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On Tuesday, ahead of the Utah Jazz’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Jazz head coach Quin Snyder spouted stats and pushed back on the criticisms that have been hurled at his team. By now you’ve probably read about or heard the nearly 20-minute rant.
If you haven’t you can listen here:
What’s funny is that Snyder starts out by saying that, “a lot of times people use numbers to tell a story, and it’s important to do that responsibly.”
Well, his numbers weren’t entirely accurate — which he addressed the following day.
But I don’t really think that he needed to have the right stats or to have crafted the perfect argument, because what Snyder did on Tuesday was a brilliant coaching move.
There’s been a ton of attention on the Jazz players, on their deficiencies, their flaws, their possible personality differences. They were losing a ton of games, they were getting frustrated and they were tired of defending themselves.
A coach will sometimes bark at a game official and earn a technical foul, even when they might not truly feel the ire they are displaying, so that they can absorb some attention while also empowering the players by showing them that the coach is willing to defend them.
That’s basically what Snyder did on Tuesday. His press conference rant was national NBA news and made the rounds on social media for days. Everyone was talking about Quin Snyder, the coach of the Jazz who refuses to allow anyone to drive a wedge between his players. There were more people interested in the fact that Snyder looks like he needs a good night of sleep than there were people talking about the Jazz players the last couple of days.
If nothing else, he deflected the spotlight momentarily and showed his players that they aren’t fighting alone. It’s a pretty good move by a very savvy coach.
New with the Jazz
Stat of the week
The Utah Jazz have a defensive rating of 105.1 with Rudy Gobert on the court this season and a defensive rating of 112.3 when he is not on the court. That -7.2 difference is the biggest rating differential among popular Defensive Player of the Year candidates this season, and it’s not particularly close. Thanks to ESPN’s Tim McMahon for pointing out this stat.
From the archives
This week in Jazz history
On April 15, 1995, Tom Chambers scored 15 points in the Jazz’s 105-83 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Clippers, becoming the 20th player in NBA history to surpass 20,000 career points. With teammate Karl Malone having reached the 20,000-point plateau against Cleveland on Jan. 20, 1995, Utah became the first team in NBA history to have two players reach 20,000 career points during the same season.
Extra points
- The Utah Jazz play tough defense — off the court (Deseret News)
- As season winds down, Jazz still looking for answers (Deseret News)
- Rudy Gobert on why the Jazz held a players-only meeting (The Athletic)
- NBA looking to address mounting number of games in which stars are resting (KSL.com)
Around the league
The Sixers were missing a player when they were in Toronto, here’s why.
Nikola Jokic is the first NBA player to have a 2K points, 1K rebounds, 500 assists in a season.
The Miami Heat clinch the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Up next
April 10 | 7:30 p.m. | Utah Jazz @ Portland Trail Blazers | AT&T SportsNet