Wins won’t happen too often for the Utah Jazz this year, but the hope is that they come out of the 2024-25 season feeling like they’ve improved.

On Saturday night, the Jazz entered the fourth quarter tied with the Philadelphia 76ers and played a really close game until the end. Ultimately, the Sixers walked away with a 114-111 win, thanks in large part to the combined 64 points from Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey.

But the Jazz didn’t leave the Delta Center feeling bad.

“I don’t think anyone should leave this game discouraged at all,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “Losing hurts. Losing is no fun, but there are a lot of really good things happening on our team right now.

“The cohesion of the group on both sides of the ball has grown significantly in the last few weeks. I think the way our team communicates with each other has continued to grow. I think we’re playing good basketball.”

Player development remains the Jazz’s top priority and will continue to do so throughout the season. Development, in this case, is an umbrella term that includes how the team develops together, how players adapt to playing within a system, and of course how each individual player grows.

Brice Sensabaugh

A lot of attention has been paid to the three newcomers on the Jazz roster – Cody Williams, Isaiah Collier and Kyle Filipowski – but the Jazz are also still trying to maximize the potential of Walker Kessler and healthy second-year players – Keyonte George and Brice Sensabaugh.

Against the Sixers, Sensabaugh scored a season-high 20 points by hitting 3 of 5 from 3-point range and 5 of 5 from the charity stripe.

But it’s never Sensabaugh’s score that concerns Hardy or any of the Jazz staff. Sensabaugh came to the NBA as a scorer. That was the basketball superpower that got him to the NBA.

What the Jazz want to see more of is Sensabaugh’s play, which stood out quite a bit last season when he played in the G League.

“My favorite part of the game was the lob he threw to Walker because I’m not worried about Bryce taking shots,” Hardy said. “He showed me, us and you time and time again that he could make shots.

“The part of his game that I think is exceptional that he maybe doesn’t showcase enough is his style of play, and when he’s able to put those things together, then he’s really hard to guard.”

Although Sensabaugh only received two assists on Saturday, there were many moments throughout the night where he played the ball in the pick-and-roll or other actions and was extremely patient and careful, which gave him a lot of credit out of.

“I know I definitely have the ability to do it. I think for me it’s just about giving myself the best chance with my pace,” Sensabaugh said. “I think in the past I was just thinking and playing at 100 miles an hour, but I feel like with this game I was able to slow down a little bit and kind of read what was going on and just let it happen. “It unfolds before me.”

These are the things that jazz looks for – the small, incremental shifts in focus or approach that might lead to better things down the road. That’s what this season is about.

So the players are not happy with losing games, but they are competing with good teams and there are signs that things are going in the right direction.