Key to Win!!

Early morning, September 19, Japan time. I was at the shrine before sunrise today. I had thanks to give to the gods. Thanks for what, you ask? Our Key — Keyonte George — has signed an extension! Five years, $157.5 million, $31.5 million a year. And no player option, no team option. Man, I am happy. I have nothing but gratitude — for Key himself, and for the front office — and I went and laid all of it out in front of the gods this morning.

Honestly, I was nervous about this extension. Last year, at this same point on the calendar, the Jazz didn’t put an offer in front of Walker Kessler. He took that badly, and after the season he turned down five years and $140 million ($28M a year) to sign with the Lakers for four years and $130 million ($32M a year).

I assumed the same script with Key: Ainge holds off before the season, waiting to see what year four looks like. Key takes that badly. Or Key makes another leap in that same fourth year, and the asking price leaps right along with him. That’s not what happened. The Jazz believed in him and made the offer before the season. Key chose to stay in Utah for five years. And the number was reasonable. If they had matched the Lakers to keep Kessler, this deal doesn’t exist. This is a genuinely important contract for the future of this franchise.

Key was the sixteenth pick in the 2023 draft. At the time I was watching Summer League for Taylor Hendricks, who we’d taken ninth — and Taylor left me disappointed, while I remember thinking, huh, this Keyonte kid is pretty good. Once the season started he played in nearly every game, started plenty of them, and held down a spot in the rotation as a rookie. The play was still rough and streaky, but the talent was there.

Year two was, honestly, a disappointing season. The swings got bigger, and he ended up being used more like a sixth man. Key was never a point guard by trade, but the Jazz played him there a lot, and his decisions were poor and his shot came and went. I genuinely thought: he can’t do this. Point guard isn’t going to work, and he isn’t going to be someone this franchise builds around.

I was wrong.

In year three he made an enormous leap. I mean it when I say I watched him and thought, what on earth was year two? It wasn’t so much a technical change as a mental one, I think — my own read is that the big factor was learning to be patient and pick the right play. The numbers jumped too, and he got even sharper in the clutch, to the point where it became a problem: if we keep letting this kid play, we’re going to start winning games. Uh oh. Which is how he ended up missing almost the entire back half of the season while the team went into full-on tank mode.

And the size of Key’s presence isn’t something you measure in play or in numbers. He is the centerpiece that holds this team together. That sunny disposition, that commitment, that love for the team — you can watch it spread through the players, the front office, the staff, the fan base. Last year he ran workouts in Dallas with Ace, Sensabaugh and the rest. This year he went to Finland with JJJ, Will Hardy and Ryan Smith, to watch Lauri play for his national team and to work out alongside him. He has given himself to this team, constantly. Who works out with their head coach and their owner? Seriously, who does that? It’s remarkable. That is an intangible asset for a franchise. I can’t shake the feeling that the players, the front office, the staff and the fans have all come together around him. My own guess — and it is only a guess — is that Ainge saw all of that too, decided Key was indispensable, and that’s how we got to this deal.

With this contract done, Key can focus on basketball. And it should help with the contracts coming for DP, Ace and the rest of the young core. Move Kessler to open up cap space and stockpile assets, sign Key to a reasonable number, and you keep flexibility for every extension that follows. Key and the front office both look to me like they are doing everything a team needs to do in order to win.

The thank-you video Key put out for the fans after signing is essential viewing. I cried watching it. If you haven’t seen it, go find it on the official site.

The future is bright in Utah! I love you, Key!!!