Meet
The Aha
Posted by: Jeff Winget on January 7th, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.A couple of weeks ago, I taught sentence diagramming to my 11th grade students. After struggling for a few days with the concepts, students started to get the concepts that I had presented and were performing well on their assignments. One student even wrote at the bottom of her finished assignment, “I’m freaking good at this!” Then, below her exclamation, she diagrammed it as well, so it wouldn’t feel left out from the other sentences on the page.
My students had an “Aha Moment” that day. The Jazz had an “Aha Moment” last night against Memphis.
A lot of people have discounted the Jazz as being too young to make noise this year in the league. Most analysts see them as inexperienced and lacking an identity even though they are talented and full of potential for the years to come. For the first few games of the season, the Jazz looked like the analysts said they would. They bumbled around in LA and Denver to start the season, and after squeaking out a win against Philly, the fell flat again in San Antonio to start off 1-3.
After the rocky start, the Jazz went on a 3-game winning streak at home, getting them above .500 for the first time this year and culminating in a quality win last night against Memphis. During that game last night, I saw the Jazz as a team start to understand how to play and win.
They had an “Aha Moment” about how to use their youth as an advantage. They can’t out execute teams with a lot of experience like the Spurs and the Lakers. They probably can’t out athlete teams (yet!) like the Thunder. And, they can’t out talent a team like the Heat. What they can do, however, is out hustle every team they play against, using their youth and their depth as an advantage instead of as a weakness. Hustle leads to good defense and team work, which in the end, will lead to more wins and success.
The other thing I saw last night that I kept waiting to see last year from the team is that the players bought into the system of Coach Corbin. Corbin has been preaching defense to them and working on getting them to buy into the new system of pushing opponents to the baseline and helping the helper. Last night, their rotations looked good on defense, and they did a great job defending the paint, something that was a huge problem last year.
This intensity and teamwork on defense translates over to the offensive end in the form of transition baskets and trust and teamwork in the half court offense. The team looked a lot better on both ends of the court, and they all bought in to what each other was doing and in to the team concept that Coach Corbin seems to be preaching to them.
My favorite part of last night’s game was the swagger that the team had after their “Aha Moment.” They looked confident in themselves and in the team. The culminating moment for me was in the final minute when Devin Harris locked down Mike Conley on defense as he drove to the basket and stripped the ball from him. After Harris was fouled, the whole team celebrated with him, and they walked up the court for the free throws with a “We’re freaking good at this” look.
Replies: 7
Views: 575
7 Responses
good post Jeff. Last night was the best game by far the Jazz have played this year. They have shown so much improvement already, i was a little shocked to be honest. Last night was a fun fun game to watch. I gotta agree with everything you said, and i have nothing further. Except for trade CJ…
For all the scrappy bumps, and rookie mistakes, I absolutely loved that game. Like you, I feel that the Jazz players realized that the system, the rotations, and the personel all add up to a tremendous opportunity to surprise a lot of people, and give the middle finger to others.
That game was a joy to watch. The defense spread like a virus, and everyone, down to Devin Harris’ strip at the end, got involved.
I can’t WAIT for the Golden State game tonight. Hopefully they can figure out how to do that on the road, the ultimate capstone to this building block. Once they figure that out, everything else will continue to fall into place.
I liked very much how they play last night, specially at the defensive end as you said. Maybe I’m crazy, but I do think we can make it to the playoff this year already (at the 8th seed or 7th, not higher).
I remember when stockton retired and Malone went to Lakers and everybody said we were gona be the worst team and we didn’t make the playoff for just a cuple of games.
I agree with most everything said, but I don’t think that we will make the playoffs and hope we score high draft picks again. I’ll reiterate that we need some more shooters. I think Watson is better this year than last and about the time that Jefferson and Harris’ contract is up, we should get their salary to give to our younger players and solidify them staying here. We have a bright future with these youngsters and next years.
I forgot to mention that tonight’s game at Golden State will tell a lot on how we do against a very mediocre team on the road.
@drew,
I’m a CJ fan. I think he’s an underated defender and usually a good option on offense. I’d be sad if we traded him. Now, Raja on the other hand…
@Justin,
I agree. Tonight’s game will tell us a lot about this team.
@eluruguayo,
I’d be a little surprised if we sneak into the playoffs, but only a little surprised.
@Robert,
Watson is a stud. I’m glad he resigned. I’m not positive we need shooters. Harris, Hayward, and CJ all shoot quite well. What we need are for our shooters to take shots within the flow of the offense and not take bad shots.
I love watching the games, but remember, the wins are over lower echelon teams, missing one or two key players.
As long as they are playing competitively and getting the young guys PT, that’s the most important thing this year.
Even if they were to make the playoffs, it’s unlikely that it isn’t just one and done.
It’s fun to watch. How would you like to be a “Jazz East” (NJN) fan this year. Ouch!
Jazzaholic