It’s that time in the never-ending NBA season. No, I’m not talking about the playoffs—what purple-blooded Jazz fan is interested in watching jettisoned Utah players play their way toward the finals for other teams? Ugh, too painful for many. No, I’m talking about the NBA draft.
Local beat writers, bloggers, and podcasters have been blabbering on about draft-prospects’ rim-finishing rankings, off-the-bounce shooting percentage, height without shoes on, and now that the combine has taken place… the all-important “three-quarter-court sprint time”. We’re all atwitter cogitating on who the Jazz might take with the three picks they secured by dumping more talent at the trade deadline and sitting what talent was left for the remainder of last season.
Although we believe there is some talent in this draft, many of the players likely available at the Jazz’ draft positions are going to be short (as in not tall), or won’t be able to shoot (that’s a problem for an NBA player), or have some other weakness that will shed doubt on their NBA career. But the Jazz really don’t want to make all three picks anyway (see Tyler Conways recent BR article) . Heck, they might not make a pick at all. They may trade them all away in the hunt for “Big Game”.
So, instead of spending our time ruminating on freshmen and Frenchmen that the Jazz may never employ, let’s focus some attention on the young talent (or non-talent) already on the roster that the team will have to make some decisions on. Is there anybody in the group of players the Jazz have captured in two-way deals, non-guaranteed contracts, or as throw-ins in talent-shedding trades that might already be better than this year’s draft fare? Is there anybody who might be worth keeping and playing?
Jazz fans have plenty of data to form an opinion on the above questions. Indeed, we were all given large doses of incredibly mediocre players to watch as the team sat the starters to secure the 8th pick in… errr, I mean the 10th pick (typical Jazz luck) in a difficult draft. And I think we’ve seen enough. We’ve seen enough of Samanic pound-dribbling the ball into the paint, occasionally scoring, but more often not. We have watched his 20% shooting from three and we watched him continue to launch, nonplussed by his lack of accuracy. We’ve watched Potter, and Kira Lewis, and Preston do not much of anything. We watched Yurtseven show early and then fade into the ether.
But in March, the Utah Jazz signed power-forward/center Kenneth Lofton Jr. to a non-guaranteed three-year contract. And he was different. Kenny has been different since he started playing the game. And even in his limited time with the Jazz and their G-League Utah Stars, it was clear that he was different than the Samanices and the Potters, and the Prestons—different, more interesting, better, worth keeping around—why not?
So, why not Kenny?
With the late season, apparently non-consequential move to sign Lofton, the Jazz added one of the most curious athletes currently associated with the NBA. He’s a paradox. He seems to have NBA game… he just doesn’t look like he should.
Lofton’s had scoreboard whenever he’s been given a chance to play. He was Conference USA Freshman of the Year and first team all-conference his sophomore year posting 16.5 points per game and 10 rebounds and 3 assists per game. Although he went undrafted in 2022 after leaving Louisiana Tech, he has pounded G-League competition with affiliate teams while under contract with the Grizzlies and the Jazz and has played well in the limited time he’s been out there with the real teams albeit mostly in garbage time and a late season starts.
And yet, he’s been waived by the Grizzlies and waived by the Sixers, and maybe he’ll be waived by the Jazz, but he shouldn’t.
There are lots of reasons out there why Kenny isn’t sticking despite showing out in game play. Or are they perceptions more than reasons. Here’s some perceptions on Lofton you might come across at the University of Google… or you may have them yourself at your first glance:
He’s slow—or at least he looks like he should be slow.
He’s not a good defender—or at least he looks like he shouldn’t be able to defend.
He has limited range on his jump shot—but dang that stroke looks pretty good.
His Adrian-Dantley-like inside out game doesn’t fit in today’s NBA—where’s AD when you need him? That’s what we say.
But all these tags boil down, we believe, to this… He’s the only player in the league who is simultaneously too small and too big for his position.
Yes, Kenneth Lofton Jr. is a big boy for his height. He’s beefy. Heavy legs. The jersey fits real tight. As far as we can tell, Lofton, at 6’7” (generous) and 275 has the highest Body Mass Index (BMI) of any active NBA player. He looks more like a lineman than a wingman.
