Steve Kerr called Will Hardy “one of the smartest coaches” before the Jazz's loss to the Warriors.

SALT LAKE CITY – Golden State coach Steve Kerr believes better days lie ahead for the Utah Jazz.

The reason? Will Hardy.

“I just think Will is a star,” Kerr said of the Jazz head coach. “I think he’s one of the smartest coaches in the league. He’s obviously coaching a young team where he hasn’t really been able to show what he can do as a coach.”

However, this young team showed on Friday in the Warriors' 127-86 win over Utah at the Delta Center.

Lauri Markkanen scored 13 points on the night on 4-of-17 and the Jazz (0-2) shot 32% as a team and 21% from 3-point range. Things were going so badly that John Collins was named player of the game with just 4 out of 10 goals and three turnovers.

Yes, it was a hard night.

“That wasn’t pretty,” Hardy said. “There's maybe a lot of things I could point out, but I know for the guys, it felt like one of those nights where, for whatever reason, we didn't have a chance.”

Late in the fourth quarter, with the game completely out of control, Keyonte stole the ball from George and got into the open court. He made an uncontested dunk…and sent it rattling off the back of the rim.

“It was just a testament to how the game was going,” said George, who made three 3-pointers in the loss. “I mean, we couldn't throw the ball into the sea. Go up and dunk and you miss, so it is what it is. I mean, you can’t hang your head.”

Rookie center Kyle Filipowski, getting his first NBA minutes in the blowout, grabbed the rebound and was in position for a putback, but George was still hanging on the rim, so the shot didn't count. It was just one of those evenings.

“He came up to me and told me he was a little crazy,” George said with a smile.

Filipowski actually believed before the shot that he would be asked to travel and was happy that his first NBA shot didn't come with such errors. However, that would have fit perfectly with the youthful evening of jazz.

The Warriors ended the first quarter with a 21-5 run and the Jazz never recovered. Golden State's defense wore down Utah's offense as the Warriors threw two (and sometimes three) players at Markkanen and their physicality disrupted Utah at the point of attack.

“They pushed us out of our seats. They stole the ball every time we caught it and every time we tried to turn it over,” Hardy said. “That’s been her MO for a long time. It's a great opportunity for our young players to feel that kind of physicality. It's a great opportunity for Lauri to continue playing against teams that protect him extremely physically all the time. “And the great thing about it is that we have a long way to go.

So this isn’t a “Burn the Tape” game; if anything, it was the opposite. It was a chance for the Jazz to learn from an experienced team.

“I'm not one of those coaches who says, 'Yeah, I hope we get our asses kicked. This will be good for us!' “I don’t believe that,” Hardy said. “I would prefer us to be 82-0, but there are always things you can get out of a game.”

He said it's now up to the coaches to implement them in time for Utah's next game in Dallas on Monday.

If anything, Kerr is confident Hardy can do just that. And over time, something much bigger.

“We all depend on talent and what we have at our disposal, and the Jazz have been in rebuilding mode since he arrived,” Kerr said, continuing his thoughts on Hardy. “So he’s got a lot of great years ahead of him and I’m sure things will get a lot better.”