Jazz Rookie Breaks Longtime John Stockton Record

With seven assists in Monday’s game versus the Hornets, Isaiah Collier was able to break the Utah Jazz’ rookie record for most assists in a debut season.

Records are seldomly broken by rookies, much less ones set by legends such as point guard John Stockton. His record was 40 years old, set it the 1984-85 season, but Collier’s 419 assists with just six games remaining on the scheduled was enough to surpass it. Against Charlotte, he also added 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting, with three steals and one block.

Drafted at No. 29 overall in the 2024 NBA Draft, Collier’s been an essential revelation at guard for the Jazz this year, having little expectations heading into his initial NBA season.

Across his 68 games so far, he’s scored 8.2 points on just 42% shooting, but has added a stellar 6.2 assists to 3.0 turnovers per game. Collier was a decent passer at USC, but struggled heavily in turnovers the ball over at over three per game.

While he’s still had plenty of turnover-laden games in the NBA, he’s seen a much better 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, and hasn’t even shown his best in the scoring department just yet. And cementing himself alongside Stockton is certainly cause for celebration among Utah fans.

Stockton is the NBA’s all-time leader in assists with 15,806, a record that likely won’t be broken for decades more. The closest active players are Chris Paul at No. 2 — who’s still over 3,000 away — as well as LeBron James at No. 4, and Russell Westbrook at No. 8.

It appears the sky will be the limit for Collier if he can find his efficiency as a scorer, which history would likely say he will, as he's been a highly-touted basketball prospect for years. Per the 2023 RSCI rankings, he was the No. 1 player in the country.

The Jazz next look to a matchup against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.