Will Hardy doesn’t take choosing Summer League coaches lightly. Here’s why

Sean Sheldon oozes head coach vibes.

It took the Utah Jazz assistant coach very little time to shake off his nerves and find a groove with the Jazz’s Summer League squad. He’s comfortable running a practice, he builds rapport quickly with players, he is critical when necessary and is purposeful in positive reinforcement.

It’s easy to imagine him, someday, at a podium following an NBA regular season game talking about his team’s performance. And that’s not just the opinion of a local beat reporter, it’s the opinion of his boss, Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy, and it’s part of the reason that he chose Sheldon to lead the Jazz’s Summer League squad last month.

It’s part of the reason, but not all of it.

“You look at members of your staff that you think are in a position where taking on that responsibility will help them for the future,” Hardy told the Deseret News. “Whether it helps you as an assistant coach or helps potentially in the future by feeling out what being a head coach might be like. It’s an opportunity that I got when I was a young assistant and I feel like it helped my growth a ton. First and foremost, it helped me become a better assistant to Pop (Greg Popovich).”

Pushing Sheldon to become a better assistant coach isn’t just about self preservation or out of selfishness on Hardy’s part. He wants to create a well-oiled machine where there is room for growth and advancement and ways for every person on his staff to realize their potential by also getting the best from the players on the roster.

That’s why he chose Sheldon to head the summer team this year and it’s why he chose assistant coach Evan Bradds to lead the Summer League squad in 2023.

“Sean and Evan have both shown the qualities necessary to handle that role,” Hardy said. “Summer League is not something we take lightly, especially where our program is at with all of our young players. I think that those two guys have each done an amazing job with their Summer League responsibilities — kind of building a foundation for our young guys.”

But maybe the most important thing that happens for a Summer League coach is that they get to bond with the players in a way that carries over and makes a difference when the games actually matter.

See, during the regular season, Sheldon’s main priority is Lauri Markkanen. He works with Markkanen all the time and is with him during every practice, warm-up, shootaround, etc. The other players on the team obviously know Sheldon and have a relationship with him, but they don’t know him the way that Markkanen does. It’s natural for players to be closer with the assistants that they work with on a daily basis, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But after just a few days of working with Sheldon this summer, Keyonte George could see how a better rapport would benefit him down the road.

“Our communication and relationship has already grown,” George said after the Jazz’s first game of Salt Lake City Summer League. “I didn’t know some things that Sean knew, and I’m able to tell him things or say things to him that he didn’t think I would know. ... When the regular season is going on, we’ll be able to have a dialogue. And Sean, he’ll understand me even more just because we’ve been together so much throughout the summer.”

Last year, there might have been times that Sheldon didn’t say something to George during a timeout or a dead ball because he subconsciously wasn’t sure how to approach a subject or if George would take something the right way or even want to hear any advice from Sheldon. And there were certainly opportunities for deeper conversations about the game that George didn’t take because he didn’t know that Sheldon would have been the right person for those conversations.

“You want the assistants to build relationships with all the players,” Hardy said. “Obviously, during the season, everybody has responsibilities so that we can just function day-to-day. But I never want anybody on the staff to feel separate from players on the team, and I never want players on the team to feel like they can’t approach everybody on the staff. Trust is earned through time spent, and so those relationships being fostered in Summer League is really important.”

Sheldon is a great example of the build-from-within ethos that Hardy is trying to create. He’s been promoted to the front of the coaching bench, which requires him to have a bit more of a voice both in practice and in games. While his day-to-day duties will largely be the same (working primarily with Markkanen and scouting opponents), moving to the front of the bench means that he’ll need to have a deeper relationship with all of the players and the summer is where that starts.

“That’s my favorite thing right now about coaching the Summer League team,” Sheldon said. “Being around all these guys constantly, getting the chance to talk to them every day and build that relationship. Because it will help as we go into the season, and the conversations in practice and in the game once we start playing the regular season. So for me, it’s the best part.”