"You Gotta Love It Baby" Official Jazz thread

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Problem solved!

[Donuthole]

Problem solved!

Win-Win-Win!

[MarkGrace]

Man, tough times. 4 straight home losses, 11 of the last 15.

[Sizzle]

Worst scoring half, sure. If was not their worst defensive half, however. If you want to split hairs, we can split hairs. My point is that the Jazz have looked pretty shitty in a lot of games this year, and the fact that they looked that way in Corbin's first game isn't really much of an indictment on Corbin. So when you say 'not a good sign,' i agree, assuming you mean 'this team is not very good, and they have a lot of pieces to fill before that changes.' I disagree if you mean that Corbin's presence had anything to do with the loss tonight or this game was indicative of his future coaching in any way.

Yes, I am completely basing my opinion of Corbin and his coaching future on one half of basketball in which the Jazz only had nine active players including two rookies, Fes and Francisco Elson. Do I think Corbin made mistakes? I bet he would be the first person to say so. Would Sloan have won the Jazz the game tonight? I highly doubt it.

It's not a good sign when a team who is known for running a system, setting screens, passing the ball, etc puts up 27 points in a half against one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA because they are too focused on playing one on one.

Its not a good sign either when it looks like this team has a legit shot of missing the playoffs.

I'm not sure the Jazz can/will make a trade at the deadline now either. Adding a roster shakeup to a team already in turmoil? Not like the Jazz at all.

[TripletDaddy]

On our way up to the U, we drive past the Delta Center. There were 2 people on the corner holding protest signs against Darren.

[cougjunkie]

On our way up to the U, we drive past the Delta Center. There were 2 people on the corner holding protest signs against Darren.

I can't believe Deron went to the BYU game instead of staying home and watching film.

[MarkGrace]

I can't believe Deron went to the BYU game instead of staying home and watching film.

You can't blame him for that. Jimmermania's reach is infinite.

[Sizzle]

You can't blame him for that. Jimmermania's reach is infinite.

Let's be honest, Deron and CJ are just trying to get a head start on seeing how they can fit in alongside the Jimmer next year. Deron will make a nice Jackson Emery and CJ is hoping he can fill the Charles Abouo role.

[TripletDaddy]

Multimillionaire athletes living in SLC area have a day off from work and what do they do? Drive down to Provo to watch some BYU basketball.

Speaks volumes.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Multimillionaire athletes living in SLC area have a day off from work and what do they do? Drive down to Provo to watch some BYU basketball.

Speaks volumes.

He was on the hunt for someone to sleep on the other side of a pillow wall from him last night.

[MarkGrace]

He was on the hunt for someone to sleep on the other side of a pillow wall from him last night.

With his kid on his lap he was on the right track to finding someone in Provo.

[TripletDaddy]

He was on the hunt for someone to sleep on the other side of a pillow wall from him last night.

Actually, Darren was probably just looking for someone to play video games with back in his own room.

[MarkGrace]

In all probability, this was more about Jerry Sloan deciding he didn't have the energy to deal with this anymore than it was about Deron Williams forcing him out.



I sure hope so.



Because the alternative is that the Jazz are in the midst of The Kowtow with Williams. You know -- the drill in which a team with a star who is two years or fewer away from free agency immediately does whatever it can to make that player happy.



That troubles me, because if there's one thing we've learned over the past year, it's that The Kowtow doesn't work. LeBron James and Chris Bosh were more or less given the keys to their teams, and expensive veterans were imported to ensure they could win as many games as possible as quickly as possible.



They left anyway.



Now Carmelo Anthony has one foot out the door in Denver, despite the Nuggets' best efforts. Both Denver and James' Cleveland team annually paid luxury taxes, and the Raptors were never far away. It didn't matter.



The lesson: Players are going to leave if they want to, and often there isn't a ton that management can do about it. The Kowtow in some ways makes it easier for players to leave, in fact, as that strategy generally depletes the future assets a team would have -- a far more important consideration for the stay-go decision than the record in previous seasons.



In Williams' case, it's not realistic to think Sloan staying or going was going to be an overriding factor -- one look at the coach's birth certificate would have told him that it was unlikely Sloan was going to stick around through 2013.



