Each season the Vancouver Grizzlies come to Salt Lake City and their coach — whoever he is at the moment — talks about how much his young players are learning.
"This shows you how to play if you want to get to the next level," Grizzlies coach Sidney Lowe said after his team's 98-87 loss to the Utah Jazz Thursday night at the Delta Center. "This is who you emulate."
But if games here are a fair measure of the Grizzlies' learning ability, they're flunking NBA 101.
This is the sixth season of the team's existence, and in that span they've faced the Jazz 20 times.
And lost 19 times.
The Grizzlies did some things well, but even though they have some talented young players, somehow it's still not coming together.
As evidenced by their record. They started this season 4-1 but have gone 3-11 since, falling to their usual position at the bottom of the Midwest Division.
They're confident they can do better, however, and convinced their 4-1 start was a better indicator of their talent than their record since.
They say injuries, particularly eight games missed by starting big guard Michael Dickerson, slowed their progress.
"If we'd stayed healthy, we'd easily be over .500," said Grizz forward Othella Harrington.
"We can't really afford to have one of our main guys out," said Lowe, pointing out something that is true of every team in the league.
The franchise's fifth head coach in six seasons, Lowe says his team was done in Thursday by its mistakes.
"Nineteen turnovers in the first half," he said, shaking his head. "You can't do that against a good ballclub.That's a possible 38 points. If we get half of that, we're looking pretty good."
Lowe said his team hung in for awhile, then got outplayed down the stretch. He credited the Jazz with luring his players out of their game.
"They (Jazz) do a good job . . . doing things that get you frustrated," he said.
Things like passing the ball and making shots, for instance.
Despite their recent losing ways, Lowe says his players are still keeping their heads up.
"Nobody expected us to win 70 games," he said, again stating the obvious. "But their heads are up. They are very positive. We're taking baby steps, but the guys can see the progress."
Even if we can't.
The thing about the Grizzlies is, they aren't as young as some teams, like the Bulls, for example. Starting center Ike Austin is a seven-year veteran, as is backup guard Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. Tony Massenburg has played eight seasons. Guard Doug West, who started in Dickerson's absence, is an 11-year veteran, and forward Grant Long has played 12 seasons.
The 12 active players on the Grizzlies' roster Thursday had an average of 5.3 seasons NBA experience. While that's nowhere near the Jazz's average of just under 8 seasons, it puts them nowhere near the league's least-experienced team.
Harrington says the Grizz don't have one huge advantage enjoyed by the Jazz — respect.
"That's obvious," he said, after fouling out in just 18 minutes of court time while trying to guard Karl Malone. "And it's frustrating, that's for sure."
But Harrington — perhaps upbeat because he's been the subject of trade rumors — says the Grizz aren't ready to pack it in over their plight yet.
"It's still early," he said. "It's not like we're playing bad. We just need some breaks."
E-MAIL: rich@desnews.com