As the Utah Jazz navigate the 2024-25 NBA season, prioritizing player development and focusing on trying to build chemistry with new lineups, they must face the fact that they will face teams whose development and Cohesion is far away.

The first of what will likely be many examples of this was seen Friday night at the Delta Center when the Jazz lost to the Golden State Warriors 127-86.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “I think there’s a lot of things that you could maybe point to, but I recognize for the guys that it felt like one of those nights where, for whatever reason, we couldn’t get a record.

“You know, Lauri (Markkanen) misses a lot of free throws, there’s a lot of open looks that we don’t make, and as much as I wish they weren’t human at certain times, they are, and that’s how it’s going to be deflating.”

The Jazz went 9 of 42 from 3-point land, 0 of 9 from fast break opportunities, Markkanen shot 4 of 17 from the field and not a single player had more than 14 points. It was a tough night on both sides of the ball.

Hardy’s hope is that players develop the ability to play with grit and a fiercely competitive spirit, even when the shots aren’t coming in, communication is down or mistakes are made.

That’s one of this group’s goals heading into this season: find a way to get through the growing pains.

And these problems – dealing with inexperience, learning how to overcome late nights, focusing on development, learning new ways to teach players – are unique to the league’s rebuilding teams, the teams that don’t have an established history and have no immediate goals for the postseason.

“The Warriors play a unique style,” Hardy said. “They are very used to playing like that. They have a group that has been together for a long time and you feel the continuity when you watch them play and when you compete against them and that is what we are working on.”

Despite not being able to play at the same level or focus on more nuanced details on a day-to-day basis as some of the other teams in the league, Hardy has earned the respect of his peers and made a name for himself.

Hardy, entering his third season as head coach of the Jazz, is considered one of the league’s up-and-coming coaches despite the Jazz’s record under him, and part of the reason for that is his approach to development and his commitment to it and his success in adding players bring people to join his vision.

“I’m a big fan. I just think Will is a star and I think he’s one of the smartest coaches in the league,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said.

“He’s obviously coaching a young team and I think he hasn’t really been able to show what he can do as a coach yet because we all rely on talent and what’s available to us and the Jazz have been since he arrived at the Rebuild mode. He has many great years ahead of him and I’m sure things will get much better.”

That is the goal.