{"id":223408,"date":"2025-10-19T00:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T00:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/223408\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T00:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T00:21:08","slug":"the-best-perimeter-defender-on-the-jazz-roster-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/223408\/","title":{"rendered":"The best perimeter defender on the Jazz roster \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published as the Jazz Insiders<\/a> newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Friday.<\/p>\n

There is one player on the Utah Jazz roster that strikes fear into the hearts and minds of ball handlers, one player who consistently is praised by the coaching staff for his constant tenacity.<\/p>\n

That player is two-way guard, Elijah Harkless<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what he\u2019s about,\u201d Keyonte George said of his teammate. \u201cEven in open gym, me and Walt were joking that when we see E in front of us, we just get off it. Get off (the ball). Don\u2019t even play.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, Harkless was part of a ragtag lineup that made a comeback against the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>\u2019 starters and eventually won the game. And the Jazz wouldn\u2019t have been able to win if it weren\u2019t for Harkless\u2019 contributions on defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about winning plays, plays that inspire your team, your teammates, the fans, plays that give everybody energy, and I think Elijah Harkless represents all those things,\u201d Jazz coach Will Hardy said. \u201cHe works so hard every day. Every time he checks in any game \u2014 a scrimmage in our practice gym, the game\u2019s here (at the Delta Center) \u2014 he is relentless defensively. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe usually draws at least one moving screen every time he\u2019s on the floor. He gives the team so much life and his hard work, his infectious energy to the group is not unnoticed.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Hardy is not the first one who, unprompted, has wanted to shout out Harkless. Jazz assistant coach Scott Morrison said during Salt Lake City Summer League that Harkless had been the best player throughout practice \u2014 and that was on a team that included rookie Ace Bailey and eventual Summer League MVP Kyle Filipowski.<\/p>\n

A number of times over the last year, Hardy, other staff members and players on the team have mentioned Harkless as being someone that is pushing the other players, makes the players around him better and is a horrifying matchup for anyone holding the ball in their hands.<\/p>\n

And despite being on a two-way contract, Harkless is supremely confident in what he does best. When I asked if he thought he was the best defender on the Jazz roster, his reply was swift.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, ma\u2019am,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m the best defender on the team and I\u2019m putting my audition in for the best defender in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is an indictment of the rest of the Jazz\u2019s perimeter players that their two-way player is far-and-away the best defender on the roster. But at the same time, there is precedent and a blueprint for someone like Harkless to make a real name for himself in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City\u2019s Luguentz Dort, was fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2025 and started in every single playoff game en route to an NBA title. He too was an undrafted, overlooked player who had to cut his teeth in the G League before eventually signing a two-way deal and then having that deal converted to a standard contract for the Thunder.<\/p>\n

So, don\u2019t count Harkless out yet. He could have a much bigger story to tell down the road.<\/p>\n

\"\"Utah Jazz\u2019 Elijah Harkless\tdefends Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s Nikola Topic as they play a summer league game in the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News New with the JazzFrom the archivesExtra pointsAce Bailey injury cuts first contest against Cooper Flagg short (Deseret News<\/a>)Ace Bailey\u2019s awkward entry to the NBA does not represent who he actually is (Deseret News<\/a>)Jazz and Mammoth owner Ryan Smith talks Delta Center renovations (Deseret News<\/a>)Around the leagueUp NextOct. 22 | 7 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz vs. Los Angeles Clippers | KJZZOct. 24 | 8 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz @ Sacramento Kings | KJZZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was first published as the Jazz Insiders newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,3166,17605,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-223408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-news-feed-local","12":"tag-newsletters","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}