The Utah Jazz have a couple of contract questions brewing as they head toward the 2026-27 season, and Brice Sensabaugh may be the trickier one to sort out.
Keyonte George is one part of that picture, with the breakout guard positioned as a cornerstone and headed toward what looks like a major payday in the next offseason or the one after. Sensabaugh, though, brings a different kind of decision. He’s entering the final year of his rookie deal, and while he’s done enough to put himself on Utah’s radar for a second contract, nothing is locked in yet.
That’s because Sensabaugh has one obvious path to making himself indispensable: he has to show he can defend.
Offensively, he’s already given the Jazz something useful. Last season, his career year turned him into a dependable bench scorer and shooter, the kind of player Utah can plug in and trust for points. In 75 games, he averaged 14.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists while shooting 46.0% from the field and 36.7% from three.
That production matters. A wing who can score like that off the bench is going to get attention from a front office looking to keep useful talent in place. But the Jazz aren’t in a position to overlook the other end of the floor, especially not with how much they’ve struggled there as a team.
Sensabaugh has been a net-negative defensively through his first three seasons, and the numbers from last year back that up. Per CleaningTheGlass, Utah gave up 2.5 more points per 100 possessions with him on the court, which landed in the 29th percentile, and opponents shot 0.8% better from the field, a mark that sat in the 35th percentile.
That’s a problem for a Jazz team that has been buried near the bottom of the league defensively for three straight years. Perimeter defense has been a major reason why, and Utah can’t afford to keep adding players who make that issue worse.
The good news for Sensabaugh is that he’s already said defense is where his focus needs to be. At the Jazz’s 2025-26 media day, he made it clear what he knows has to change.
"I think [defense] is probably the biggest focal point for me right now," Sensabaugh said during the Jazz's 2025-26 media day. "I think I shot the ball pretty well last season, and becoming a two-way, three-and-D type of guy is something that I'm looking forward to doing, and something I need to do."
That’s the next step. If Sensabaugh can actually bring that into games on a consistent basis, he won’t just earn more minutes. He could become exactly the kind of wing Utah needs more of: a real three-and-D piece who helps on both ends.
If he doesn’t, the Jazz may have to decide whether his scoring is enough to justify a raise, or whether he becomes a movable piece in the rebuild.
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George helped strengthen his case with a strong 2025-26 season, but the leagues current financial climate makes a max-level payday look unlikely. That leaves Utah with a tricky balancing act, trying to reward a young guard who has earned real momentum while also protecting flexibility for what comes next, and the exact timing and value of that next deal still feel very much up in the air. [Read more 🡒]