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Isaiah Collier drives through a defender as the Utah Jazz clash with the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA Summer League. | Photo by Mike Kirschbaum/NBAE via Getty Images
The Utah Jazz picked up Isaiah Collier with its 29th draft pick. What are some of his early returns from the NBA Summer League?
Isaiah Collier is a 6-foot-3 point guard who came out of high school being listed as the top recruit in his class. The brawny guard out of Marietta, Georgia elected to attend USC for a season before entering his name into the NBA Draft, but a disappointing season for the Trojans ended with a 15-18 record and a 9th place finish in a weak Pac-12.
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The 2023 high school recruiting class. Recognize anyone on this list?
Despite putting up largely encouraging numbers as a freshman, team success became a major sticking point for scouts as the NBA Draft rolled in. When a ship begins to sink, the captain shares its fate and Collier’s draft stock likewise took a dive as the Trojans failed to meet preseason expectations.
Over the course of the season, Collier saw his draft stock plummet from being a likely lottery pick to falling below the 20th selection. Was this warranted? Did Collier’s ability and potential diminish over the course of the season, or was he a victim of relevance bias on a poor college basketball team?
Despite falling to the 29th overall selection, Collier remains persistent in saying that he’s the best player in the draft class. But is this Collier’s bark worse than his bite? Let’s take a look at his early returns from the 2024 NBA Summer League to judge for ourselves.
True to Your Heart
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Collier wisely avoids the defender’s block attempt by using the rim to protect the ball during the NBA Summer League
Collier was touted as the best passing guard in his recruiting class in conjunction with being a savvy and aggressive driver to the basket. While he didn’t display elite athleticism, per se, he used his natural strength and physicality to dominate slighter defenders as he took them to the rim.
In college, Collier showed off his impressive finishing ability at the rim, hitting 61% of his field goal attempts at the rim. In an age where many young hoopers eschew fighting through contact and getting their hands dirty, many prefer to settle for long-range jumpers. Isaiah Collier is not one to turn away from a battle and uses his strength well when attacking inside. He shot a ridiculous 49% of his field goal attempts at the rim and finished strong.
Collier radiates confidence while he’s on the floor, and if we’ve learned anything from 98 Degrees and Stevie Wonder—and I pray we all have—it’s that “you must be true to your heart, and then the heavens will part”. Likewise, Isaiah appears to truly believe that he can make anything happen with the ball in his hands. His determination saturates his entire offensive game, and you’ll never see him shy away from taking the ball to the hoop and finishing through contact.
Isaiah appears to truly believe that he can make anything happen with the ball in his hands. His determination saturates his entire offensive game
Isaiah is an explosive athlete, but his motor is like a V8 engine in a vintage pickup truck. His strength and size seem to slightly hinder his burst, so he’ll rarely blow past his defender for an uncontested look at a layup. He likes to jump into rim protectors and absorb the contact to create enough daylight for a clean look. I’ll touch on his ability to read passing lanes later, but his understanding of angles and timing stretches beyond his playmaking ability and into reading the defense to find an opening on his finishes in the paint.
Battling and attacking defenders at the basket, Collier challenges the rim like a combat pilot—he takes the fight to them. He’s more than happy to twist, contort, and swing around the defense to find an opening to flip the ball into for a layup attempt. Witnessing him finish at the rim is a beautiful experience and often gets me exclaiming, “Whoa!”, “oh man!”, “yabadabadoo!!”, etc.
Pass the Gravy
Though his at-rim finishing is flashy and gets my caveman basketball brain stimulated (SCORE GOOD. GOOD PLAYER.), I believe that Collier’s playmaking upside makes him a potential star, and is among the best in the 2024 Draft class.
In contrast to a player like Stephen Curry, Collier’s gravity pulls in help defenders when his excellent first step gets his hips ahead of the on-ball defense. As he dives inside, the defense is pulled into his atmosphere and that’s when he burns them. For example, watch here as Collier cooks his defender on his way to the rim and times a dump-off pass flawlessly to Kyle Filipowski.
