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It’s all about the COACHING!
Posted by: Jake on June 21st, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.Ok let’s be real… First of all how many times have we seen talent that was unoticed or undeveloped be found once the player gets with the right team and coach? I know talent is wonderful to have and you can’t make CJ Miles play like HARDEN…. Ain’t gonna happen. But, I would say why westbrook, Harden and Durant are who they are is because a large part of that has to do with the coach.
Yes we need to get rid of Bell, Yes we need more shooters, yes we need a pass first point guard (IF WE RUN A JAZZ SYSTEM) which we haven’t been. But the point is that we have good talent as it sits. We need a few mor peices but the coaching has to be what gets that talent to play well together, do their assignments right, be in position to rebound cause of a coordinated offense, or be ready shoot. Thats all part of a team having rolls defined and responibilies set in place without failure.
We haven’t been playing a Jazz system. If you call dribbling the ball down to half court pass to the wing, waste 7 seconds off the clock acting like we’re going to pass to slashers that don’t believe they are going to get the ball so why slash, and then ulimately dropping the ball down to a single dimension offense of Al making a post move… then yeah I guess we are playing the NEW JAZZ BASKETBALL system, but that isn’t the old system.
I don’t say that because I necessarily want the old jazz system, cause I don’t… It’s just shows that we don’t have a good basketball system, and that comes down to coaching. To say all of a sudden that changes cause we get more procatise time and a pre-season… I don’t know, that seems like a big excuse after playing a whole season and actually becoming less multi-dimensional as the season went on. I would thing you would see more development and progression to be seen rather than so much relying on AL to put up push shots.
Lets look at Popovich. They killed us… They have guys that play above their level of play anywhere else because he defines roles and sets things up for success through demanding each person to follow the system exactly. They’re yelled at or benched if not in a way the only Pop can get away with while still having a good relationship with his players. I know they got killed by OKC and that will be my second point so I’ll get back to that, but he gets players to shoot the ball with confidence and make the right play or pass over and over. Many times you see players that aren’t known for their good shooting become dead eye shooters because they get the ball in the same way and know what to expect over and over so it just becomes automatic. He has a true system.
Now to my second point. OKC looked like they were in trouble after the first 2 games in SA. However they made adjustments the Jazz didn’t make with switching on every screen and it disrupted everything SA was doing to breakdown a defense and either easily score with Parker in the paint or play pass around the perimeter and find the open 3 point jumper. Once they took dribble penetration away from SA it was game over. No easy shots in the pain means no open looks on the perimiter (although Steven Jackson did let that stop him…..what a beast!) Anyway, they then went to a style of play that they didn’t use most of the year in Ginobli doing more one on one killing the team thing they had going. They went more single dimensional. Thats what caused the Jazz to be killed. So we have to contribute the coaching change and game plan to be by far the biggest impact in what OKC did to win that series. Ok and maybe SEFO doing an amazing job on defense in game 3 to turn things around and set the tone.
We can get our talent to do better through coaching as it is. Harris can expected to play a certain way every game. Pop told players he needs NASTY from them… Harris, you’re to nice…. Stop floppin and start getting nasty. He’s fast, he played healthy most of the year and though I wonder how the ball goes in with his sideways rotation on the ball, he proved to be able to shoot the 3 very well down the stretch, he showed clutch plays and good effort at times. We need much better passing from him, better ball control, consistency in his effort that will come with a system and more leadership as the floor general. Or if we’re going to be more of a wing team like OKC or Miami then we need more defined rolls out of Burks and Hayward…. Point being that each player needs to know what their roll is, define it, get used to certain looks and play that way over and over taking what the other team gives you, and making adjustements as needed.
Every player we have can do much better and that comes from a system and a coach that really perfects that system and develops players. Just look at the growth of Westbrook, very impressive. Sorry for the typos… I don’t proof this stuff so ignore my bad english 
Replies: 7
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7 Responses
Durant and westbrook are legit top talent. Scott Brooks played them full minutes to push their potential faster. But they are young still and will be getting much better in the next few years. I believe its mandatory to get Favs and Kanter big minutes this year with another big that can shoot the 3 or go inside. We already see Favs talent comming. I think the other superstar or at least allstar is Enes. He is going to be a force inside and outside eventually. He can get position by shear strength and quickness on anyone in the league and he has a pure stroke all the way to 20 feet. If he learned to keep the ball high with better explosion timing i think he would triple his offensive stats next year.
