Meet
Test Time for Ty
Posted by: Diana on February 15th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.The Jazz are struggling and struggling badly. The Jazz are 3-7 in their last ten games. Lately there has been very little to be excited about with this team aside from beating the Lakers last week and the Grizzlies last Sunday. The wins have been few and far between.
In the last two weeks the Jazz have played nine games. The Jazz have lost 7 of those games. Losing seven out of nine games makes everyone feel on edge, whether it be fans, players or coaches.
Brian T. Smith reported on the frustrated Jazz after their loss against the Thunder Tuesday night. Bell and Millsap are most poignant in their comments :
“We consistently do dumb [crap],” Bell said. “We can’t even help it.” (Bell talking to Earl Watson at the scorers table during OKC game)
“I don’t know that we know who we are as a team,” Bell said.
“We’ve got to figure out what the problem is, first,” Millsap said. “Obviously we don’t know what the problem is, so we’ve just got to figure that out. Once we figure that out, we better do something about it.”
He added: “It just feels all bad, man. It’s not a good feeling at all. We want to try to stay positive as much as possible. But things are just not going right right now.”
With players questioning who they are as a team, not knowing their roles letting doubt and frustration creep in, where does the team go from here?
Fans for weeks now (even since last year) have questioned what the identity of this team is, are we fringe playoff team, are we a rebuilding team, who’s our leader, do we even have a closer? Heck we don’t even have a captain.
When we were winning in January non of those things mattered, they didn’t have to matter because we were winning. We were getting contributions from different players all helping the Jazz to win.
The Jazz are no longer winning, is it due to not knowing who they are as a team or is simply due to a rough spot in the schedule? (though losing to a 4-23 New Orleans team is inexcusable no matter when they fall in the schedule)
Do questions of identity and players roles have to be answered in-order for the Jazz to start winning again? Or does winning alone answer those questions?
Ty Corbin has a tough test ahead of him. Ty has to keep this team thinking positively but at the same time address what is going on that is causing the losses. It is great when players show frustration with losing but when they start to question who they are it can all spiral downward rather quickly. The last thing we’ d want is for this team to start throwing pity parties for themselves.
One player that is constantly leading the Jazz and taking the positive approach is Earl Watson. His tweets from last night and this morning :
Im far from fragile! We will MAKE THE PLAYOFFS!
Resilience-2 : an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change
Hopefully the rest of the players can follow Watson’s lead and keep positive and focus on the playoffs. Have that be your goal, remember what you did to win and do it. Earl a few weeks ago said that “belief is greater than reality and we believe we are a playoff team”
Winning solves all problems, Ty and the players just need to figure out how to get back to their winning ways.
Replies: 9
Views: 748
9 Responses
I can take losing to OKC twice, but when this team can beat the Lakers and Grizzlies losing to the Hornets when they have injuries to key players, and losing to New York when they too had injuries (Lin factor or no Lin Factor) in the fashion that they did, is frankly inexcusable. Everyone needs to take responsibility for those games not looking elsewhere.
I’m a big fan of Millsap but lately he hasn’t had the same energy that he usually brings to the table and that comment from him is all wrong. It speaks excuses. Bell though similarly questioning is as at least bringing something to the table with his performances.
What I have always liked about Watson since the day I have seen him in a Jazz uniform is that he never has any time for excuses. It could be easy for him with his swollen ankle to have an excuse about his play but again he was one of the few speaking positively. The sad fact is though when he isn’t able to bring all his tenacity and grittiness and high basketball IQ to the floor the team is missing something huge and other players aren’t able to bring it.
I actually think that this team is Watson’s team. When he is healthy the 2nd unit bring their game, which in turn helps motivate the starters. The identity starts with Watson, sadly he isn’t 100% and though valiantly playing on can’t be expected to have the same effect and noone is stepping up. Millsap is either tired or injured or is getting out defended because the Jazz have no real threat outside, Al is taking too many shots and Harris is missing in action.
Steven i agree with what you are saying.. i think corbin needs to send a message.. start benching the starters the second unit is playing better when they start to get minutes.. they need to develop Kanter Favors Burks and Hayward more.. and bring in another point guard.. Harris Shows moments but he has not proven himself to the jazz fans yet.. i think they Should Start Tinsley at Point let him Distribute the ball and then let Watson Finish things have to change they are better then this
@Steven- I agree with you also. I think Watson is the clear leader so why not name him captain, to solidify it to the team? I didn’t mind the first loss to OKC they battled hard most of the night but the second loss was awful, they didn’t show that much effort (granted 3rd game in 3 nights). Its the attitude that Al said they had against the Hornets that gets me he said “we expected the Hornets to lay down and let us walk all over them” Of course they lost that game if that was the team’s attitude.
I worry about Paul, I wonder if it is he has been scouted more so he is what he is now.
@eric- very interesting idea about starting Tinsley as to not disturb Watson’s role with the bench. Yank Harris if he starts and does nothing but keep your Watson rotations the same just replace Harris with Tinsley.
I like Watson as much as anybody but until last night he was scoreless in three games. I think his injury is worse than they will admit. He needs to sit out a couple of games before and after the all star game to help re4cover. Jazz need two co-captians. Sap and Watson.
Sap gets frustrated and sometimes has lapses in effort, especially on the defensive end. Bell is mentally tough and is giving more effort and showing more passion than just about anybody right now. Him and Watson should be the captains.
I can understand Sap being frustrated, I cant think of another player who gets less respect from the officials than he does. There are no-calls on him and bad calls against him comstantly. Look at the last clippers game. Griffin gets his 5th foul with 7 minutes left, so they feed Millsap twice, Griffin fouls twice and the refs dont call it. Thats one example but it happens every game. I hope he earns some respect soon. He also needs more help from his teammates when he is double teamed. Unless someone can step up and become a shooter for him to pass out to they cant be effective as a team. I personally think Ty is reverting to Sloans ways a bit too much lately and handcuffing his shooters. Before they had time to work on their get it inside offense and played to their personal strengths they were a better team. We have shooters but just like always they get chastized for shooting.
Great post Diana, first of all thanks so much for writing an intelligent insightful article that does not not talk about trades. I’m a little tired of “the grass is always greener on the other team’s yard” thought line. We do have some problems on this team and assessing blame to any one person is not the answer. Not only is this a rough stretch, the first part of the season was mostly at home and perhaps we all got a false idea of what this team is about this year. We do need a strong leader and an all-star, and I am not sure who that could be is evident, we have great leadership qualities in some players and pretty good talents in others, just not both qualities in the same person. It will take time and patience, both of which are in short supply in today’s world.
I saw big positives with favors, kanter, and burkes. They need more minutes. And our identity is a rebuild team until we have a few better pieces on the perimeter. Corbin probably needs a true point gaurd and a couple off the bench 3 point shooters so he can develope a working offense.
Eric. I completely agree with you. When Burks, Favors and exspecialy Kanter are playing the way they are, They should be in the starting line up, Corbin said that he would put those in who were performing the best and thats not the case. Favors has been out playing Milsap for a while now and deserves to start, Kanter needs all the playing time that he can get,,this kid gets better with every game and by next year will be a dominating force to be rekoned with. All this talk about a team captain but no body seems to mention Big Al who is solid night in and night out and the most consistent player we have.
this is how I would play the starting line up
Forward-Favors
Forward-Jefferson
Center- Kanter
Shooting Guard-Hayward
Point Guard- Watson
Tinsley is good enough to come out and run with the second unit and just send Devin Harris’s ass down the road