A more focused player development strategy

[Stifle Tower]

This is a dog and pony show by the Jazz FO to convince gullible fans they are doing "everything possible" to improve the team.

Well, everything but actually spending enough on players. 28th in the league for two years straight. One of the worst benches in the league. Lindsey and the Millers/ Board of Directors need to put up or shut up. Don't parade church-league players around. Go get decent free agents to come off the bench. Spend some damn money!

 

[Stifle Tower]

I thought you wanted to find more guys like millsap and Wes Matthews? Not less.

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And have they? The former GM and staff used to bring in half the number of players as Lindsey for double the return.

 

[silesian]

Thanks for the input and upgrade ideas, everyone.

I'm not strongly advocating and I think this is a nuanced situation. It is about leveraging and focusing resources where it is most impactful on long-term wins. Pareto 80/20 rule would suggest we spend 80% of the time on the 20% of the players to have the most impact. It feels like this is out of kilter and we tend to treat players in a more egalitarian way.

I suspect that Lindsay wants to create a "culture of player development" where players of all skill levels (including potentially elite), want to come to Utah to make the most of their careers. If agents begin to see this, and believe that their players long-term earnings potential can be maximized by playing in Utah, then we become a better destination for players/agents, economically speaking. Of course the risk is that we become a farm system, but the rookie salary structure helps to mitigate this risk.

Contrast this to Darko, where Larry Brown and the Pistons were in "win now" mode and Darko never got on the floor, was not developed to his potential and became a bust. Larry was coaching to win games, not to develop players. I can imagine a much better outcome for Darko in the Jazz system as currently formulated.

Phil Jackson was similar, he wanted "fully baked" players on his team that he can psychologically manipulate and motivate to "win now."

So while the investment in Elijah (for example) did not payoff discretely, the bleed-over to other players could have an overall organizational benefit. And maybe Elijah 2.0 will turn into an effective 3&D rotation guy, who knows?

For those of you who will now accuse me of speaking out of both sides of my mouth, I plead guilty. And to you I respond that it is about finding the right balance. Which is not easy.

 

[silesian]

for real? This is probably the one thing you can't knock on this team. Even Kanter stopped doing that stupid thing where he would bring the ball down after offensive rebounds.

Thanks for the feedback. If you believe resources are limited, perhaps we would focus more attention on potentially elite players like Kanter and less on Chris Johnson?

 

[Stifle Tower]

I'd add this, too. Are we really trying to find a player who could be, at some point, a 10th-15th guy? Those players are available all day, every day in the DLeague.

Jazz have 12 roster spots pretty much set (provided they keep Withey, Pleiss and Lyles).

Roster spots of Booker, CJ and Burke are likely up for grabs. One should be taken by the #12 pick. I would HOPE DL is going to fill the other 2 with veteran FA's who won't wet their shorts in the 4th quarter.

So why all this scouting for guys who will have contracts owned by the DLeague anyway? Its time to upgrade the rotation, not show scrubs the exciting sights of Salt Lake.

 

[Mongoose]

I think moving the D league team to SL is an effort to cut down on costs and be more efficient in the evaluation of "end of the bench" and fringe players. Also weren't the Jazz out in front of the whole P3 during the off-season? Isn't P3 just what you are talking about when you are looking at how players can improve and develop?

 

[silesian]

. Also weren't the Jazz out in front of the whole P3 during the off-season? Isn't P3 just what you are talking about when you are looking at how players can improve and develop?

P3 is application of sports science to drive physical improvements (strength, endurance, flexibility, etc.) Think of it as high tech weight training. It is not basketball skills, it is physical development designed specifically to enhance basketball performance.

 

[My2Cents]

Thanks for the feedback. If you believe resources are limited, perhaps we would focus more attention on potentially elite players like Kanter and less on Chris Johnson?

I agree it's a little crazy to bring in as many guys as we do, but as to the roster players, I don't know how you are measuring 'attention'. If it's hours, how many hours did the Jazz spend developing Kanter relative to guys like Chris Johnson?

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

They idea is to develop end of bench guys into something useful... We've failed at that but it's not easy. Watching Norman Powell hurts... He worked out here and reportedly some jazz folks like him. I believe he was on the board when we took Hanlan.

All that said its fine and I don't think it takes up too much coaching staff time. We could have used our roster spots in a better manner, but I get what they are doing... Just think maybe we get better players or let guys loose earlier.

 

[Deleted member 848]

i dunno we could have really used someone like Norm Powell, and if those can be had in the 2nd round of every draft then best believe we need to keep upping the ante on our workouts and scouting.

Instead we wasted a pick on freaking Olivier Hanlan. Dang.

 

[Ron Mexico]

Thanks for the feedback. If you believe resources are limited, perhaps we would focus more attention on potentially elite players like Kanter and less on Chris Johnson?

This is an interesting though overall. I personally dont think the resources for developing our players are limited on our end. They are limited at the players end. I think we spend enough time developing our high draft pick and current roster players. They get a lot of personal attention every practice and all of the time they spend at our facilitates. Part of the reason for P3 is that we need others helping develop our players in different ways and through different people. Nothing P3 offers isnt something that could be done in house by the strength and conditioning staff. The resources the Jazz have available are plenty and we can use them to develop our own players as much as possible and bring in tons of other players.

Although the reason we bring in tons of players for workouts isnt limited to finding a "diamond in the rough." A lot of it has to do with building relationships with coaches on different levels, agents of various players and other relationships. I think it is a great strategy that is not going to pay off in the short run. Even players like Milsap and Mathews were luck on our behalf. We didn't know they would be anywhere near the level they were. Sometimes players develop quickly and become much better than everyone expects even people who watched them in workouts many times. If the Jazz thought Milsap. Mathews and other players like that would be any where near what they became they would have drafted them earlier and not leave it to chance for them to fall to them. The team has said the got lucky with Milsap and would have drafted him in the first round if they knew he would turn out so well or at the very least drafted him with their Dee Brown pick.

 

[silesian]

This is an interesting though overall. I personally dont think the resources for developing our players are limited on our end. They are limited at the players end. /QUOTE]

Good point. But the staffing levels and unlimited commitment of coaches to developing second tier talent is a strategy that many other teams are not employing. Which means Jazz coaches dedicate a higher % of their time on development than other teams, as a strategic choice. Every choice has an opportunity cost. What are we foregoing by doing this? Will it pay off? Time will tell.