Jazz: Isaiah Collier Showing Steady Improvement in Rookie Campaign

Once the top ranked recruit in the Class of 2023 coming out of high school, Isaiah Collier has been through the ups and downs associated with being the top guy in college and transitioning to the NBA.

Collier had a productive lone season at USC where he averaged 16.3 points, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals, but concerns over his limited outside shooting, poor decision-making and a hand injury led to him falling all the way to 29th in the NBA Draft where the Jazz traded back into the first round to bring him to Utah.

The 6-foot-3 guard had a brutal start to his rookie season averaging under 3.5 points per game on less than 33% from the field and making only six threes over the 23 games he played in November and December. In the month of January, Collier came alive showing why he was the No. 1 recruit coming out of high school averaging 9.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game on 42.7% from the field, 27% from three and 80% from the line, which were all major improvements from his first two months. He's had some big-time performances including three games with double-digit assists and a 23-point, 7-rebound and 7-assist performance topped with a game-winner against the Nets on Jan. 12.

Collier seems to gain confidence each time he steps on the floor and shows he has a bright future in this league. He is tough to stop downhill where he is explosive getting to the rim and has shown an incredible ability to find bigs around the basket. Arguably the most impressive part of Collier's rise has been his passing ability as he constantly finds the open man when he draws two defenders and has threaded the needle on some incredible looks to teammates that not many players can do. Although he can be turnover prone, the Jazz can afford to allow him to play through mistakes as they are in no rush to win now and need to develop their younger players.

In his last five games, Collier is averaging 11.8 points and eight assists per game on 56.5% from the field including a double-double performance with 11 points and 10 assists in a narrow loss to the Indiana Pacers Monday night. The 20-year-old continues to show improvement as a primary ball handler each game and will be an important piece to the Jazz rebuild moving forward.