Doesnt matter what kind of coach you have, if your players dont make shots on the perimeter to spread out the defense. The top 2 3 point shooters on our team made 132 of 372 attempts. San Antonio’s top two made 202 out of 484 3 point shots. They had 4 players on their team who shot the same or more 3 pt shots as Harris our top shooter. Thats over twice the points coming from 4 threats.
Why does this all matter. Because if your playing a team that averages 4 3pt shots a game, where do you guard, the perimeter or the paint. You shut down the paint, with all your guys, because you can afford the 4 extra points, that you naturally outscore when you make more 3 pointers than they(us) do. We are a one dimensional team. You cannot blame that on a coach. There can be no inside out game if there is no outside? You say Al is a black whole, well, he had to be because the guys on the perimeter where playing hot potato, then passing it back to him.
I don’t think Al was a black hole… I never said that… I like Al… Sometimes he needs to make better decissions and but he’s making progress and I like his attitude. I would like him a lot more at 10 mill a year or so which I think we’ll get if we renew his contract.
Displacing the minutes makes everyones stats lower which I think is a good thing for keeping talent together. I’d much rather see favors, kanter, milsap and Al averaging 10-20 points each rather than one guy at 25 points. they get to much attention, they get big heads, they get expensive and it makes it much less of a team game.
The reason San Anonio gets the percentages that they do from 3 is they practise it a lot, their offense is designed for a kick out catch and shoot or pass around the horn to the open guy which is an easy shot. We have to many different looks and need an offense that really takes advantage of the 3 with a green light. San Antonio is better coached, gets players to shoot better and make better decissions all the way around. They get more out of their players. Period. It is about coaching. I promise you that. If you played the game as much as I have you can see coaching in a player. I won’t bore you with details, but its very obvious when you see coaching at that higher level. The Jazz rely to much on hussle and effort which isn’t bad, but you can pass faster than you can run and you score easier with the open man then forcing the ball in the hoop. We chose to do things the not so smart way.
Also Westbrook was a 2 guard and has been developed to run the offense. He was never the shooter he is now. His shot now is very sound, straight up and down, great release… He’s developed in to a totally different player. Brooks is very good coach and it shows with what he’s done in just the last 3 years.
I completely agree Jake. The Jazz offense, if you can call it that, doesn’t allow for any player, other than Al, to show their best assets. Everybody is calling for a pass first PG, but what would that mean in the current offense, pass it to Al earlier and wait longer?
Let’s fire Ty Corbin and hire Quin Snyder.
I agree that last year the Jazz had NO system. It was ridiculous. That said, Corbin deserves a full offseason and full regular season to prove himself.
What will our team look like by the time the season starts? Who knows. All i Know is we better have at least 2 legitimate shooters.
It’s been said of the Jazz in 2011/12 season that we had the worst backcourt in the NBA. I can’t say I disagree.
Exactly Disco! We aren’t running a system. If we can get harris to drive more and kick more we’ll totally change our offense, or have Hayward and burks do the same from the wings… The big thing is Hayward, Burks, Harris and any other perimeter player we have needs to be able to catch and shoot or pass around the perimeter with a system that breaks down the defense. Harris, Hayward and Burks should all be able to catch and shoot the 3 ball at 35-40% if they can’t then they’re in trouble anywhere unless they can get to the paint.
Isn’t Snyder already grabbed by the Bobcats?
Lets not forget that Tyrone wasn’t thrown into the job without preperation. He’s been an assistant for like 6 years, so thats plenty of preperation if you ask me. Shortened season and presason doesn’t matter in my opinion. That should never be an excuse for someone trying to shine when they get the chance. If we make excuses for the Jazz they will make excuses when they lose. We want a FREAKIN CHAMPIONSHIP!!