes.”

But for a player like Luka Samanic, the path to improvement and opportunity is not as clear and consistency is much harder to come by. Throughout this season, he’s mostly played spot minutes or gotten on the floor in garbage time and he has more DNPs to his name this season than he does games played.

The 24-year-old, who was the 19th overall pick in 2019, knows that it’s harder for him to get minutes and that his situation, in turn, makes it harder to evaluate any improvement, but it hasn’t stopped him from trying to see a bigger picture.

“One thing I’ve learned throughout this is that you’ve got to stay working, really even harder when you don’t play which is sometimes hard,” Samanic said. “You see all these other guys play and then you’ve got to come in the next day and work even harder. But if you can channel that and use it as a motivation, it can be a good thing.”

On Monday night, Samanic was given a rare one of those rare opportunities. With Lauri Markkanen sidelined because of a leg injury, Samanic went from playing mop-up minutes, to being thrust into the starting lineup.

Hardy fought for the Jazz to sign Samanic last season, having worked with him with the San Antonio Spurs, the team that drafted Samanic and when the two were reunited, Hardy was pleased to see that Samanic had matured and was approaching things with a completely different mindset.

Samanic previously told the Deseret News that getting waived by the San Antonio Spurs, the team that drafted him, was the best thing that had happened to him, and gave him a deeper appreciation for the work necessary to stay in the NBA. He admitted to feeling slighted by needing to play in the G League as a rookie and was jealous of teammates and disappointed that he wasn’t getting the same playing opportunities. And unfortunately, he let that all affect him in a way that directly contributed to him being eventually cut from the team.

“He’s 180 degrees different in his approach,” Hardy said. “I think Luka would be the first person to tell you he didn’t handle it great. His youth sort of showed, and he was a little immature at times. He’s never been a bad dude. He’s never been somebody that you didn’t want to coach. But I think he didn’t deal with adversity as well as he does now.”

The way he deals with his situation now is by paying forward what he’s learned. He often tells Hendricks and Sensabaugh to see their situation thought a positive lens.

“I’ve been on them about not making mistakes that I did when I was their age,” Samanic said. “I told him to use their time in the G League as a good thing and it’s showed. I mean, they played well in the G League and they came here and have played well, both of them.”

There’s nothing that Samanic has done wrong for him to be lacking in minutes with the Jazz. In fact, Hardy loves how athletic and versatile and strong Samanic is and went as far as to say that he’s probably the strongest screener and roller that the Jazz have on the roster. But there are players ahead of him that the Jazz are trying to get up to speed in order to properly evaluate.

It’s a dilemma that is not lost on Hardy. He knows that the most important thing for growth in these young players is consistent minutes, but also knows that he can’t give that to everyone.

“It’s hard and it’s where, as a coach, you never feel great,” Hardy said. “Because you develop relationships with everybody in the locker room. You see how hard they work and you just can’t play everyone. … Luka is in a really hard spot. … He’s just trying to stay ready best he can. And yeah, it’s one of the toughest parts of this business, seeing players that are really good basketball players on an NBA roster, and they’re just not getting a chance.”

All of that said, Samanic has not let his lack of opportunity sway his approach, and Monday night is the perfect example of why it’s more important than ever for him to stay ready.

“It’s the only way to stay professional,” he said. “You’ve got to work because you never know when you’re gonna play. You know, Lauri got bumped in the knee and all of a sudden I’m starting.”