Though the on-ball defense seems to mirror Collier’s motion step-for-step here, Isaiah knows that he’s stumbling and scrambling to gain control. He slams on the break and uses a subtle head-fake to get the help defense in the air before he flips an easy assist to Flip. Slam.
In transition, Collier really comes to life and feels more comfortable than a chatty grandmother at a family reunion—he’s in his natural habitat, and everyone else is trapped in his controlled environment. When the game speeds up, everything slows down for him, and he’s proved capable of hitting and cutting teammates with pristine timing.
Stand in awe of this smooth full-court bounce pass that set up his teammate for an easy lay-in.
Collier keeps his head up and doesn’t hesitate to pass the gravy for a teammate whose potatoes are dished out and ready to finish (let me know if I lost you on that metaphor).
Atomic Weaponry
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Isaiah Collier loses the ball in a matchup against the Toronto Raptors Summer League team.
Among Collier’s biggest criticisms was his shaky jump shot. He hit a touch over 33% of his 3-balls in college but has struggled to find consistency from NBA range. Collier posted a 20% shooting split from beyond the arc in the Summer League.
But, as the negative charge of an electron orbits the nucleus, Collier’s negatives are orbiting a mostly positive core. Though he’ll need to stretch his range beyond the three-point arc to make the defense sweat, his pull-up midrange game is already looking like the perfect pressure release to compliment his downhill scoring package.
Understanding your own weaknesses is a necessary aspect of player development. Does every weakness have to become a strength for Collier to be an NBA basketball player? No. But learning from his weaknesses and using his strengths to neutralize his deficiencies can be paramount.
Collier averaged nearly 12 points and 4 assists per game in the Summer League, and those numbers are promising for future growth, but his turnovers have always been his biggest concern. Salt Lake City and Las Vegas were two vastly different stories from that end. He averaged 1.4 turnovers in SLC but saw that number skyrocket to 4.25 in Vegas. What happened?
My main theory is that as his usage increases, so does his relative carelessness with the ball. Collier started all 4 games in Las Vegas, and his increased minutes led to increased cough-ups. At this level of basketball, the defense is smarter, quicker, and tougher than ever, so finding the balance between a turnover and an assist can be a matter of milliseconds.
Tyrese Haliburton is a perfect NBA example of efficient playmaking, where he averaged double-digit assists throughout the season while significantly limiting his turnovers (he averaged nearly 5 assists for every turnover).
Much like snaking in Mario Kart DS, fitting passes into windows to create open looks for your teammates is a beautiful act when done properly, but a disorienting mess when done poorly. Finding the perfect balance between madness and brilliance is the key to playmaking, and I’m optimistic that Collier has the tools and the quick decision-making to become a top-tier distributor in the NBA.
Finding the perfect balance between madness and brilliance is the key to playmaking, and I’m optimistic that Collier has the tools and the quick decision-making to become a top-tier distributor in the NBA.
Will Isaiah Collier reach the potential he displayed during his high school career? At this point, it’s hard to say, but I’d lean on the safe side and say no. Not that I don’t believe that he can be a fantastic player—I think he has an All-Star upside if all goes well—I mean to say his ceiling has fallen from being the best player in this year’s draft class to a top 3 guard among his peers.
The best version of Isaiah Collier is one who fine-tunes his shortcomings and magnifies his strengths. Though he once received criticism for his defensive disinterest, now he’s praised for his 2 steals per game. He is capable of growth and has the tools to be a real contributor at the next level.
Is there precedent for explosive athletes with limited shooting upside to reach stardom in the NBA? Absolutely. From where I stand, it’s hard to say what Collier will become with a few more years of experience in the NBA, but I feel confident in saying that Utah likely snagged a steal of the draft in Isaiah Collier.
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