And besides, I suspect the prime competitor for Williams' services has assets the Jazz simply can't match. That team, from my viewpoint, is the Clippers. LA will have cap room and Baron Davis will have only one year left on his deal by then. It's a bad organization, sure, but it won't be a bad team if Williams and Blake Griffin are on it. It's also close to his offseason home in San Diego and can allow him to indulge in his primary off-court hobby, the golf course. (If Steve Nash isn't around, Phoenix would be a contender for the same reasons.)



As for Sloan, how else would this have happened? You knew he was going to leave the second he felt like he couldn't do it anymore; it seems obvious now, but that day was unlikely to come while he was sitting on his Illinois farm in mid-August. There may not have been any "A-ha!" moment, as much as a slow realization that it was time.



It's true that Williams isn't exactly Mr. Happy-Go-Lucky -- I'd say "sourpuss" would be a more accurate description, and that can be tough to deal with for 82 games. But here's a newsflash: Karl Malone wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs either, nor were a great many other players Sloan coached. And I don't just mean the stars either -- Sloan and Greg Ostertag, for instance, fought more often than Jean Claude Van Damme and Tong Po. The only difference now is that Sloan is 68, and I suspect he just doesn't have the stomach for it anymore.



I still think that line of reasoning is closer to the truth than this being part of The Kowtow. Again, I sure hope so. Because if it's the latter, the Jazz are making a terrible mistake.



Before we go, two favorite Sloan stories. First, the guy always greeted me and asked how I was doing. This came as a bit of a surprise to me. As you know, I write for an Internet site, and have my whole career. As you may also know, Sloan doesn't own a computer. To this day, I have no idea how he knew who the hell I was.



The second comes from one of the last times I covered his team (here's the story), when the Jazz completed a remarkable string of comeback wins earlier this season by winning in Atlanta. Sloan, in characteristic fashion, immediately deferred credit to assistant coach Phil Johnson's decision to switch to a zone ... and, more memorably, stated one of his big concerns was players having ice-pick fights in the parking lot.



On to the harbingers:









1. Ty Corbin takes over in Utah with some huge shoes to fill, and the more immediate task of getting the Jazz into the playoffs. It's harder than it looks. While Utah is still three games ahead of No. 9 Memphis, today's Playoff Odds give Utah just a 46.4 percent chance of making the postseason. The Jazz aren't playing nearly as well as their competitors at the moment and their schedule is slightly unfavorable the rest of the way.



The tiebreakers won't do them any favors, either. The Jazz need to sweep their upcoming home-and-home with Phoenix to own the tiebreak with the Suns, need to win in Houston in March to have the tiebreak with the Rockets and likely need to win in Memphis in March to get that one (the Griz are likely to own the second tiebreaker, conference record) and beat Portland in April to have the edge on the Blazers (Portland is likely to win on division record otherwise).



Corbin probably won't make dramatic changes, but I'd look for some shifts at the margins. More film work, for starters -- something Williams had pushed for but Sloan had resisted. On the court, I'd look for Kyrylo Fesenko to get back into the rotation. His immaturity rankled everyone, not just Sloan, but his size makes him such a major defensive factor that the Jazz can ill afford to keep him on the pine.



The larger question is whether changes are made for Corbin. The Jazz are in a bit of a no-man's-land financially -- well over the luxury tax but not nearly good enough to contend for anything important. A money-saving deal would likely only add to Williams' frustration, but if they can ditch Andrei Kirilenko (not Williams' favorite teammate, anyway) and get under the tax, they have to consider pulling the trigger. Remember, the Jazz had a Kirilenko-Boris Diaw deal lined up with Charlotte before the season as a sidebar to a Carmelo Anthony trade before that deal was killed.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insid...PERDiem-110211

[MarkGrace]

Eight years ago, Jerry Sloan walked out of the gym during a Utah Jazz practice. He was upset over the divisiveness within his team. The belief among several members of the organization was that some players were rallying around backup point guard Mark Jackson at the expense of starter John Stockton. That's why Sloan threatened to retire then and there.

