Damn near .500 with _________________
I'll start.
No offseason, Rockie Mountain Review, no training camp.
No backcourt.
CJ Miles.
No loaded pieces teams like Golden State and Sacramento.
No offseason, Rockie Mountain Review, no training camp. - Agreed, I expected alot of hiccups along the way - particularly with offensive execution in our halfcourt sets. The disappointing part to me is over halfway through the season there's still no noticeable improvement in our execution and strategically I highly question Ty's insistence to feed the ball to Al on the left block down the stretch of every close game when we've seen that approach fail mulitple times. I also question his substitution patterns and playing time for our younger players - but we've beaten that horse to death several times already.
No backcourt.Devin Harris was a borderline all-star in NJ and excelled in situations where he was allowed to use his speed in the open court and driving down the lane. There's a reason Dallas traded him to get Jason Kidd. This was all out there, you knew exactly what Harris brought to the table and what he didn't. Same with Raja Bell - you saw what he did for you last season. There should be no suprises with veterans like Harris and Raja. Ultimately it's up to the coach to put players like them in the best position to succeed - whether that be on the court or on the bench.
No starting point guard. See my response to "No backcourt."
CJ Miles. Again, you should already know the type of player CJ is, physically and mentally. It is Ty's decision to not only play CJ 20 min a game, but give him the green light to handle the ball often with the shotclock winding down (often run a screen-roll from the wing which results in CJ's patented stepback jumper/clanker). If you leave dinner in the oven and ask your dog to keep an eye on it - you don't blame your dog when turns out burnt.
No loaded pieces teams like Golden State and Sacramento. I'm not even sure what this means, but prior to the season everyone would have put Utah's stock of young talent and trade chips up against both the Warriors and the Kings. You get a few of those guys playing beneath expectations and perhaps the outlook changes but again the coach is partially responsible for that.
With the lockout and the situation he was put in last year, Ty never has really gotten a fair shot when starting a season, and I fully expect him to be back next season. That said, there are alot of things - from substitutions, to offensive execution, to in-game adjustments, to late-game strategy and clock management, to evaluating our own strengths and weaknesses that have me concerned if he can be a successful head coach at this stage in his coaching career.
Ty defnitely isn't the sole reason behind everything that's wrong in Jazzland, but he's not an innocent bystander either.