Utah Jazz's Taylor Hendricks Emerging as Breakout Candidate

The Utah Jazz enter this NBA season with a ton of young faces on the roster who've been brought in across the last three drafts, eyeing a big opportunity in the rotation amid the team's latest offseason decisions to ship out multiple tenured veterans.

But among those players who could have the chance to raise their stock the most, third-year forward Taylor Hendricks could be a key name worth watching.

It's been a limited sample size for the first two years of Hendricks' pro career. In year one, he spent time back and forth between the main and G League roster to only appear in 40 NBA games, and in year two, he had only three games on the floor before h e would inevitably be sidelined with a season-ending ankle injury.

But for his third-year pro, the landscape is vastly different. Hendricks is looking healthy, part of a totally different roster from the last time he was on the floor, and with a heavy emphasis on youth and development from the Jazz brass this year, the former ninth-overall pick could have a career season underway as long as he's back to 100%.

And in the eyes of Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes, Hendricks winds up being the Jazz's "biggest riser" heading into next season, perhaps with a chance to reclaim some of the hype he had entering his rookie campaign.

"Just three games into his second season, Hendricks suffered a devastating injury that completely wrecked what could have been a year of major progress," Hughes wrote. "He was coming off a rookie campaign that included 37.9 percent shooting from deep alongside flashes of disruptive defense. A fractured right fibula and dislocated right ankle shelved him and forc ed the rest of us to spend a year wondering what might have been."

"With so little on his resumé, the 6'9" forward is still a mystery box. But he should get every opportunity to prove the post-rookie hype correct. Athletic combo forwards who can shoot and defend are hard to come by. Hendricks' return means we've got one more of those rare player types back in the league this season."

The tools are certainly there for Hendricks to be a super impactful 3&D wing if he's able to meet the mark on his potential. Physically, he has the length and athleticism to guard multiple spots on the floor and play multiple positions, and truly has the potential to be the number one defender on the floor at his best.

Offensively, he remained relatively raw last time he was out there in October of 2024, but in his current sample size, he's still proven to be a positive floor spacer with enough defensive strong points to make him versatile in multiple frontcourt lineups.