Sloan was dissuaded at an emergency meeting called by team owner Larry Miller, president Dennis Haslam, general manager Kevin O'Connor and Sloan's wife, Bobbye. "That had the real potential of Jerry saying, 'To heck with it,' and walking away," Miller told me in 2003. Miller believed Sloan's pent-up frustration with the team had led to his seven-game suspension that season for shoving a referee.

Eight years later, the Jazz weren't able to keep Sloan from retiring at age 68. The reason Sloan had taken to signing single-season contracts to stay with Utah, year after year after year, was to underline his freedom. At his age he didn't want to commit beyond the horizon, and -- in a way that showed how different he was from other NBA coaches -- the short commitment gave him power. While other coaches on one-year deals would have been viewed as lame ducks who lacked the support of management, Sloan's willingness to walk away at any time gave him the appearance of strength in his locker room, because it meant the players couldn't get him fired. He would rather walk away from his career than give that kind of power to the players.

That's why I think it is wrong to connect the dots of Deron Williams' acknowledged skirmishes with Sloan and draw a picture of the star player forcing the legendary coach out of office. Going back to 2003, Sloan has known it was going to end this way, suddenly, when he was no longer interested in meeting the terms of his job description. He set those terms for himself, and he decided when he wanted to leave.

The funny thing about Sloan and Williams is how much they share in common. Each is tough and stubborn and lives according to his own code. That sense of code is rare in a league that makes millionaires of players and coaches alike. Who wouldn't be willing to compromise to keep the money flowing in?

We all know of Sloan's principles, which were recognized as he maintained control of his franchise for decade after decade, but which were never fully appreciated -- he never once won a Coach of the Year award, after all. But Williams is just as stubbornly principled. I think most NBA coaches would tell you that Williams is the best -- surely the most versatile -- point guard in the league, and yet why do we rarely see him on TV as an endorser of products? It is because he has not been willing to sell himself. He refuses to put on an act for the cameras. He is his own man, and he commands respect.

Both Sloan and Williams have long memories. To this day Sloan seethes at the uproar in his locker room in 2003. To this day, too, Williams seethes that Sloan brought him off the bench for 33 games as a rookie, when Williams was certain he should have been starting ahead of Keith McLeod and Milt Palacio. Much good has happened for the careers of Sloan since '03 and for Williams since '05, yet neither was willing to sell out his principles. That's why they were been lucky to have each other, as much as their dueling point of views would collide over what was best for the team.

The NBA has been weakened by the departures of Sloan and assistant Phil Johnson, because now the Jazz are at risk of becoming nothing more than another small-market team. The franchise was eventually defined by Sloan's values. The Jazz succeeded because they knew which players could be married to Sloan's style of play as well as to his personality. Now their players and front office must adapt to sudden replacement Tyrone Corbin, who must be given time to develop his own voice as a rookie head coach. Remember what became of Green Bay after Vince Lombardi moved away, and to Alabama when Bear Bryant retired? Can the Jazz avoid the same kind of uncertainty as they plot a new direction?

There will never be another Jerry Sloan, because no one may ever again be able to coach the same professional franchise for 23 seasons. But it is going too far to say that his principles are leaving with him, that something has died, because that means the other 29 NBA coaches are lacking in principle.

Has financial success changed the NBA? And did the pressures of so much money create a new culture of player power -- driven by guaranteed contracts and unrestricted free agency -- that helped convince Sloan it was time to leave? The answers are yes and yes. But it is also wrong to forget that the financial growth of the NBA made a lot of money for Sloan as well as for Williams. All NBA coaches now profit from their torment: It is one compromise worth making. More than he ever could have imagined when he became coach of the Jazz in 1988, Jerry Sloan could afford to walk away.

http://jazzfanz.com/showthread.php?4...le-about-Sloan

[Sizzle]

A few tidbits from Tweets this am:

*Ty Corbin making sure he honors Sloan's legacy and is keeping Raja in the starting lineup. Not sure who will start alongside him since AK is out tonight, but I would guess CJ.

*Speaking of AK being out tonight, over the last 5 seasons, AK has only played in 20 consecutive games 6 times, and has never had a stretch longer than 32 games straight. Ouch.

*Hornacek also a full-time member of the staff, at least through the end of the season.