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The Jerry Sloan Way
Posted by: Adam on December 21st, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.With all of the troubles our offense is having, what with Al Jefferson sucking 18 of the 24 seconds we have per possession and minimal to no off-ball movement, it suddenly donned on me today that we need to incorporate Jerry Sloan’s offense, or some alternate version of it, in order to fix our woes.
I’m not sure how much ya’ll know about Sloan’s offense when he had Stockton and Malone, but basically the play was to run a pick-and-roll inside the three-point line on the left side of the floor. Malone would roll to the baseline and Stockton would float to the middle of the court. The other three guys would space out on the weak side. Typically with a three-point shooter would camp out on the perimeter straight away from the basket. This was so effective because after the pick-and-roll it was a two on one with Malone and Stockton and the single defender between the basket. The weak side defenders had a few choices. They could come over to stop Stockton from penetrating, prevent the jump-shot or dunk by Malone, or continue to defend the weak side perimeter defenders. The problem is that in this situation if you are a defender, you’re essentially guarding 5 offensive players with 4 defensive ones. With smart decision making and good passing, there’s no way to defend it if the play is executed quickly. The offense could get a jump shot or dunk with Malone, a jump shot or layup with Stockton, or wide open threes from any of their weak side players. Weak side cuts will create open opportunities and, with three players on the weak side of the floor, our rebounding opportunities are maximized as well.
In short, I think we need to revert back to this sort of system, obviously with some changes and more movement. We can’t just hang out on the perimeter while we watch Al work in the post. The Jazz offense today is to run a little pick-and-roll on the right side, swing the ball over to the left side, and feed Al in the post. The problem is that if Al is double teamed with 5 seconds left on the shot clock, we have no choice but to jack up threes all day long and even if we make them in the short-run, odds are we cannot carry that for the whole game, or the whole season, or a whole playoff series.
What we could do is run the offense with Al and Mo in the pick-and-roll, pushing Marvin, Paul, and Randy on the weak side. If the pick-and-roll is run well, Al could have a baseline jump shot or roll to the basket or Mo could have a junction jump shot or layup. Both of these guys are good enough at these shots to where it could work. The key is that Mo needs to be smart enough to read the defender and either take the opportunity himself, or facilitate to Al or another open teammate. When help defense comes, kick it out to a three point shooter or have Millsap or Marvin cut to the basket for a back door. There are lots of options in this set! In my mind, the two biggest plus sides to this type of offense is that we get opportunities to score early in the shot-clock and we get more high percentage shots than Al working in the post against a typically good defender.
This is only one idea and I imagine there are plenty of options out there that would be better than the current offense. I think we can all agree that the offense we have here is just not very efficient. We’re not getting high percentage shots, there’s no “without the ball” movement, and we’re forced into difficult shots by the shot clock winding down… I think the question is, will and can Coach Corbin adjust his offense to address these issues, or do we really need to find a new coach?
Replies: 8
Views: 1310
8 Responses
The only way that you can work Sloan’s offense is if Al loses minutes on the floor or is dumped altogether. Remember DWill was very familiar with Sloan’s offense but when Al arrived here the effectiveness of that system went down for that season half season while Deron was still with us. The system just doesn’t work while Jefferson is on the floor because he requires time with the ball. Sloan’s system worked with Malone, because Malone could move and didn’t necessarily need the ball to be effective.
I often wonder how much Hayward could be improved as a player if the ball didn’t go through Al? I wonder if Marvin would be used more frequently if Al wasn’t around. Would the undersized Millsap more effectively defend his man if he didn’t have to take that extra step out to help Jefferson? Would Corbin, who tactically I am critical of, have an offense of his own?
any system would be good. Steve Millsap will still be undersized even if Al wasnt next to him and his D wouldnt improve
@disco, true that about the defense. Defense is a whole other issue all together… How do you even get guys to play with energy?? I don’t even think there is a system for that! @Steven, the offense was a bit different when Al and DWill were running it. For one we didn’t have great three point shooters to space the floor. Second, Sloan ran the pick-and-roll at the top of the three point line which makes it way harder to spread the floor and the shot selection isn’t as close to the basket. However, I agree with you that Al is NOT the ideal guy in a pick-and-roll situation. There’s just one thing we need to think about. Will a change in offensive strategy be better or worse than the one we have now and if it is better, will it translate into more games won?
there’s stretches were the offense is just terrible, any offense is better than the “Al jefferson offense” it works but benefits only one person the whole team isnt involved. The Defense on the other hand is pretty horrible thats were the team needs major improvement.
@Adam If the coach held people accountable then players would play with energy. I do not ever want to hear a young coach excuse about that either Thibodeau held his players accountable from day one and he was a 1st time head coach with the Bulls
With the depth we have, theres no reason we should ever have poor effort on the court. If we ever do, and I can point to various games, it’s squarely on the coach’s shoulders.
for sure … playing with no energy is corbin’s fault … what he needs to do is bench the whole starting lineup for an entire game and see how they respond… if they don’t respond they should lose their starting spot… with this team there isn’t much difference in talent 1-10, any starter could be replaced.
I think you need Stockton and Malone to work this the same as in the old days of Sloan. The current Jazz roster just doesn’t run the pick-n-roll as well as those 2 did.
But, it does get the offense started earlier and provide more movement. You’ve got to like how Tony and Timmy start, run and rerun the pick-n-roll for the Spurs. Also, their dive and kick to the open 3 point shooters is great, but the Jazz personnel just don’t have that same ability, at this point.
Jazzaholic