What Would Cody Williams' Have been Role With Utah Jazz in 2026-27?
· Yahoo Sports
Cody Williams had spent the first two seasons of his NBA career playing for an Utah Jazz team with enough patience to let its young players learn through mistakes. But he’s now been traded away to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Year 3 was going to be a new standard for him, which naturally makes fans wonder what could have been expected of him if he hadn’t been dealt.
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The Jazz won just 22 games last season, but Williams still took a meaningful step forward. The former No. 10 overall pick averaged 8.8 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists across 67 appearances, including 41 starts, while his shooting from the field jumped from 32.3 percent as a rookie to 46.8 percent.
There were nights when the upside became far easier to see than the raw box score numbers would suggest.
Williams scored a career-high 34 points against the Sacramento Kings in March before producing 27 points with 11 rebounds against the Houston Rockets in April.
His development carried into the summer.
He averaged 17.5 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 57.7 percent across two Salt Lake City Summer League appearances before later recording 16 points, five rebounds, four steals and a block against the Washington Wizards in Las Vegas.
Those are encouraging signs ... but they also wouldn’t have guaranteed him another 24.3 minutes per night, because Utah's priorities have changed after four consecutive seasons outside the playoffs.
Jaren Jackson Jr. gives Will Hardy another established frontcourt option, while No. 2 overall pick Darryn Peterson joins Keyonte George, Ace Bailey and Lauri Markkanen among the players who figure to command offensive touches.
That would’ve made "reserve wing" the cleanest description of Williams' role entering 2026-27.
But the minutes themselves may matter more than the label.
Utah could have afforded to leave Williams on the floor through difficult stretches last season because finding out what its young players could become was part of the objective. On a team trying to win, Hardy needed something tangible from those minutes.
Williams' length and defensive tools give him one path. The jumper remains the larger question.
Despite improving his overall efficiency last season, Williams made just 21.4 percent of his 3-point attempts. Through two seasons, he's a 23.7 percent shooter from behind the arc.
That becomes harder to work around when Williams isn't handling the ball.
Utah now has several players capable of creating offense, meaning his easiest route to consistent minutes could have come from doing the underrated work:
Defending wings, running the floor, cutting and making enough open shots to complement them.
Williams had already shown the Jazz enough to keep investing in his development, but it’s unclear whether Year 3 challenges would have been something he’s ready for.
Utah no longer needed every Williams minute to be about what he might become. And that’s one of the primary reasons he was traded away.