True, the Joker doesn’t look the part either. Heck, Doncic is getting doughier by the month. But these are truly gifted ball players. Lofton is not nearly that talented. But he does have skills and his ability to score, rebound, and pass abundantly when given the opportunity defy the initial eye test. Lofton shouldn’t have been getting buckets left and right on Wembanyama at the 2021 FIBA Under-19 World Cup. He shouldn’t be the only player in history to score more than 40 points and get more than 10 rebounds in his first NBA start. He shouldn’t have been flinging crisp passes and driving for dunks from the high post for the Jazz late season… players that bulky shouldn’t be able to do these things at these levels. But he’s done all of that. I saw it. You’ve seen it you have been watching closely. There is something different about Lofton that goes beyond the tight shirt. Perception may not be reality for Kenny.
Yes, Kenny. Of course Kenny!
The Jazz are in a re-build. But, according to General Manager Danny Ainge, that’s about as far as the plan goes. They gathered draft assets, an All Star, a few more bits of possibly retainable talent, but what to do next. There’s no clear path. It’s chuck full of mediocre drafts, bad-luck lottery games, and “who wants to play in Utah” mind sets. Continue to tank, hunt for “big game” … the Jazz have tried a bit of both the last two seasons and haven’t done well at either.
In the meantime, there’s still a roster to be filled. And we think Kenny should be part of it. Why not?
The Jazz will certainly not retain the current bottom of their roster. They may replace what they have in hand with one or two or three birds from the draft bush. At 21, Lofton’s effectively a young college senior draft pick. But Kenny has spent the last two seasons playing against better talent in NBA schemes. And he’s improving (see below). Lofton might be as good or better than anything the Jazz will have to choose from in this draft—he just might be.
Above we compare Lofton’s stats to a handful of players the Jazz will likely have available to them at #10 and beyond in June. Lofton’s still younger than the two seniors on the list. His 3-point shooting is not as good as those two old guys but better than two of the 19-year-old prospects. Lofton’s 3-point percentage has increased from 20% in college to the low 30’s with the Jazz. As noted, the stroke looks pretty good, we think he’ll reach 36%. He’s out rebounding these guys. He’s a good passer with a declining assist to turnover ratio. He’s outscored these guys per 32 minutes played when you compare them to his G-league season of starter minutes. So, why not Kenny – you’ve got him at half the price of what you’re going to pay the #10 pick. He’s a good deal.
Here’s the thing—if this were the Masked NBA Player Show and we couldn’t see Mr. Lofton putting up these grand numbers or what he looked like on the court, then maybe most would agree with my argument. You might decide that this guy can play and strongly consider Lofton as a 2024 draft pick if he were presented as such. But pull back the curtain, take off the giant rabbit head and some of the reasons why Kenneth isn’t already playing rotation minutes for an NBA team are revealed… again.
And then we say, hmm, can this guy really play?
And I say… Yes, he can play! You’ve seen it too, he can play!
Answering the question
Kenneth Lofton is just too intriguing to let go. Now, although we think highly of Deseret News’ Sarah Todd (excellent journalist), we wouldn’t go so far as her assessment that Kenny’s potential, “if he continues to improve his body”, is “through the roof” and that he could “turn into something really, really special.” (she gave him two “reallys”, really?). Nope, we don’t know if he can be really, really, special; or even really special. But he has obvious scoring and playmaking skills and the basketball mind to make good use of them. Big Will Hardy agrees recently stating that “I would say 90% of the plays, whatever he does, whether it works or it doesn’t, in my head I’m usually thinking, ‘That made sense.’ Kenny just seems to make sense when he plays.”
Kenny does make sense. He’s still undersized for his position and it’s not clear if he will be able to continue to mold his body into a better NBA tool (he seems to use his mass to his advantage so maybe it doesn’t matter), But he still makes sense. He makes sense in a befuddling fun way.
So why not? Why not keep Kenny, and why not play Kenny. It could be a long, Big-Game-less season, so why not give us some fun amidst the pain.