MILWAUKEE — The Utah Jazz lost 123-100 to the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night, but fans’ negative reaction to the game could be due to the incredible fast-break scoring disparity (39-9), the Jazz’s ongoing turnover issues, or the Bucks’ poor start to the season. After doing this, he used Jazz to get back on track.

Instead, fans on social media reacted to some of the team’s rotation decisions. The short version is that fans were upset that Kyle Filipowski and Isaiah Collier only got garbage minutes.

But to get a more accurate picture of what happened, I think we need to step back a little and look at what happened leading up to Thursday night.

Before Taylor Hendricks broke his leg, Lauri Markkanen had missed three games with a back spasm and Jordan Clarkson had missed several with nagging plantar fasciitis. Filipowski was not in the Jazz’s regular rotation, and Collier had not played a single minute before Thursday. He had no interest in NBA basketball because he was rehabbing a hamstring strain.

As the Jazz were going through training camp and preseason, it seemed pretty clear that there might be some situations where the Jazz could get some focus, with a few young players spending some time in the G League and getting some runs. The impact of developments in the NBA on other young players.

Injuries to the roster changed the plan quite a bit at the start of the season, giving Filipowski the opportunity to earn legitimate minutes in a spot where he otherwise wouldn’t have been able to.

On Thursday, Markkanen and Clarkson returned to the lineup. Markkanen’s return would push someone out of the rotation. Drew Eubanks received minutes that many fans believed should have gone to Filipowski.

Collier was also cleared to make his NBA debut, and fans took exception to the fact that Patty Mills played 16 minutes and Collier was only brought into the game for the final four-minute outburst.

Frankly, I don’t think anyone needs to explain Collier not playing. He hasn’t had a great preseason, there are some really big question marks about him as an NBA player, and he had his first regular season practice with the Jazz yesterday.

There will almost certainly be an opportunity for him later on, but there’s no reason to believe he’s eligible for any minutes, let alone a major role, on Thursday.

However, I asked Jazz head coach Will Hardy after the game what his rotation decisions were and he said:

“We’re trying to put together a bunch of different combinations with the bigs to find what works best for all of them. Kyle has handled himself great. There’s a lot of games to be played and Kyle’s going to be playing a lot and he knows that. Obviously, having Lauri back on board, “It’s a huge factor for Kyle, given his position. We’re trying to figure out how we can best bring Lauri back into the team and what kind of positions we want to put Kyle in. Also, we’re looking at who we’re playing and what we think will impact the game.” We are also looking.”

Hardy was then asked how he balances development with rotations and all the other factors that influence those decisions. I think what was important about Hardy’s response was that he paid attention to what was going on behind closed doors and how all the players on the team perceived it.

There are practices, film sessions, drills, shootouts and extra runs that no outsider can see, and as a coaching staff we prioritize improvement while maintaining accountability and feeling like everything is earned to maintain credibility and also increase the value of a competitive culture.

This means that no matter what, it can’t be a development camp where the youngest players on the team get the most minutes.

Honestly, we’ve seen NBA teams hand the keys to young players who aren’t guided or at least held accountable by some of the older players, and those young players don’t always do very well.

“I take a long-term view on all these guys,” Hardy said. “The reality is that we can’t have every young player playing every night. That’s not how it’s going to work… The idea that just getting minutes will help you get better is not true. Playing just to play doesn’t make you better. That’s why we have practices. That’s why we have practices in the G League We have… we’re going to use all our resources to help these guys get better.

“‘Why didn’t Kyle play tonight?’ I understand the sentiment, but we also have to maintain that this is a team and the 18 of us are in the locker room every night and they see what happens in training and in games. Like, doing your job well means you can play a little bit.

Let’s imagine that we are an experienced player in the squad. Imagine several days in a row where Clarkson, Eubanks, Mills and others were absolutely killing rookies and other young players in practice.

Think about how much time and dedication many of the experienced players on this team invest, without complaining, no matter the situation (like being on a team built to lose).

Still, George, Williams and Kessler are in the starting 11, with Filipowski getting a chance due to some unfortunate injuries. At some point, Eubanks probably deserves to be thrown a bone, and Clarkson deserves to spend time on the field, too.

But even if you, as a fan, still don’t believe this is true, imagine being one of the veterans in the locker room and how pointless all that hard work behind the scenes would be if all seven of the Jazz’s youngest players were talented. for minutes every night.

Hardy needs to make sure he doesn’t have a locker room exploding with anger, rejection or feeling like there’s no point in trying. And that’s not the lesson he wants young players to learn.

“If anyone is going to have an emotional reaction to who’s playing every night, I think this is going to be a really tough year,” Hardy said. “We have a lot of young players and that means we have to think about the big picture of the team, the future and each of these guys individually.

“I guess just saying idly that all seven young guys are going to play every night isn’t going to work… but I can promise you that my No. 1 focus every day and my No. 1 focus the rest of the season is going to be developing these young guys.”

And Thursday was only the eighth game of the season, so let’s give it some time.